Shake Me Down Music Video

Cage the Elephant: Shake Me Down

Waves crash, a man awakes, he steps into a bracingly cold morning and runs. His pale, aged face is distorted by the snow flecked air until he reaches a burrow and enters. His face relaxes, anguish is replaced by warm nostalgia; he has climbed into his childhood.

Shake me Down, a blisteringly poignant song by American rock band Cage the Elephant, vocalises a dying man's last moments. The song is accompanied by an incredibly powerful music video directed by Isaac Rentz that earned the band a nomination for best music video at the 2011 MTV video music awards. The video opens with an establishing landscape shot of waves crashing into rocks; a visual accompaniment of the line 'I have seen people walk into the sea', a metaphor for giving up and letting go. We then cut to an aged man waking up, perhaps suggesting that the previous shot was a memory or a dream, either way Rentz instantly familiarises his audience with the video's surrealist style. A series of uncomfortably tight, shaky close-up shots of the video's protagonist getting up and washing his face follows, this short sequence tells the viewer that something is not right as the unsteady camera mimics the man's frailty. We then see a succession of close ups of family photos mounted upon wooden walls suggesting that this frailty doesn't just derive from the man's age, but a loss of those close to him.

It is not long after this uncomfortable montage that the man begins jogging through streets ravaged by winter cold, he runs past snow covered grass, dead trees and stop signs, all of which act as a metaphor for death and thus foreshadow the film's touching ending. Our protagonist then reaches a small door in a leafy ditch and the video takes a surreal turn, he enters and discovers a burrow wrapped in sheets and pillows all of which give the location the feel of a child hood sofa fort. He crawls further into the bizarre fort until he is greeted by a room containing two children play fighting with swords, surrounded by toys. A sight that at this point leaves the viewer confused, what is this burrow? He continues to crawl through the burrow and comes across an American football which he picks up and embraces whilst the video cuts to grainy footage of a child playing catch with his father. It is at this point that the viewer realises what is going on, we are witnessing a dying man relive his childhood memories. A succession of painfully touching memories edited with quick jump cuts follows; he relives his marriage, interactions with his father, attention from his mother, these thoughts accumulate into an unsettling pool of nostalgia that nearly reduces the man to tears.

This powerful montage progresses the video into its final and most thought provoking act. The protagonist emerges, emotional and shaken from the fortress of his childhood into an open field at night. Exhausted he looks up to find that he is surrounded by his loved ones who look upon him smiling. They light Chinese lanterns and release them into the night sky, piercing the blackness with pools of soft light. This entire sequence symbolises the afterlife, our character has moved on to a better place after re-living his life.

It is not long before the shots start to blur and focus-pulls dent the final act's previously smooth, soft aesthetic. Reality begins to set in once more, we return to the bedroom we were introduced to at the start of the video, only this time the protagonist lies lifeless and cold while his wife grieves over his body.

In my opinion Rentz has created one of the most profound music videos of the twenty first century, one that not only perfectly compliments the song but also provides the viewer with a deep speculation of what happens in the moments before death, as well as an allegory of acceptance of fate. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27TRan1SBI