Textual Analysis of Videos- One Trillion Dollars, Anti-Flag

This video's message focuses on the US military, it's actions over the world (motivated by greed) and how it targets people for recruitment.

This video uses three types of footage:

Fictional footage of a mother reading her daughter a bedtime story

Animated footage from the "book" explaining how the military are funded and operate globally to promote imperialism.

It begins with an elementary school, having waving children in front of it, before a cartoon of Donald Rumsfeld leaps onto the roof, armed with a drill, which drills into the school, and oil and money flows out of it and into the building next door; “Tanks R us” as tanks drive out of it.

It then shows the White House, and a cartoon Uncle Sam holding a pistol, whose arm stretches out over the sea, and points the gun at people wearing Arabic clothing, who have their hands held up, with a tank behind them and bodies piling up next to them.

The narrative then transfers from the storybook to the mother and daughter, as a man wearing a military uniform approaches them, holding a contract which says “Join the army. Free college education”. He gives a pen to the mother, who gives it to the daughter, who signs below where it says “Sign up now”. She signs it and the man pulls out a knife, and it is seen moving towards her chest.

The view then switches to the storybook, which now shows a cartoon of the mother, daughter and military man as he plunges the knife into the daughter's chest and pulls out her heart.

The narrative then ends with the daughter being laid down into the bed and zipped up in a body bag, upon which one notices the wooden headboard has changed to grey and now resembles a tombstone.

Use of the childlike cartoon and the stereotypical "bedtime story" seqeuence makes the end result of the child's death all the more poignant. It also represents how, in America, the military is deeply ingrained in their culture, with children exposed the its ideals repeatedly and from a very young age. On a deeper note it can also be interpreted as suggesting that the explanations for the US governments global military actions are as simplistic and ridiculous as a children's story, a simplified tale of good vs evil as opposed to the complex nature of current global issues (and the massive financial gains American corporations make from military occupations).

Mixed between this is shots of the band, performing against the backdrop of a star constructed from gstylised silhouettes of guns. The majority of shots are between medium-long shots and close ups, from a varitey of angles. The band are dressed casually, in black and white. here each individual member of the bands is presented as performing separately, rather than the whole band in shot. Again there is a focus on the lead singer, and fairly rapid cuts.