SATV: Promise tonight not to do you no harm - Brandon Flowers

This piece was one of the earliest articles for my music analysis and review website "Shame About The Video" and demonstrates some of the earliest ideas that the site was trying to promote. Despite being written so early in the websites history it still stands up as one of the most comprehensive, informative and entertaining articles I believe I have written for the website and demonstrates my ability to analyse a piece of work and produce an engaging article that relates to it.
The original publication can be found here. 

Hey everyone, Brandon Flowers of The Killers has made a solo album! He's taking a chance to break away from the band a bit and do something more creative, more experimental more...oh no wait it just sounds exactly like The Killers. Except he doesn't have to put the other three on the album cover. Here's the first single, "Crossfire":





We pull back slowly from Flowers' bloody, beaten up face. Not until 45 seconds in to the song do we see that he's tied to a chair and we're left with only that image for another 20 seconds. Who tied him there? Why did they do it? Where has his feathery jacket gone? We ponder these questions for a minute and five seconds until something else happens, and then we forget them instantly as everything goes mad.

Why so many ropes?

Explosions! Ninjas! Charlize Theron! It's like Brandon Flowers got drunk and wrote a list of things he wanted in his video and somehow someone made it happen.

As the chorus swells Flowers' ninja captors are blown across the room and Charlize walks in, calmly stabbing a third ninja with a samurai sword without even looking. Brandon Flowers just smiles, partly relieved, partly astounded that Charlize Theron just saved him from some ninjas.

Like you wouldn't be smiling too...

Then suddenly we jump to another time when, again, Flowers has been captured by ninjas. This time he's tied to a couple of upright wire beds as the ninjas prepare to electrocute him. What does he keep doing to make them want to capture him? It looks as though they're torturing him for information, but he just sings his song. What information could Brandon Flowers conceivably have that ninjas might want? And for that matter, why are there ninjas there at all? They've got him twice (at least), so presumably he knows by now who is after him, so why bother keeping the ninja outfit on? Surely once you've kidnapped the target you're done sneaking around in the dark, so why not get changed? Like an episode of Lost - the further you get through the story; the more questions you have.

At least put the samurai swords down...

Once again he is saved at the chorus by Charlize Theron, this time dropping from the roof with ninja stars. And once again she takes out a previously unseen third ninja without even looking at him. Flowers smiles again, though this time seems a little embarrassed about having to be saved a second time.

Suddenly we jump again, but this time we see the events through Charlize's eyes. This change in perspective fits with the structure of the song, as have the events throughout. We've had slow pull backs to reveal Flowers captured during the verses, we've had explosions and action and Charlize Theron during each chorus, and now we've had something completely new during the middle 8. This was director Nash Edgerton's* first music video, but his filming style fits the song structure better than a lot of others.

Anyway, we now see Charlize Theron in full on action mode, beating up a whole series of ninjas, driving in to them, throwing them through windows, until she reaches Brandon Flowers who has this time been tied upside down to the ceiling. There are a lot more ninjas in this part, we see what she has had to go through every time Flowers gets in trouble. This at least tells us definitively how she got her various wounds, not that there was much doubt to begin with.

Charlize Theron should be in every video ever.

The final scene of the video shows the two of them sitting quietly in the car on the way back from ninja battling. Charlize looks a little pissed off, like she's tired of always having to come and save Flowers and battle her way through hoards of ninjas. But then she looks over to him and softens slightly. In the final shot of the video she puts her arm around him and all is forgiven.

This is the first time the video has really matched the meaning of the song. The song tells the tale of a couple in a complicated relationship going through some problems, but ultimately coming together and sorting it out. Brandon Flowers sings "Lay your body down...next to mine". They may not literally lay down next to each other, but as she puts her arm around him it is clear that their relationship is going to be OK, despite the minor issues that come with repeatedly being kidnapped by ninjas. To Brandon Flowers torture and ninjas are simply metaphors for whose turn it is to do the washing up, or forgetting the other persons birthday. Luckily Charlize Theron has the emotional samurai sword to be able to deal with Flowers problems and they can drive off in to the sunset together with only a few superficial scars on their relationship.

And all was well...

SATV Rating: 9/10





*Completely unrelated fact: Nash Edgerton was a stuntman for Ewan McGregor in Star Wars episodes II and III, as well as performing stunts in The Matrix and Superman Returns. There is no reason for me to include that in this article other than because I think it's moderately interesting and I enjoy those films.