“Love the Way you Lie” is a collaboration between Eminem and Rihanna that is ultimately about an abusive relationship that neither Eminem nor his girlfriend are willing to walk away from.  Although they both see the negativity that stems from the relationship, and the girlfriend continually witnesses lies told to her, they never truly leave each other.  Throughout the entire music video, the couple goes through patterns of abuse and lust, break ups and make-ups. 

The song starts with the chorus and the video opens with a scene with Rihanna singing in front of a wall of flames.  While this clearly goes along with the lyrics, “Just gonna stand there and watch me burn”, this dramatically foreshadows the abuse and manipulation that will come later, when the relationship unfolds.  During this scene, the camera shot is close up on Rihanna’s face, drawing little attention to much else.  This shot allows the viewer to pay special attention to the hurt and anger on her face, as well as the intense enunciation of each word.  The lack of distracting elements immediately emphasizes the importance of the chorus.  Finally, in this scene, Rihanna’s hair is dyed a bright and fiery red, her eye make up is dark, and her earrings are bold, gold hoops.  All of these aspects make Rihanna look powerful, especially with the camera so close to her face.

The chorus itself sets the scene for the rest of the video.  Rihanna’s words are conflicting, half of them are filled with pain, and half are excusing the pain.  “I like the way you lie” becomes a theme throughout the video as the viewer continually sees the girlfriend come back to Eminem, even through the evident pain he causes her.  During Rihanna’s chorus and Eminem’s rap, snippets of the relationship are flashed.  They start off with the couple sleeping in bed, but the girlfriend notices another girl’s phone number written on her boyfriend’s hand and then a fight ensues.  Shortly thereafter, the couple has made up and resumes normal activity.  This cycle continues through the course of the video; however, it comes full circle at the end and shows the couple lying in bed together again.

These scenes that portray the couple are interesting because the producers make it clear that they are low class.  The house they live in is small, with trashy with old furniture and messy rooms, in combination with their dirty and torn clothing.  In one scene, Eminem steals a bottle of liquor with his girlfriend, which they are later shown drinking at a public pool.  In another, he appears to get into a fight with a random individual at a bar.  All of this allows the viewers to establish opinions about both characters.  It is evident that they are not model citizens and do no live a life of luxury.  Instead, they are portrayed as ‘white trash’, which falls in line with common stereotypes of abusive couples that have and come from nothing and break the law without care.

Although both Eminem and his girlfriend are portrayed in this manner, it is important to note how Eminem continually appears intimidating.  This is not done by accident, as it is evident that he physically abuses his girlfriend and acts on his anger often.  In each scene, Eminem is dressed in old, cut up t-shirts or ratty jackets.  He has a close shaven hair cut and tattoos that are never covered up.  It is not a secret that this classic bad-boy look is one that frightens others or gives them the wrong idea.

During the parts of the song where Eminem raps, there is a repeated scene where he is standing alone, in a wheat field, singing angrily.  Instead of taking a close-up shot, like the camera does on Rihanna, the shots are from farther away and allow the viewer to take in the background and each of his motions.  The lyrics tell the viewer that Eminem knows that the things he has done to his girlfriend are wrong.  He says, “I feel so ashamed, I snapped, who’s that dude / I don’t even know his name, I laid hands on her / I’ll never stoop so low again, I guess I don’t know my own strength”.  These lyrics, on top of his hand gestures and actions, allow the viewer to see it from his side, that he really does hate himself for abusing her.  In these scenes, Eminem’s clothes are plain to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to them – they are not the focus of the scene.  He is also alone throughout these scenes.  He is in a large, empty field with no one else.  This emphasizes to the viewer that in these scenes, Eminem is alone in his anger with nothing to do but think about it.

Watching this video, the last set of scenes seems to be the most powerful.  Rihanna and Eminem have both moved to in front of a burning house.  In the last verse of Eminem’s rap, he says “If she ever f******g tries to leave again / I’m a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire”.  Although his girlfriend then appears outside of the burning house with him, this has a very literal connection to the lyrics; however, it also has a more figurative one as well.  In one of the last sequences, the couple is kissing outside of this burning house.  But in this scene, this house is so much more than where they happen to live.  The burning house represents their unfixable relationship.  But even so, with their relationship burning in the background, the two do not leave each other – the constant struggle and theme seen throughout the entire video and song.

“Love the Way you Lie” is a powerful song with an even more powerful music video to accompany it.  Not only can many people relate to being stuck in a bad relationship, those who cannot can feel the pain in this video.  However, viewers can also get a more in depth feel for the lives of Eminem and his girlfriend through this video as well.  The colors in the background, the clothing worn and the different locations all play a large role in developing the characters and giving more information about them to the viewers than could be told in just four minutes.  Careful analysis of the production of this video unfolds more about this song than the lyrics ever could.
