Director's Study of Mark Romanek with Johnny Cash performing Hurt

This song appears to be about where the artist is in his life now: there are links between visuals and lyrics such as when a portrait of Cash's mother appears on the line "Everyone goes away in the end" these images appear on the strum of the guitar being played which connote how they are important stages of the artist's life. Romanek was a great fan of the artist and felt compelled not to destroy any of the truth which Cash had built his career around, so he chose to use a harsh golden light from the side to illuminate the age-lines on Cash's face, Romanek commented that he felt it was a testement to Cash, a brave move to show who he really was as Romanek did not want a "cosmetic-pretty light" used.



Romanek had personally begged Cash's agent to do a music video, and was spontaneously put on an aeroplane to visit the cash museum, the director commented that it was very sad to see the building in such despairas there had been rain damage before they got there. Also the museum had been closed for some time. But this was used to their advantage in the video as it was a sombre song and Cash was very sombre on set, they used such lyrics as "empire of dirt" to show the broken records amongst the domestic setting. There is a certain feel that though it is a made up place it is also filled with mementos that each mean a different thing to the artist personally.

Cash has clearly come into an important moment of his life, the lyrics suggest that the rich and beautiful things Romanek shows are not important to Cash any more. He has found something else, his wife June was not originally to be in the video however as one scene was being filmed Romanek noticed a "serene look on her face" which he felt had to be featured as hebelieved it captured the essence of the couple's relationship beautifully. Though Cash was realising these important people in his life Romanek did not want this song to appear as a sign of the artist's coming death, it was not, as Cash was very healthy at the time. Because of the setting there are moments which Cash does not look at the audience so there is a feeling of intrusion, but there are other moments when he does look at the camera whichRomanek wanted so that it would seem Cash was making his point more clearly.

This video is a great testament to Romanek it is something quite different to his other works, which are full of black-and-white images. Combined with a great detail of editing, whereas this is much more simplistic and focuses on the artist and the music he has written. Though unlike a lot of modern music videos which focus on the artist this one is much more original to Cash's voice and style, which makes Romanek all the more to be admired that he did not destroy that sense.