Detailed Textual Analysis of the Music Video: Rihanna, Russian Roulette

Rihanna: Russian Roulette



Context


Russian Roulette is a song perfoemed by Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna. The song was written and produced by Ne-Yo and Chuck Harmony for Rihanna's fourth studio album, Rated R (2009). The lyrics metaphorically refer to the game of love in which you take chances even though anyone can get hurt. Rihanna called the song "poetry" and said that it is not literally about a game of Russian roulette.


The song was released on November 3, 2009 by Def Jam Recordings as the sixth single from the album which falls into the genre of R&B, Pop.


The video was directed by Anthony Mandler and was premiered on November 13, 2009.  It best fits into Andrew Goodwin’s classification of music videos under the category of illustration.




Lyrics


Take a breath, take it deep
"Calm yourself," he says to me
If you play, you play for keeps
Take the gun, and count to three
I'm sweating now, moving slow
No time to think, my turn to go

And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving
I know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

Say a prayer to yourself
He says, "Close your eyes, sometimes it helps"
And then I get a scary thought
That he's here means he's never lost

And you can see my heart beating
Oh, you can see it through my chest
Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving
Know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

As my life flashes before my eyes
I'm wondering will I ever see another sunrise?
So many won't get the chance to say goodbye
But it's too late to think of the value of my life

And you can see my heart beating
Oh, you can see it through my chest
Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving, no
Know that I must pass this test

You can see my heart beating
Oh, you can see it through my chest
I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving, no
Know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger




Content


The video starts with a woman (Rihanna) lying on the floor dressed in a grey hooded clothing almost in shadow. She seems to want to be hidden as her face is unseen and her body language of her lying down seems as though she is tired and weary but her arms and hands reaching out suggest that she has not given up and is still reaching out. The audience then sees a quick close up of her hand and as she slowly draws her hand away, she leaves a red mark almost looking like a trail of blood. This could connote that she maybe in danger with her hands full of blood. When she is drawing her hand away, the audience would hear an enhanced sound like she is scratching or scraping her hand on the surface.


This then nicely cuts to a close up of a hand scratch on the wall, suggesting the woman previously had scratched the wall, showing her desperation or maybe her anger. From the close up shot, it then slowly zooms out to establish the location, seeing a man dressed in black with black glasses on. This could connote that the man is emotionless as he covers his eyes and acts in a serious manner. It then cuts to the beat of a shot showing the side view of two men, seeming almost like officers holding guns also dressed in black. This emphasizes the serious situation and giving off an uneasy and unsettling atmosphere.

We then see Rihanna in another situation as it cross-cuts to her taking a seat on a table with a man. The room seems a really dark place, almost everything in shadow to show the sinister and seriousness of the situation and atmosphere. The audience would then see the man reaching for the gun but it then cross-cuts back to the first situation, showing the back of the man’s head with Rihanna, blurred in the background. This shallow focus is symbolic as it shows that Rihanna is being watched by an officer, almost giving the idea of that she is dangerous and every move she makes needs to be watched. After this shot, we then see a lot of different imagery flashing really quickly of blood, man’s eyes, tiger, fire and car. This could reflect Rihanna’s state of mind of confusion and misunderstanding.

We then turn back to Rihanna where she has her eyes closed, and then quickly turns to a shot of her all crouched together and then a shot of the bullet in the scratch we saw originally near the beginning of the music video. All of these shots show Rihanna’s fear and vulnerability especially when she’s all crouched down together and maybe her fate represented by the bullet in the scratch in the wall. The audience then would see clearly the location of where Rihanna is, from the perspective of the officer behind the glass window watching Rihanna standing in closed area guarded by other officers too. This suggests the superiority of the officers over Rihanna and also Rihanna being the only girl in the video makes her more vulnerable and weaker. Some more images flashes of Rihanna being under water which could be foreshadowing of later events or her past memories.

Her song eventually begins triggered by the officer behind the glass window as he presses the button on the controller. We then see Rihanna’s eyes slowly opening as though she has come to terms with reality. It then cross-cuts to the man with the gun which the image is then blurred and we see an over shoulder shot of Rihanna sitting across the table, feeling quite on edge and afraid. We then see the overall picture with a two shot and the enhanced sound of spinning of the gun is triggered. Shot/reverse shots of Rihanna and the man emphasizes their facial expressions and emotions of feeling nervous and afraid of what to come. We then hear an enhanced sound of Rihanna taking a deep breath which then slowly fades out, enough to see her in a different situation lying down. She starts lip syncing the first line ‘Take a breath’ whilst slowing looking up into the light. It then keeps cross-cutting between the two different situations showing her nervousness and fear as one of her body language of her putting her fist near her mouth shows her being uneasy and worried.

We then see many images of Rihanna superimposed of the different situations to show her different feelings as one of them is of her looking down, connoting that she is afraid and feels weak.

When we hear the lyrics ‘No time to think, my turn to go’ Rihanna starts walking up to the glass window facing the officer. When she lip syncs ‘And you can see my heart…’ she pulls her hood down and puts her hand on chest and the other reaching out to the officer to show her desperation and fear. Then a lot of imagery flashes of a fast car driving which then cross-cuts to her on the table feeling scared as she looks down as though she is in shock. When she lips syncs ‘ That I’m terrified’ we see her really in fear as she clenches her clothing together, feeling the nerves and putting her hands on the window almost as though she is asking for help.

We then see another cross-cut to another situation as though Rihanna is going to be hit by a car as we see the headlights shining on Rihanna. When she sings ‘I’m not leaving’ we see her hands almost reaching out to the audience, showing her in need. At the end of the chorus, it ends with the line ‘so just pull the trigger, we see Rihanna in shock as she puts her hand over her mouth after the man has pulled the trigger.

For the next verse, she is sitting calmly on a chair as she lip syncs the line ‘Say a prayer to yourself’. More cross-cutting appears in this verse of Rihanna in different situations with one of them of her dressed in the hooded clothing standing against the wall, waiting for the officer. When the chorus starts we see Rihanna in the chair with blood coming out of her chest, maybe inidicating her fate. She then slowly rubs the blood off her chest which then cross-cuts to her in the room looking vulnerable as she is in the corner when the lyric ‘That I’m terrified’ is on. We then see a much stronger Rihanna sitting in the chair, contrasting to the previous image of her as in the chair she is sitting, and leaning forward looking more sternly as she lip syncs ‘But I’m not leaving’. When we hear the lyrics, ‘Know that I’m must pass this test, we see her in the room that is filling with red smoke, maybe a sign of danger with her arms right out. The image looks quite dark as she is dressed in the grey hooded clothing covering her face.

The audience then see flashes of light when she lip syncs ‘As my life flashes before my eyes’. Throughout this verse we see a lot of imagery of Rihanna superimposed of ones of her in the grey hooded clothing to make it look more dark and tense.

While she is singing ‘And you can see my heart beating’ we see quick cross-cuttings between the situations of the man and her both reaching for the gun and the fast car driving. We then stay fixed on the situation of her singing, while in the background we see the headlights of the car coming. With Rihanna turning to see the car in the background, she stays put in her position and is not moving away from the direction of the car coming as though she knows what is going to happen for the worse. While lip syncing the words ‘… through my chest’ she expresses her strong feeling by walking up to the window and putting her hands on her chest and then outwards. ‘That I’m terrified but I’m not leaving’ with these lyrics we see the fast car coming towards Rihanna as though it has hit but we don’t see this as it cross-cuts back to her sitting in the isolated room.


We then see shots of Rihanna in another situation under water being shot many times and then on the lyrics ‘…must pass this test’ we see clearly her being shot in the neck with blood coming out into the water. With the last line ‘So just pull the trigger’ the editing cuts to the beat with images of Rihanna spinning to reflect the gun when the trigger is pulled. Near the end we hear Rihanna enhanced gasping, then we hear the gun spinning and a loud sound of a gun shot.

The music video finishes with blood underwater fading out to the shot of Rihanna in the corner of the room, all clenched together with the light on her dying down till black.