Hang em high starting like this is exciting me so bad. It questions the construction of film, the paradox of a movie presenting itself as an artifact of reality. Fade to black, “the end”, but in reality this story continues. Does what continues off screen follow what happened on screen? Would I — the filmmaker, the narrator, the movie — lie to you — the spectator? How does a movie construct and therefore manipulate reality? Making a metafilm in your song is so awesome.
Especially interesting with the theme of misogyny in the lyrics — the angels cut out her tongue, Black Mariah, that girl’s not right in the brain. More of a reach, but this in conjunction with the self-awareness of the construction of film, hang em high seems to be questioning the construction of the misogynistic Female figure. Hysterical, whore, worthless, silent. Esp as seen in westerns, often as either the redeemed jezebel or pure woman with no agency. Which in relation to the rest of this album…! Centering the invisible woman. Who made her invisible? Not the vengeful husband obsessed with her. Not even her killer. Her damner is the storyteller, the film. Can you trust the storyteller who cuts off the woman’s tongue and calls her a crazy woman, or a righteous woman, or an angel?
WOULD I LIE TO YOU?
