alt-J - Hunger Of The Pine

 Opinionated Writing 

At first glance, it seems as though he is determined to escape from the situation that could get him killed, and his running proves that he wants to live; the determination in his eyes is unmissable. But when the first arrow strikes and he is still running, that seems illogical and superficial to me because he has an arrow straight through his ribcage. Can a person really run when you have an arrow inside you? The latter arrow just adds on to my point, though after two minutes of him running with arrows inside him, I concluded that maybe his determination to live is more than the pain of the arrow, and with the help of endorphins, he can run and save himself. At one point, I felt how much endorphins can help and how determined is he to run even after like ten arrows inside him and him breaking one in his neck. By the end of the music video, my only thought was whether he is gonna die or not. It is biologically impossible for a man to be alive after so many arrows have hit him, and the physical strain on the body to be running like that just felt pointless and unnecessary. After so much running, like for three minutes of the music video, he stops, drenches himself with what looks like oil or petroleum, and waits for the bomb or the missile to hit him. First, why? like all the running just to burn into a crisp. Second, am I the one not understanding his intent on injuring himself more and more to just die by pouring oil on himself? 

It was a little disturbing to watch him take arrow after arrow in the middle of nowhere, making me wonder what he is doing in the middle of nowhere. I know it's a music video, but still the question remains: why? The question was there the whole time I was watching and rewatching the video to get a better understanding of what is actually happening, and after so many attempts to understand what is happening, I still feel lost. The smile he had after pouring oil on himself made it feel like he was relieved and happy to be standing there and waiting for death to come and find him. In the last panel there was no fear in his eyes or the need to escape from that place. So it makes me wonder, maybe he was not trying to live, and maybe he was just running to achieve the death he wanted and not what was given to him.