The video for Kings of Leon's "Beautiful War" tells the story of a southern American man who gets drunk in a bar and sees his ex with another man. He then beats her brother to death outside the bar and is sent to jail. The video cuts between scenes of the man in jail and flashbacks to the bar, representing his memories of being with his ex. It uses stereotypical southern imagery and synchronizes the visuals and lyrics to depict the man's remorse over his crime and loss of his ex.

1. Kings Of Leon – Beautiful War

2. Kings Of Leon
• Kings Of Leon are an indie rock band from
America.
• They shot to fame when they released the
singles, “Sex On Fire” and “Use Somebody” from
the Only By The Night album.
• The Beautiful War video is about a southern
American who goes to a bar and he sees his ex
with a boy (her brother) and so he beats the
brother to death outside the bar because he was
drunk but then he is put in jail.

3. Analysis
• The song starts at 1:08 when the song finally begins.
• At this point the beat is very slow, there are no lyrics and we are just
seeing two people having fun at a bar, this shot is in slow motion as it
follows the speed of the beat.
• When the words; “Bite your tongue, don’t make a scene dear”, the video
cuts to the man in jail. This clearly represents the fact he did “bite” his
tongue when he should have.
• There is a heavy use of stereotypes throughout the video, with the video
set in a bar hosting a hoedown, at a prison and a bull riding arena in the
prison. The southern states of America are stereotypically violent and
hoedowns are a common folk social event. Also the majority of the men
are wearing cowboy hats.
• The lyrics are sync with the visuals by talking about a man missing the love
of his life while he is away (in jail), we see the man in prison and at the bar
which represents him reminiscing back to when he had her in his arms;
“when I hold the warmth of your body, there is nobody id rather hold”.

4. • The lyrics are sync with the visuals by talking about a man missing the
love of his life while he is away (in jail), we see the man in prison and at
the bar which represents him reminiscing back to when he had her in his
arms; “when I hold the warmth of your body, there is nobody id rather
hold”.
• “When I hold the warmth of your body” syncs with the cut to a close-up
of a young attractive women in chiaroscuro lighting. This uses one of
Goodwin’s theories of lyrics matching visuals as she is in a red top and
the yellow lighting makes the shot look warm and vibrant.

5. Analysis cont.
• Every time a new verse starts the video cuts to another location. This is to
jump between the memory and the present day for the character.
• The video then cuts back to the bar where the girl is trying to make her
boyfriend jealous by dancing with another man. This is synchronized with
the lyrics, “is making me crazy” this lyric is talking about how the person
that person loves confuses them and irritates them and the girl reacts by
trying to make her boyfriend jealous.
• When the music begins to reach its final climax, the video reaches its
overall conclusion by showing the murder and this is cut between the
character riding a bull and killing the man. These two scenes are both
synchronized with the music due to the cutting pace and also they are
both representing the characters adrenaline rushes but for two very
different reasons.
• The final shot that does have music is for ironic purposes. The words, “it’s
a beautiful war” are sung when there’s an ariel shot of a man lying dead.

6. • The line, “shattered and cold” is sung and a shot of the main character in prison
are together. This is a clear use of the visuals to image idea and it works
beautifully.
• The girl then jumps onto the mechanical bull and this is a clear use of the
voyeurism idea presented by Goodwin as she is undoubtedly being provocative.