Muse – Knights of Cydonia

By Ellie Zambakides

Cinematic Style• The video is made in a cinematic western cattle punk film set in the

future, hence the merging of many genres. The video is made out to be like a film with the characters, titles and strong, story-telling narrative. There is obvious but slightly ironic clichéd cinematic western iconography, as the narrative of the video is a slight parody with the shots and the images and mix of technology and old western. • In the video there are credits and a made up director/production

company which show in bright coloured backgrounds, directly juxtaposing with the visual style of the video, however, this is a very old, movie-like way of presenting this information. The video ends with the words ‘THE END’ to emphasise the end of the film, as well as the credits featuring made up roman numerals to continue with the ironic, cinematic feel. This makes the video seem as though you have just watched a short film, with lyrics of the song ‘you and I must fight for our rights’ being mouthed by the characters, it makes it seem as though they are part of the script that the characters are saying in the film. The fonts used are also very western in their style to mimic the clichéd mid west film vibe.

Intertextual References • The video is flooded with references to films, narratives, real life and so many

more. There is direct reference to Star Wars as there is a sci-fi bar, robots in the desert, lasers, the hero becoming more powerful through mystical things. This juxtaposing reference creates a sarcastic, futuristic theme in a classic spaghetti western setting, using specific things from the film, and I'm sure many other futuristic sci-fi films, is also quite satisfying for the audience, as they can make the connection between star wars and the video. However, the video also manages to include nods to other films and stories.• It references any Kung-Fu movie with the opening of the video very clichéd

and ironic with serious yet purposely bad Martial arts and text telling the audience classic Kung-Fu names. This created even more of a mash up of different genres and styles, from western, to kung Fu, to si-fi, the video parodies all of the styles it referrers to in an ironic, comedic way.

Style Over Substance• This is a key idea in this music video, there are many random, and controversial

images, such as when the girl is in a bikini on a unicorn, in the dessert, holding the CD to give to the protagonist. The overtly sexual hallucination in the video, is purposely juxtaposing the males, and the different ways in which the genders are presented. Despite the image itself being fantasy-like, it could also resemble female empowerment as the woman is helping the man as though she is his ‘knight in shining armour’ which defies the hegemonic norms that a man has to save a woman, moreover, the low camera angle looking up at her also suggests that she is more powerful that him.

Consumerism • In terms of consumerism, the whole video is centred around Muse’s CD, which

the hero finds, and uses to defeat the villain at the end. It is very much promoting the Song/album in a deliberately obvious and sarcastic way. It subtextually implies that it is a good idea to buy the CD, however it is aware that it is sending this message so it is done in a very ironic way especially as the woman gives the man the Cd when she is on the unicorn so that he can save the day. Furthermore, the blatant product placement shows self-awareness in the video, it is not harmful to the message of the video as there is not particularly a message apart from the hero defeats the villain because the whole narrative and style is so sarcastic it dilutes the concept of having a strong message.

Irony• The whole video, is very ironic and sarcastic, such as the

idea that the kung fu moves the protagonist was practicing at the beginning was how he got defeated. The villain uses a simile hand position to defeat the main character and send him to the stocks. The reason the shot is sarcastic is because a normal fight scene would be dramatic, and have big movements and fights, where as this scene is so minimal and comedic that it becomes ridiculous. • The sarcastic tone as a whole is evident in almost every

shot in the video, the zoom close ups to a purposely over exaggerated facial expression, to the quick shots (cuts) that use an overdramatic fade into the next one. This makes the video seem over done as though it is trying too hard to be heroic and intense, but this is the point of the video, to over emphasise every moment to make it more intense and laughable.