Music Video Analysis - The Killers (When you were young)

 The first few seconds of the video "When you were young" by The Killers has no sound but a single drumbeat, representative of a heartbeat, which then matches the switching shots between a worried looking man and the back of a woman on top of a hill. From this, the audience can tell that the woman has gone missing and the man is trying to find her however, we cannot yet tell why she has gone missing but the narrative of the whole video does tell us. Throughout the entire video, the theme of religion is displayed boldly. Firstly, we see the girl in white kneeling beside a white cross that overlooks the city. The framing of the camera at 1:04 makes the cross look dominant to the rest of the shot, suggesting the power of God and that she's gone there looking for answers. Shortly after that shot, we see the girl again, surrounded by candles and holding prayer beads. From this, the audience can see the video has gone back in time as the location has changed from the hill top. Also, which is very typically expected of alternative rock, the band The Killers are actually playing during the video and the camera makes sure they are still shown a lot in conjunction with the narrative party of the video. The lighting centered around the band is quite low, with dark colours, accompanied by close ups and extreme close ups of the band . This could suggest that something bad has happened or is going to happen. This can further be backed up, as the lyrics describe "you sit there in your, heartache" which the audience than can understand Brandon is relating to the girl.

 There is also a lot of direct links between the lyrics and the camera shots and the action going on within them. For example, when Brandon sings "he doesn't look a thing like Jesus" the male bends down to help the female up, displaying a cross behind him, suggesting the female see's him as her Jesus. Also, at 2:54 the lyrics say "and sometimes you close your eyes" as the female walks out of the door, crying with her eyes closed tightly. However, some use of disjuncture is also displayed in the video, to a certain extent. As the lyrics "on the back of a hurricane, that started turning" the camera shows the female's husband in bed with another woman and the female witnesses this. Although the lyrics do not literally link to the shot, the meaning is still conveyed and put across, describing the situation as a "hurricane".

 Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze also appears in the video, at 2.54. As the lyrics talk about the "devil's water", we see the male's eyes flicker down to the female's legs as she pours "the devils water" onto them. Because we assume the male as a holy man, the devils water could mean corruption and sin for him, hence the gazing at the female's legs.

 Around 4.43, we see more ,medium longshots and an upbeat in the song. The lyrics "when you were young" are repeated, suggesting that everything that happened is in the past and the upbeat of the song now as oppose to the duller beat earlier could be saying the female has moved on and everything is better than what is was.