The films about the First World War are so numerous that it is almost impossible for directors passionate about this subject to find new ways to illustrate the dramas of those who faced that period. Thus, Isaac Lee doesn’t necessarily create a totally original story while providing the song ‘Sonny Jim‘, performed by izakariah, a cinematic consistency, but he manages to give us an emotional experience, doubled by a tragic but touching narrative. This folk music video is both a soldier’s confession (in which, in fact, the tender thoughts of all his comrades about the beauty of their own home are melted) and a praise for the courage of those who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield. This musical-cinematic project follows the last moments of some privates who, waiting for the final attack, remember their great passions and special moments that, most likely, they will take with them beyond the limits of this world.
This sensitive narrative formula is supported by the nostalgic, temperate musical style of izakariah who, through his muffled tension, precisely pushes the sensitivity of the characters (and even of the spectators / listeners) to the climax. Likewise, Isaac Lee opts for a simultaneous transposition of life into the trenches and the personal experience of one of the protagonists, in a continuous oscillation between the misery of the harsh reality of war and the fragments of a paradisiacal past. This image parallelism rendered through a complementary series of techniques and chromatic contrasts dynamizes not only the concrete action of the characters who are preparing to face their own death, but also the internal combustion of their mental universe. Unfortunately, the small dimension of this music video doesn’t allow a better exploration of these personal stories that remain at the sketch level, despite the emotion they convey. However, one of the messages that this music video indirectly induces is that we are all equal in the face of death, while the only reality that really matters to us is, in fact, that of our own feelings. In the same way, the sacrificial gesture of these people is the culmination of this great passion in which the love for the lost paradise of one’s own home and the duty for the nation intertwine. ‘Sonny Jim’ is a tender and painful music video discussing the universality of emotions that have not changed, despite the victories or defeats that any individual or country has experienced.
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