Music Video Analysis #1 - Hazard/Richard Marx

[Jughead]

Okay, so to make an effort to contribute here more, I thought I'd share my love of music video in a new weekly feature, where every Wednesday, we all give our interpretations of videos.

I thought I'd start with a fun one.

Hazard - RICHARD MARX
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZoBy7GSK2U

For those of you who might not recall, the song is about a murder in the town of Hazard, Nebraska, and is told from the point of view of one of the accused...the character played by Richard Marx in the video.

Of course, if you watch the video and listen to the lyrics closely, you'll see that the case isn't so cut and dry.

Let's open up discussion, shall we? Who did it? What evidence is there? And, isn't this one of Richard Marx's best hits?

[H2IZCOOL]

I've never been a music video fan, but I've always loved the song Hazard and all the mystery surrounding it, and I did see the video a couple of years ago, and have been to a website discussing the mystery. I'd like to see the video again to come up with a better answer, but I can't access YouTube at work. And I'm gonna be out the next two nights. So I'll have to wait till later.

From what I remember though, both the boy and the sheriff seemed kinda creepy.

I'll say Colonel Mustard with the wrench in the kitchen. ;D (Oops. Wrong mystery.)

[Dawn]

Cool feature idea, Juggie!

This is definitely one of the most mysterious videos that I've seen. I watched this twice, and the sheriff seems to be the most likely culprit. He's shown driving by Mary when she was walking alone, and seems to have had some kind of personal vendetta against the Richard Marx character. He would also be in a position to manipulate the evidence. But it's hard to say for certain, given some of the scenes and background of the story given in the lyrics.

Mary's last line is interesting - "Everyone thinks I should be afraid of you, but I'm not." Was this because of the prejudices that the townspeople had?

[Jughead]

h2izcool said:

I've never been a music video fan, but I've always loved the song Hazard and all the mystery surrounding it, and I did see the video a couple of years ago, and have been to a website discussing the mystery. I'd like to see the video again to come up with a better answer, but I can't access YouTube at work. And I'm gonna be out the next two nights. So I'll have to wait till later.

From what I remember though, both the boy and the sheriff seemed kinda creepy.

I'll say Colonel Mustard with the wrench in the kitchen. ;D (Oops. Wrong mystery.)

Would you be referring to the little boy in the video? I thought that was Marx's character 20 years earlier?

[Jughead]

admin said:

Cool feature idea, Juggie!

This is definitely one of the most mysterious videos that I've seen. I watched this twice, and the sheriff seems to be the most likely culprit. He's shown driving by Mary when she was walking alone, and seems to have had some kind of personal vendetta against the Richard Marx character. He would also be in a position to manipulate the evidence. But it's hard to say for certain, given some of the scenes and background of the story given in the lyrics.

Mary's last line is interesting - "Everyone thinks I should be afraid of you, but I'm not." Was this because of the prejudices that the townspeople had?

I think part of the reason why it's so hard to interpret is the fact that the video is shot out of continiuity, with the whole video peppered with flashbacks from his childhood, which seemed to me to be filled with pain.

I too find the last line interesting because we don't know who she was saying it to. Marx? The sheriff? The townfolk?

[H2IZCOOL]

jughead said:

h2izcool said:

I've never been a music video fan, but I've always loved the song Hazard and all the mystery surrounding it, and I did see the video a couple of years ago, and have been to a website discussing the mystery. I'd like to see the video again to come up with a better answer, but I can't access YouTube at work. And I'm gonna be out the next two nights. So I'll have to wait till later.

From what I remember though, both the boy and the sheriff seemed kinda creepy.

I'll say Colonel Mustard with the wrench in the kitchen. ;D (Oops. Wrong mystery.)

Would you be referring to the little boy in the video? I thought that was Marx's character 20 years earlier?

Yeah. That's who I was talking about. I knew it was "Marx" as a kid. He seemed creepy to me.

[H2IZCOOL]

jughead said:

admin said:

Cool feature idea, Juggie!

This is definitely one of the most mysterious videos that I've seen. I watched this twice, and the sheriff seems to be the most likely culprit. He's shown driving by Mary when she was walking alone, and seems to have had some kind of personal vendetta against the Richard Marx character. He would also be in a position to manipulate the evidence. But it's hard to say for certain, given some of the scenes and background of the story given in the lyrics.

Mary's last line is interesting - "Everyone thinks I should be afraid of you, but I'm not." Was this because of the prejudices that the townspeople had?

I too find the last line interesting because we don't know who she was saying it to. Marx? The sheriff? The townfolk?

That's what the producer of the video wanted you to think. It takes the mystery of the song one step further. When I listened to the song, I kinda made up my mind that the Marx character was guilty - and very disturbed. The sheriff isn't a main character in the song. The video not only moves him to center stage, but makes him an equal suspect to Marx. - But we are not supposed to figure out who the murderer is. It is supposed to remain a mystery just as curious as whatever Billy Joe McAllister and Bobby Gentry were throwing off the Talahatchee Bridge.