This video is a performance video. It shows the band playing soldiers in the troopers of 11th Hussars Regiment fighting in the Crimean war 1853-1856, in particular the video shows them in the charge of the light brigade which was a disastrous charge by the British army in which many people die and the band acting as soldiers protesting against the war as they turn their back on the enemy and march towards their own generals and the video can therefore be seen as an anti-war message. The anti war message can be seen through the contradiction between the condition of the generals and the condition of the soldiers They make war seem terrible for the soldiers as they sit and live in filth, witness death and in the video always look unhappy. The video on the other hand portrays a different lifestyle for the generals which show their life as easy and pampered and a completely different to the soldiers. The generals get maids, nice food, fanned and generally look happy despite a war in progress whereas the soldiers look miserable and depressed. The video does this in less obvious ways as well such as the weather which is nice for the generals and dark and cloudy for the soldiers and the generals get a glass for their alcohol where the soldier is seen drinking from his hip flask. All this could suggest that the video is telling us that the soldiers get exploited and that some people could even benefit from something as horrible as a war. The members of the band then turn their back on the enemy and walk towards their own generals which is the biggest reason I believe the video acts as some sort of anti-war message and to further enhance the notion of death through war the band members start dying off one by one until the last one is killed by his own general. The video uses a complete wide range of shots. They use close up on the faces of the to show emotion such as when the young messenger boy is killed the camera uses close ups of the band members to see their reaction. A long shot is used when the same boy is delivering the message to the soldiers and this creates an eerie feel with the dead bodies and silence of the battle field. Most of the shots when the band are walking back towards their generals are either mid-shots so you can see their faces and them playing their instruments at the same time or close-ups so you can easily see their reactions to the death and explosions around them. The video also gives of a very British feel with it based on a war Britain was involved in and Union Jacks being shown at many intervals throughout the video. Finally at the end of the clip when the last band member dies the music stops just before the trigger is pulled so it is silent which makes the sound of the bullet pierce the silence in a very dramatic way. As the band member falls to the ground to death the camera shot changes to a long shot so the killer and the band member are can be fully seen and the death has a bigger impact on the viewer.
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