“Heart Shaped Box” is a performance and concept based music
video by late 1980’s/early 1990’s “Grunge” band, Nirvana. The video is directed
by the acclaimed photographer/director Anton Corbijn, who's recent biopic
“Control” depicting the troubled life of Joy Division singer; Ian Curtis. The
video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1994.
The video begins (and ends) in a hospital
setting, a closed dorm with grey curtains. A bird’s eye shot shows the hospital
bed in the centre of the room, with an elderly gentleman lying down within it.
Three men sit at the opposite side, dressed in contrastingly bright colours
(immediately creating the same juxtaposing images that continue throughout the
video). Coupled with this, their slouched and drowsy sitting postures connote a
care free attitude to the situation, perhaps referencing their fan base;
unenthusiastic, depressed, angst ridden teens.
However, the dull colours of the mise-en-scene, including the
dismal colours of the floor and the slate coloured curtains, reflect the morbid
scene, yet there is a gap in the curtains that lets light in reminiscent of
religious imagery - a sign of hope or life. The religious atmosphere is
supported by the crucifix painted in black on the ground.
Due to it’s position, the old bed ridden man is positioned on
the longer end of the cross. A religious viewer may associate the image with
Satan and/or St. Peter of the Catholic Church, who was crucified upside down,
facing the ground (hell) instead of the sky (heaven). The camera cuts to two
separate shots of the same setting, showing the subjects at different angles
and allowing the audience to identify the three men as the members of Nirvana.
As the verse begins an array of colours are
shown in a surreal, unrecognizable landscape setting, depicting a world that
perhaps has intertextual links to “The Wizard of Oz”. This perhaps attracts
their fan-base, who may consider themselves to be non-conventional and
unpredictable. The camera dips in and out of focus (an effect that Corbijn has
utilised in both his film and photography work to create a sense of unease and
drama) as it concentrates on a luminous, vividly coloured field of poppies, and
the old man, stumbling around within them; perhaps a reference to Kurt Cobain’s
heroin addiction and the effects of the drug. These narrative sections of the
music video are in slow motion, reflecting the slower pace of the verses, and
allowing the characters’ actions to be absorbed fully by the audience.
As the verse follows on, the viewer sees the old man - who
wears a novelty Father Christmas hat - climb a ladder to a wooden cross, and
crucify himself. This could be considered to be a mockery of christianity, an
unconventional theme in a music video. The withered, half naked old man is
displayed in full with a variety of medium shots, close ups and long shots,
some of which are again blurred. Puppets of crows are shown sitting on either
side of the emblem, creating a light hearted feel though adding to the sense of
deterioration of the character. This image could appear quite offensive to a
religious person, however this was more than likely the agenda of the artist,
maintaing the care-free attitude they had to life.
As the video progresses into the chorus, an
editing effect fades the scene to white and into another; the performance side
of the video. A change of sky colour from crystal blue to a violent orange is
displayed (supporting the shift to the aggressive guitar based chorus) as the
band perform in-front of the cross within the poppies. As the camera dips in
and out of focus again, the viewer can see the three members, dressed in
outfits that reflect the “anti-image” fashion which existed in the grunge
sub-culture.
The artists are presented as “rock’n’roll” stars, with more
focus on the lead singer Cobain than the other two members as close ups are
used, although these again are sometimes blurred. The band are portrayed as
slightly eccentric characters (especially Cobain) as they move around
erratically and stare at the camera with an assortment of facial expressions.
This more than likely would have helped sell the artist as non-conformists,
appealing to the younger generation, or in the early 90’s “Generation X”.
The video continues into the next verse as the
audience is introduced to two other characters who are culturally identifiable,
although used ironically by the director.
The audience is introduced to an obese woman with organs
depicted on her exterior although with wings on her back. This could be
interpreted as another parody of religion, perhaps indicating she is fallen
angel due to both her weight and her greed as she attempts to reach a tree.
This again is mocked as she fails to make progress due to a treadmill effect
which doesn’t allow her to reach the end.
The second character is a young, blonde haired girl, who is
shown wearing the conical hat and white robes associated with the American
white supremacy group; the Ku-Klux-Klan, although she arguably looks angelical.
Due to her age and her apparent innocence there is a huge contradiction of the
visual and its subtext. Further along in the video the audience sees her
skipping around in the hallucinatory settings - perhaps an intertextual
reference to Alice and Wonderland - as she idly prances around the cross, jumps
up and down to reach fetus’ that are attached to a gnarled tree and pushes an
empty wheelchair on the meandering pathways. This innocent, surreal epoch ends
as her headpiece is blown off into a puddle where it soaks the liquid like ink,
turning the hat from white to black. The hat then blows away again, becoming a
visual device into the next scene; the hospital room, where the girl (now
dressed entirely in black) mourns at the end of the old man’s bed.
In the final chorus the band are shown in a
heart shaped box, in which the three members casually lie on a bed or rock
frenetically in a rocking chair. The erratic editing cuts make the final scene
more interesting, as the band switch positions and disappear several times in
which the young girl is seen sitting on the bed by herself. The video ends as
it began; with the same birds eye shot in the clinical room. This creates
continuity and symmetry within the video, allowing the audience to look back on
the beginning with knowledge as to who the characters are and the surreal
landscapes and scenarios that the video included. The band member closest to
the window stands up and opens the curtains, and as the light fills the room
the video fades to white.
In conclusion, the whole video evokes a sense of
mockery towards religion and modern day culture, perhaps a signifier of the
“Grunge” scene that existed in the Seattle area of Washington U.S.A in the late
80’s and early 90’s. The surreal images of the video would have appealed to the
audience at the time, who were more likely than not as disorderly, absentminded
and negative as the events of it.
In 1994 however, that audience would not have
been able to access the video on demand as websites like Youtube allow us to
today. MTV (Music Television) would have been the main outlet for the video and
due to the awards it won, it was likely to be exhibited regularly. This still
would have limited their audience to only those who received the cable
television network (which was available in the US only
at the time); moreover as this was targeted at the younger generation the
prospective audience was slimmed even further. Thus, as the video was only
available and targeted at a small amount of young American teens with cable
television, it was probably not a very successful marketing campaign
individually. However when supported by a host of other equally surreal and
deriding videos and controversial song contents, Nirvana’s anti-conformist
image and live performance notoriety would have been heightened.
