One of the most popular uses of expression in modern society is music and music videos. I know that I am personally obsessed with watching music videos, especially if I love the artist. My favorite singer is Lana del Rey, and luckily enough for me, she is an incredibly intuitive and creative person.
For almost a year she spent time writing and acting in a short film named Tropico that also acted as the music video for three of her songs, “Body Electric,” “Gods and Monsters,” and “Bel Air.” These all came off of the album, “Paradise,” which was released in the fall of 2012. Tropico was released in the winter of 2013. I encourage you to watch it because it is decadently interesting, but it’s half of an hour long, so it’s pretty time consuming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwuHOQLSpEg
This short film depicts the life and sexuality of a female character and her lover. The main theme of the film is the progression of sin and eventual redemption, and it is intertwined with countless religious motifs, but there can be many statements made about the depictions of gender and sexuality, as well.
It starts out with the depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, later revealed to be represented in our world as Los Angeles, surrounded by the people mentioned in the first song, “Body Electric.” Eventually, Eve decides to eat the apple and ends up falling on the ground, presumably dying. Adam then bites the apple, seeing his lover dead, and wanting to join her. This shows us the main idea behind the film, which is that woman brings sin, and man follows because they are seduced by her.
When Eve dies, she enters into the next stage of her life, and her spirit moves into the body of a stripper whose lover is a gangster. Lana then recites the very first lines of the first stanza and final fourteen lines of the final stanza “I Sing the Body Electric,” by Walt Whitman, which is found in Leaves of Grass. The first half of the last stanza focus on the beauty of the male body, while the second half, the half that Lana presents to us, focuses on the beauty of the female body. In Lana’s story, woman is existing, living, and dying, and man is watching and following her lead.
The lives of Lana and her lover, Shaun are clearly unsatisfactory for both of them. Throughout the section of video between the end of “Body Electric” and the very beginning of “Bel Air,” in which the majority of the video occurs, neither lover smiles or looks happy unless they are under the influence of cocaine. This is because they are working towards redemption. They are woman and man of humanity attempting to wipe away their original sin. At one point, all of the music and background noise pauses and Shaun asks Lana if she knows “it’s not always gonna be this way” and then tells her to “chill.” Shaun believes, as a man, that it is his job to take care of his lover. However, his role in the film is minuscule compared to Lana’s. Even while she is working hard as a stripper to make money for them, he’s getting high in a convenience store. In this way, woman has a more powerful role in society than man, which brings to mind the first quote Lana recites from Leaves: “Womanhood, and all that is woman, and the man that comes from woman.” This quote is simply highlighting the truth that man comes from woman. In Lana’s world, Adam and Eve coexist, instead of Eve belonging to or coming from Adam.
After “Gods and Monsters,” Lana recites “Howl,” by Allen Ginsburg as Shaun enters a room full of upper-class men and strippers they hired. While Shaun and the gang members terrorize these people with guns, one gang member’s necklace flies forward for a brief moment, revealing a huge silver cross. These gang members, despite their violence and wrongdoings, are still agents of heaven. They act as a more evil version of Robin Hood, taking money from the corrupt upper-class men for themselves, who have nothing. “Los Angeles, the city of angels, the land of gods and monsters,” is another example showing that the angels are depicted by the strippers and gangsters, while the monsters are the corrupt men who run L.A. and feed of off the underlings. This is also evident by the characters portrayed on screen while she recites this. Lana is making the argument here that everyone in the world is corrupt, and while seeking redemption is a good thing to do, it is unlikely one will reach holiness before going crazy or being killed. Another main theme is the sense of betrayal humankind feels after being “cast out” from the Garden of Eden. Lana, especially, feels betrayed by God, and for her the paradise of heaven is now a “Garden of Evil.”
After “Howl,” Lana is shown again as the Virgin Mary, praying to God for redemption for all of mankind. The lightning strikes one final time, and then the sky clears and the sun reflects orange off of the clouds, ending the storm, and beginning the phase of redemption. Lana and Shaun are finally on their way out of their worldly lives, heading back towards the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which has weathered and turned orange since the last time they were there. Lana throws away they guns, money, and other material items on the drive there, obviously representing that they will not need them anymore. They then baptize each other and put on white clothing to represent their newfound purity. Lana instigates every action they take, paralleling that she was the person who instigated their original sin. Woman acts, man follows.
“Bel Air” begins to play, Lana and Shaun are redeemed, and ascend back into heaven.
Obviously, Tropico is an incredibly dense film, with thousands of individual frames and sentences that can be analyzed. She also incorporates many motifs displayed in her other music videos and lyrics. I encourage you to watch it and see the ties Lana makes between religion, gender, and love. She does an excellent job of creating something meaningful that can really be interpreted in countless ways.