Dashboard Confessional’s “Stolen” video depicts a typical romance story, taking us through the stages of this romance while also taking us through stages of life.
The simplicity of childhood can be seen through the young boy’s climb on the rocks by the ocean. A seagull glides through the clear sky above; the endless ocean sparkles below. Dressed in a brick red sundress, a young brunette beauty silently watches, stemming the boy’s innocent curiosity. He climbs effortlessly upward, watching her disappear into a fairy-tale surrounding. White picket-fence surrounds the gingerbread-like castle she retreats into; pillars of limestone and tropical greenery line the walkways the young boy walks in search of the red sundress.
The skies are now dreary gray and fallen leaves rustle in the howling wind; an eerie shadow is cast over the scene and over the lovers. Naturally, life and love have become more complicated and now require more than their innocent childhood friendship. A distraught teenage boy watches as the girl he loves rides solemnly away into night.
Suddenly, the lovers are young adults faced with priorities, responsibilities and decisions. Stuck inside a room with high ceilings and screaming of wealth, the lovers experience a shock of heartbreak; a piercing ache that had lied dormant until now. The season is again changing; snow now drifts down upon troubled lovers.
As adults, the sun again shines on the two and as their love is affirmed at the very place it was ignited so long ago: they stand face-to-face with the waves crashing in the background, no other care in the world but the moment they are lost in. Looking back, they see the past they have shared and the obstacles overcome; they know that this is the culmination of all that has happened since that sunny day in their childhood when they first caught a glimpse of each other and of love. Their lives brought them here, together, as they always knew they would.
The video is set up so that we can see these lovers as they age; we see the changes that life brings as we grow up but also take hope in those things that never do change. In response to the video, I took a time-line kind of approach where each new season brought changes in the lives of the lovers. The writing matures as it goes on, as the characters in the video mature as they grow up. However, there always remained a constant: the two never lost the passion they shared.
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