Burn The Witch- Textual analysis

 Textual Analysis

Radiohead- They are an English rock group from Oxfordshire, who propelled to success in 1992, with their debut single 'Creep'. Radiohead stated that they wanted the video and song to be about the blaming of different people and the blaming of Muslims and the negativity of the refugee crisis. The music video is a non performance, stop motion animated video with a linear narrative about a inspector visiting a stereotypical village, which isn't all sweet and innocent it is making out to be. It was released in 2016 and nominated for a Grammy for best rock song.

The Establishing shot shows the mayor on the podium to portray that he has a large amount of status. He is standing in front of a religious cross, suggesting that the mayor believes that he is some sort of God or believes that he is doing 'Gods work', but his actions of attempted murder is something that God would condemn. The use of multi-coloured clothing tries to give a false sense of security to the audience and that it may be a happy story, this symbolises how people conceal their own identities to fit into society. The medieval clothing is a cultural code.

Video is a indirect intertextual reference to the children's TV show, Trumptonshire, which is about a very idyllic, very British countryside where nothing goes wrong, this contrasts to the plot of the music video. The Red paint is a signifier of death, danger and murder, foreshadowing the climax of the video. May seem harmless but later on in the video you truly see what the paint is being used for disguising the true nature of the village. This could relate and be a metaphor for how people hide their true negative feelings of Muslims.

The red crosses on the wooden door is a historical reference to the black death.Perhaps a sign of getting rid of vermin  of the village-people who do not follow the mayors policies or people who are simply different 'group mentality'. Reference to an incident that happened in the North-East of England in 2016, where asylum seekers were put into housing with red doors and causing them physical and verbal abuse.

Link to lyrics and visuals, "this is a round up", sung when the inspector meets the mayor, suggesting that they have selected him for a reason to come to the town. The pub name ' speared boar' is quite a gruesome name for a pub and is foreshadowing.

Model village, with the tiny inspector and mayor waving, symbolises that the village have been expecting the inspector, perhaps stalking him. Model village has bright colours and looks rather pretty, perhaps symbolising the idea of nostalgia. Reference to the film 'Hot Fuzz'.

The men dancing connotes to joy and the community coming together, this gives a false sense of security to the audience. The idea also links to the idea of revisionism. This is a direct intertextual reference to the film 'Wicker Man'. The girl tied up could represent Muslims and others who are considered different. They are represented in a venerable way as the men are circling the girl with swords which signifies danger and violence. The group of men also symbolise the idea of pact mentality up on 'abnormal' people. It shows how the villagers are completely indoctrinated.

The blood gushing on the floor - suggests violence and foreshadows what the village's true intentions are and how they link the view that people that live in the countryside are sinister and have a group mentality.

There are constant references throughout the video to violence as this image displays a gallows, which is decorated to show that the village is not as it really seems.

The villagers are not phased by their creation and by the fact that they have attempted murder it suggests that this is the norm and they are okay with this. The stance the mayor is doing is quite sinister with his back to the viewers, he is lifting his arms up to his people as if to say "look what we have created" and reference to him as a God. This implies that the mayor planned it all along and he represents a sort of cult mentality. 

The darker colours in the shot implies that village's sadistic secret has been revealed, thus there is no more hiding their true self behind a idyllic lifestyle. The bird represents a full circle narrative, as it started with the bird chirping and it finished with the same shot. The bird chirping in the first shot could imply that the bird is sounding an alarm to the village, put on their front.

Direct address is being shown when villagers waving and staring at camera, quite sinister despite it being a high angle. Highlighting to the idea that they are not phased by their behaviour.Another intertextual reference to the 'Wicker Man'. Climatic ending. The camera zooms outwards whilst a collegano battuto, creates a sense of panic and terror to the audience as the inspector is stuck inside the wicker. The abrupt stop symbolises Radiohead's anger towards people in power that portray Muslims in a bad way. Purple sky shows their true intentions have been showed and symbolises death and evil. The fact that they are smiling and waving symbolises the fact they have been totally indoctrinated by their leader, showing that because they have been used to this behaviour.