Textual Analysis of Little Motel by Modest Mouse

The video I am analysing is Little Motel by the band Modest Mouse. The video was directed by Justin Francis in 2007. The music belongs to the Indie Rock genre, and follows its conventions such as an acoustic arrangement and an unusual and experimental sound.

The video draws upon the lyrics to create strong relationships and links. As an example, the visuals include a literal interpretation of the lyrics "I hope that you like it in your little motel", by the mother putting her son to bed in a motel room. "I hope that the suite sleeps and suits you well" is also literally interpreted in the visuals by opening with a shot of the child (at this point in the video, presumably) sleeping softly in the suite (he is later revealed to have died). The repeated lyrics in the chorus, "That's what I'm waiting for", are represented in the visuals through the mother's waiting at the child's hospital bedside for him to succumb to his illness or ailment, patiently watching him and the EKG. In an article by Steve Archer, How to Study Music Videos, he says "Narrative and performance
 songs rarely tell complete narratives." Pete Fraser also offers a similar sentiment in the article Teaching Music Video (BFI, 2004) in which he says "Narrative in songs is rarely complete, more often fragmentary, as in poetry." This is true for this video, which offers a small fracture of a narrative, but does not explain further, such as why the child was in hospital and what his condition was when his mother removed him from the hospital and took him to a motel room. These narrative points are left ambiguous and for the audience to decide.


The lyrics "the remainders of a shooting star landed directly on our broke-down little car" are vividly represented in the video via a shot of the car's bonnet and the lights of Las Vegas reflecting upon it. This creates an image, as seen above, that could be interpreted as shooting stars landing upon a little car. The lyrics continue to read, "before then we had made a wish that we would be missed if one or another just did not exist." This has a strong relationship to the visual of the mother carrying her dead son, who is clearly "missed" by the grieving mother's body language and expressions.

The video (even though it is shot in reverse) is cut to the beat of the music effectively. Solo instrumental pieces in the music are reflected in the video by cutting away from the two characters of the mother and child to close-up shots of the blinking lights of Las Vegas.


The video changes pace with the music, especially once the video reaches the point in the narrative when the mother runs out of the hospital with her child in her arms, as seen in the image above. Due to the reverse nature of the edit, this happens at the beginning of the narrative, but is shown in the last few moments of the video. The music intensifies for the final chorus, with cymbal clashes and drum beats matching cuts in the edit. The visuals are faster now, with the woman running down the hospital corridor faster than previously seen, when she had been slowly travelling through Las Vegas in a slight slow motion effect. The frantic rushing through the hospital, with her child in her arms, is a strong contrast to the beginning of the video (end of the narrative) where she, in her grief, calmly and peacefully tucks her son into bed in a motel room, now dead.


The piano beats used in the opening of the song relate strongly to the visual of the twinkling lights of Las Vegas. The lights flicker on and off quickly, and the staccato sound reflects this. The flashback sequence in the video to a home movie of the mother and child playing on a park are accompanied in the music by an ethereal, dreamy sound that works well.


In an intertextual reference, the owner of the motel plays Windows Solitaire on his computer, connoting the dullness and uneventfulness of most peoples' lives in contrast to the mother who is dealing with grief for the loss her son.
The video contains no performance from the artist. It is half narrative based and half concept based. The narrative enigma of the mother carrying her child through Las Vegas is intriguing to the audience, and the concept of telling the story in reverse (with the shock twist happening at the end of the video, but the beginning of the narrative) is innovative and only successfully executed a few times before (Coldplay, The Scientist).

In conclusion, this video is uncharacteristic of conventional music videos as it feels more like a short film than an exhibition of the artist. It is experimental and the narrative is intriguing.