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Writer's pictureNick Saward

when you were young-the killers

This music video tells the story of a relationship however, in reverse so starting at the end to where they meet.




The video starts with a symbolic code of a cross which is a running theme of religion in the song with many settings of a church and the lyrics that say ‘he doesn’t look a thing like Jesus.’



In the first twenty-seven seconds we have three different camera cuts from the distraught woman to the man, her husband. When the camera shows the man there is a thud in the music. This could be to show his fear and frustration as he is trying to find her. We see close up shots of each person to show their emotions. Then there is a rapid-fire montage that has many shots in the matter of a second where we see the woman reflect. Furthermore, we see the man finally found her however she has taken her own life and he holds her in his arms.

As we see the last close up of the man the music fastens up, we see the woman sitting in a church, one of the symbolic codes of religion which could been seen that she worshiped her husband. In the video it is a mix of storytelling so a narrative and also a performance of we have close ups of the band singing and playing instruments. The colours in the video are very bland and neutral tone, the use of none bright colours fits with the aesthetic of the surrounding but also the mood that this is a love story with not a happy ending.


The idea that she now worships him is after she comes out from praying at the church, he is behind the church on a surface where he is above her and he gives her his hand which could indicate he is of more importance to her than her religion.




Furthermore, the story completely changes when she comes back from church, she finds him sleeping with another woman. After immediately leaving their home, the video is edited again to three different camera cuts of the women crying then to the man with the other woman, then the other cuts are the woman crying then to her looking back on their wedding day.


After a performance of the band singing with clips of the couple in between we are taken back to the beginning of the story and learn how they first meet. We see that the woman comes in for a job and the man offers her a job in return firing the girl who he is later found cheating with. As she is meeting this man, we see the band playing I the same room almost like this has been a warning as they know that it will not end good.

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