Blog Post Three: Video

Originally created and performed by the wonderfully talented John Lennon, the song Imagine as seen and heard in the video was performed by the band A Perfect Circle. The effect of the song, as sung with Maynard's unearthly vocals, is magnified by the stunning visuals presented in the video. At the start of the video you have an ominous feeling as the stealth bomber is flying through the night. Then the images begin to transform into more graphic images of warfare. Throughout the video there is a sort of comparison presented between life in America and life in the rest of the world. We see images of obese Americans gorging themselves on food in trivial events such as an eating competition juxtaposed with riveting images of people starving in the less fortunate places in the world. There is a staunch similarity between the image of the crowd performing the wave and that of the army marching through the street. The image of George W. Bush presented along side that of Hitler, Stalin, and Castro shows the opinion of the artist that Bush is just as evil (an opinion I agree with). We continue to see images of Americans living lavishly while the rest of the world suffers.
The original version of the song as performed by Lennon has a separate feel from this version. The images presented in the video combined with the voice of Maynard and the sounds of A Perfect Circle give the message an almost tragic feel to it. The video itself has a liking to that of a newscast. While the video is playing there is a strip along the bottom displaying various messages. If you read what is displayed on the strip there is a mixture of news headlines and sports scores. Some of this information seems to be pointless when there is an image of a dead human being displayed on your screen. The names of the sports teams are slightly humorous in that each team has names such as; Atomix, Bombers, Deathrays, and Conquerors. The team names are in of themselves a part of the message trying to be conveyed. As the song goes, "Imagine all the people, living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." Peace.