Written By: Madonna & Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Director: Traktor (Swedish directing team)
Genre: Dance-pop, Electro-pop
Structure: Thematic /narrative/abstract
The music video shows Madonna being interrogated and tortured for secret information. The shots are realistic and create a high production value similar to that of a film. The song and video is based on James Bond’s “Die another Day” movie and is full of intertextual references relating to the film. There are scenes of two Madonna’s, one dressed in white and one in black. They start by fencing each other which gets more and more out of hand, turning into a fight to the death. These scenes are juxtaposed with the interrogation scenes and whenever the Madonna dressed in white or black is cut, a mysterious cut in the exact same place appears on the real Madonna in the interrogation scenes. The audience don’t know why Madonna is being interrogated and at first are unsure which fencer she is. The lyrics say, “I’m gunna destroy, my ego.” this shows us that the two fencers are representing Madonna’s ego as spiritually, ego means “false self”. When the fencers are damasked and the audience see two of Madonna reinforcing this idea and when we see her being cut we work out that Madonna is trying to prevent herself identity from being unveiled to the Chinese.
The start of the fencing scene, which intertextually references a fencing scene from the movie, happens on a red raised platform. The room around it is bright white with four chandeliers suspended from the roof. There are also paintings with white frames and backgrounds which create a wealthy image as fencing is a sport associated with the upper class. The red also holds connotations of danger/ violence/ blood and so works well as part of the Mise-en-scene. One of the paintings is of James Bond in a fencing outfit and we see a CU of a sword stabbing the painting. The location is lit high key and creates a dream like or fantasy feel to the shots. They are juxtaposed with the interrogation shots to create a contrast in lighting and colour but also to show the scenes are coherent and dependent on each other. The colours of costume and makeup represent good vs. evil. She is fighting with the evil side representing her want to give up and tell the Chinese what she knows. Every time the Madonna dressed in black or white is losing the fight or is cut represents her mental and physical struggle with being tortured and creates tension with the audience as to who will survive. The lyrics “Die another day,” suggest the end result before we, as an audience, find out.
The next room of the fantasy sequence is all black and full of glass display cabinets with metal men in armour statues on display. This completely contrasts the last location which was all white. Continuity of the use of colour is created through the shots in terms of costume, make-up and Mise-en-scene which helps to smooth out the cuts. They both attack the glass with medieval axes smashing them to pieces. This represents the want separate from each other and to destroy her ego in the glass. We see a man painting a female manikin gold which is representing Madonna’s attempt of creating the person she wants to be, the ‘perfect person’ so the gold connotes the best of best and contrasts with the black and white Madonna.
The video shows Madonna being dragged into an interrogation room by Asian military. We see her legs trailing along the floor through the use of a CU and she kicks a high heel shoe that is laid on the floor in her path. The shoe is almost unnoticeable and acts as a subtle visual metaphor, connoting the idea that Madonna has broken the stereotypical female, and is displaying a tougher representation. This is an unconventional gender representation but shares similarities with the music video I will produce.
The Mise-on-scene of these shots captures the location perfectly to the standard of a film. There is a large rectangular table which Madonna is seen violently thrown onto by two men through the use of MCU. The room is dimly lit creating an uncomfortable atmosphere. One of the men, wearing a navy coloured military jacket and hat, turns a large spotlight in Madonna’s face. This depicts the scene of an interrogation by using the convention of a spotlight and table.
In the reflection of the CU shot of broken glass we can see the fencing match between the black and white Madonnas develop. The fact it is shown in a reflection reinforces the idea it is fantasy and representing her ego. The transitions between shots are generally ordinary cuts, but at the beginning of the video a special effect transition is used. The shot appears to be viewed from down the barrel of a gun, this is a signature editing feature used in the James Bond movies again producing yet another intertextual reference.
The final shot is of the electric chair and we see Madonna frantically wrapping her arms and hands in rubber straps. This is so that the electricity doesn’t touch her skin but is absorbed by the electricity so she can escape and does exactly that leaving the interrogators confused. The chair then spontaneously burns and Madonna’s tattoo is left engraved into the back support. This shot is juxtaposed with the previous shot of the Madonna dressed in black being pierced in the chest by an arrow and killed. This makes us think the real Madonna has being murdered when the electric chair begins to smoke.
Intertextual References
The video features references to Honey Ryder (from 1962's Dr No), Rosa Klebb and Blofeld's white Persian cat (from 1963's From Russia With Love), Oddjob and Jill Masterson (from 1964's Goldfinger), Tee Hee's metal arm from the 1973 Live and Let Die, Francisco Scaramanga's golden gun from 1974's The Man With The Golden Gun, as well as a spacesuit, a fencing battle in a Venetian glass factory, and a Jaws-like man with metal teeth, all referencing 1979's Moonraker, and even contains a reference to Luke Skywalker's light saber battle with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. And from the film of the same name, the opening titles torture scene with General Moon, a portrait of the then-Bond Pierce Brosnan from a fight scene with Gustav Graves, and the dual role (in black and white fencing costumes) played by double agent Miranda Frost, herself a protege of Verity, played in the film by Madonna herself. The very end of the video has sparked some discussion as Madonna appears to escape Houdini-like from the electric chair, leaving behind only a smouldering chair with a Hebrew expression לאו, a phrase that can be interpreted as "great escape" or "freedom," one of the "72 Names of God," used in the Kabbalah The video ends with the gun barrel sequence, as Madonna throws open the doors of the torture facility in her escape. The total production costs for the video were over $6,000,000, making it the second most expensive music video ever made, after "Scream" by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson (Wikipedia)
Word Count: 1,201
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