Hurt (Brokeback Mountain vid)

Vid
Title:	Hurt
Creator:	Destina
Date:	2006
Format:
Length:	3:50 minutes
Music:	"Hurt" by Johnny Cash
Genre:
Fandom:	Brokeback Mountain
Footage:	Brokeback Mountain
URL:	original vid announcement Jack and Ennis on Brokeback Mountain
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You may be looking for Hurt/Comfort.

Hurt is a Brokeback Mountain vid edited by destina and which premiered at Vividcon in 2006. It is considered by some to be an excellent example of how the correct song choice, when mirrored with a complimentary fandom, can produce a superior vid. By selecting Johnny Cash's "Hurt", a song he sang in the later years of his life, the vidder was able to build on the song's theme of pain, regret and despair and weave in Ennis' and Jack's heartbreaking story of unfulfilled love and loss. The vid also illustrates how pacing (matching visually powerful and layered scenes with a song's/singer's musical intensity) can double a vid's emotional impact, even if the narrative is, as in this case, a retelling of a well known story.

As some viewers have pointed out: "Hurt" is an "unbelievably perfect song for them, done beautifully" and "if you're going to retell a movie, that's the way to do it.."

Vidder's summary: "Some choices leave you with nothing at all."

Excerpt from the lyrics

What have I become

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know goes away

In the end

And you could have it all

My empire of dirt

I will let you down

I will make you hurt.

Reactions/Reviews

• "Loved the narrative arrangement. Very emotional. And she makes fantastic use of the song. I guess Ennis' tragedy feels less sympathetic to me than that of the other characters, but I get a huge sense of loss. And of lives being wasted. Which fits what Cash's voice does to me extremely well."
• "I really loved this vid. The way that it was set up, starting at the end with the earlier parts of the movie shown as flashbacks, really worked with this song. And a Johnny Cash song really works amazingly with BBM, especially this Johnny Cash song."
• "A lot of us seemed to have started out really worried about whether the vid could do justice to the song (and to the Johnny Cash video, which is tremendously moving) and to have come out of it relieved that yes, it was working, destina was working it with the depth and empathy it deserved. Shoshanna was reassured that Destina began with the end of the movie, that she wasn't just going to retell the story of the movie (Melina called that the "trap" of movie vids), and particularly noted the parallel clips of Ennis hitting Jack and Jack being beaten to death; the narrative is the narrative of Ennis' guilt. Cesca praised the vid for being "very sparing."
• "There were many excellent vids, but the one that struck me was destina's Brokeback Mountain vid Hurt. It was a beautiful, painful and honest character study."
• "Thank you so much for Hurt. I loved the short story but always thought the movie came across a bit flat in the telling of it, and this vid really managed to take all the intense moments in the film and make the story come across with newfound intensity, an overwhelming sense of regret and the whole "what you can bear" theme. It's gorgeous, and I just loved how it built up toward the end there. Incredibly powerful!"
• "I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed Hurt. I've never been particularly fond of Johnny Cash's version of the song, but I really thought you made it work perfectly for the film and Ennis's POV. You present such a clear feeling of what might have been that makes the tragedy of Ennis and Jack's story build and build until that unforgettable final clip with Ennis and the shirts. Really wonderful job."