Just Jack - The Day I Died

I posted this on my blog for AS as it is one of my favourite music videos. I posted it because the way it has been constructed is very clever and there is a number of aspects in the video that i spotted which interested me.



The images in the video are to do with the words being sung in the song, this is introduced to the viewer instantly. One thing i noticed about the beginning was his little boy sitting playing with toy cars (17 seconds in) crashing them into one another and then bringing an ambulance into the scene meaning somebody has been hurt. This relates to the end of the video because his dad dies through being run over and an ambulance comes in attempt to save him. This relates because the car crash the boys dad dies in is a reinactment of how the boy is playing with the cars at this point in the video.

When James Nesbitt says goodbye to his wife and kids I noticed he has rips in his suit on the way to work. Obviously someone wouldn't leave for work with a ripped suit it was again until later i realised why he had a ripped suit. His suit rips in the car accident shown later on as he is hit and stumbles to the floor causing the rip and a blooded bruise on his head.

When sitting in the park on his work break, at around 1.44 in to the video James Nesbitt picks up a book, he opens it on the last page and then closes it again. This could symbolise he has reached the end of something, the song title gives away what he has reached the end of. As the song is about the day i died and the video is based around a mans last day alive, the closing of the book could symbolise the end of his life.

At 2.19 in the video, James Nesbitt is pictured on "top of the world". He donates money to an artist painting the world on the floor but this could be a hidden metaphor in the video. The video is based around the day he died being the best day of his life, and him standing on top of the world thats been painted could relate to when people do feel on top of the world. Following this he misses the bus, and this could have meaning behind it because by doing a good deed, admiring and giving the artist money for his work he has missed his bus.

James Nesbitt is then walking across the street and the lyrics say 'I guess I never saw that taxi'. When this happens there is no singing from Just Jack anymore but what sounds like choir voices. This could be the realisation hitting him that he's been hit by a car and how his life froze at that point. During this we see him touch his head and it strikes him that he's been hit, we also see the ambulance that has come to attempt to save his life. This could be the way of showing somebody looking back at their death as it is acted out before the crash and then James Nesbitt just falls to the floor which indicates his death. As he falls to the floor, Just Jack begins to sing again.

As he lies on the floor, he has a flashback of his wife and kids and it relates to the lyrics once again. The music video is based around a mans flashback in the dying moments of his life featuring his wife and kids, and that day being the best day of his life.