The love the way you lie video is performed by Rhianna And Eminem but the main story throughout the video is based around a relationship between two people (Dominic Monaghan) male lead and (Megan fox) female lead.
Dominic is an “alpha” male, which is shown in different ways throughout the video. He rarely is seen wearing any clothing, emphasising his masculinity, as well as some powerful tattoos, this is also shown in Eminem outfit. His has his muscular arms and tattoos on show throughout the video broadcasting his dominance. Dominic has a lot of facial hair and this is a typical male stereotype of the “alpha” male.
The camera shots of Dominic seem to show the male towering over the screen, like for example towards the end when he’s body begins to set on fire, his arms rise and the camera shows his entire body which can make us feel that the male is the power source of the relationship and therefore the stronger gender. But although he lashes out and seems to use violence as a way of dealing with things this doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the stronger gender. The actor embodies a male weakness, which can also be felt through the lyrics “Il never stoops so low again”. He isn’t proud of the way he treats the female and becomes frustrated with his own actions and his remorse is clear to see in the video. The male is just as emotional as the woman but shows it in different ways; he deals with things in a typical male way. Within the middle section of the video he steals vodka from the shop for him and the female, this makes him feel adequate and worthy in different ways which may be one of the ways he deals with his behaviour. At one minute fourty seconds, he is in a bar looking down his bottle of beer. Dominic’s character knows obviously that all that will be in their is the beer, but he seems to be searching, searching for a meaning into who he is and what he is, the male seems lost.
Megan is a typically emotional woman. Her clothing doesn’t give much away to the type of female she is, apart from the military boots which could feel like she is a solider taking orders from her commander (Dominic). She is always in low positions, where she leans against the wall and holds herself, represents the female of lower importance than the male. The lighting of the small ray of sunlight through the blind, seems to relate to the glimmer of hope in their relationship that Megan’s character feels. The only time we see a glimpse of smile from Megan is when Dominic tries to reconcile their relationship by going down to her level down to the wall, and gives her a teddy bear. This makes us the audience believe that little things mean a lot to the woman, she forgets about the bad when little glimpses of good shine through, like the light through the window. The teddy bear would normally be a gift for a child, so it feels as if the female isn’t able to look after herself alone, she needs looking after. At the start of the video we see Megan with a flame in her hand this seems to represent the woman’s dependence on the man in her relationship, and this is a clear way of seeing her emotions begin to change as the video progresses, when she puts out the flame in her hand, which feels like she is trying ever so slightly to stop the way her life revolves around him.
However there is a complete contrast in females in this video. If we look at Rhianna compared to Megan. She has bright red hair and red nails, red enforcing a strong powerful individual as well as her hoody, which typically you would see the other gender wearing showing her as a rebel, her own person. The camera shots of Rhianna are close up empowering herself on the screen. But we see glimpses of this powerful female in Megan, for example within the first minute of the video we see her fighting back for herself spitting at Dominic.
The fire is the main lighting in this video and represents a lot of the emotion. It helps us feel how wild and uncontrollable their relationship is and emphasises the line “Just gona stand here and watch me burn, but that’s alright because I like the way it hurts” She doesn’t literally mean the burning like in a fire, this relates in a way to the fact that although she is suffering physically and mentally, she in a way like this, it makes her feel emotionally full, some people thrive on pain. The contrast between the violence and the gift the next day is so huge, and the love from a good man will never make her feel the way she feels about this man. During the video the only sound we hear is the song, so the lyrics are very influential in the way the male and female are represented on the video. Like the words “Maybe it’s when a tornado meets a volcano, but I love you too much to walk away though” A tornado and volcano are both uncontrollable contrasting wild weather disasters. The male and female differ in a lot of ways but are both similar in the way that neither is perfect, in fact far from it.
It ends with a few clear cut camera shots that give a lot of impact, like at four minutes 17 seconds we see a close up of the burning teddy bear; this was the females one glimmer of hope literally burning away to ash, the childhood dreams of a perfect relationship disappearing before your eyes. The last scene is them asleep together but the males arm is holding her down and above her, so we finish knowing that the male still is the main authority figure, still the commander giving orders.
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