
Nearly 5000 veterans die by their own hands each year. Do we know why that is, no we can only try to imagine what goes through their heads when they've gone out for months or even years at a time to defend our ability to live as we want and people treat them like dirt and don't show the respect that these men and women have earned. Military vets that end up homeless and are treated like a nuisance to the world are always the saddest most heartbroken ones, and only a fellow veteran can understand how that feels. This is the message being conveyed through the music video for wrong side of heaven by Five Finger Death Punch.

Even military personnel cry sometimes because even the bravest of men isn’t immune to pain. The screenshots of this music video contain messages as well as word on the screen to help with context and foreshadowing. “Somewhere a soldier doesn't know why he's so easily discarded” (1:22). The first screenshot is of a man in military fatigues heading to a confrontation in a convoy of military vehicles, the look on his face shows a deep sense of disparity, most likely at what they're about to do, this also can be a foreshadow of events later in the video. An even deeper look can show that the emotion on his face the tears in his eyes could also show a sense of regret for what is happening because he sees what the people of the country they are in think of them. This frame is an extreme close up on the man’s face saying that we should focus solely on him at this time of the video, because he is the emotion and explanation of what is going on at that time. The time of 43 second there is a shot from the outside of the truck the men are in and that is of a man sitting on the side of the road on an old beaten up chair surrounded by what looks like the only things he owns a bike and the seat he is on. The background of this frame is blue which contrasts with the browns all around in this desert like town, this show the focus onto the man sitting in front of the blue because it makes him stand out. The man doesn’t seem pleased that the military is present because he is showing them the middle finger as they pass, this is what the man in the first frame saw and could have been the trigger for the tears in his eyes and a way of strengthening the text, on the screenshot. The man could also be doing this because the military intrusion could have been what caused him to be where he is and he is resentful of the military for that.

There are men who can love without it being intimate there is love between friends and between brothers that are very different from that of intimacy. The military is a brotherhood you voluntarily joined into and when you get out of the military that brotherhood doesn’t end, if anything it just gets stronger. At the time of 4 minutes and 44 seconds there are two men, in a dirty alleyway with the sides falling off of the buildings exposing bricks, the two men are holding on to each other, one is sharply dressed and the others clothes are in ruin, the sharply dressed man is actually holding up the other because he was just sitting on the wall behind them. This frame shows a lot of emotion on both men’s faces as they both appear to be crying, this part was foreshadowed earlier in the video by the first military man sitting in the truck crying because at a closer look the sharp dressed man is that first man in the truck helping out a fellow soldier. What isn’t shown in the first frame is the second man is also in the truck heading to the same confrontation and during that very fight the homeless man in this frame saved the sharp dressed man when he was shot, in this new frame it is the sharp dressed man helping the other showing a reciprocation of feelings to your fellow veteran and brother, because brotherhood never dies.

There is are men who can’t fathom the fact that people don’t appreciate the sacrifices made every day by our active duty military personnel and the atrocities that happen to a large number of them after they get out of the military. The two frames show a man who has been drinking and was screaming at random things, most likely due to PTSD from the war, he is then arrested by the police, however, when the officer sees the tattoo on his arm he looks at his own arm and see the same tattoo and takes the handcuffs off of the man. This is because only a fellow veteran can understand the pain of coming home and not being given the respect they deserve and having to resort to other means of stopping the suffering inside. In the background of the frames show the city lights and some buildings that are out of focus, this is done to put perspective directly on the man’s face saying to focus directly on the man in this extreme close up. The blurriness can also be used as a way of showing things in his head because an excess of alcohol can impair the brain and make things fuzzy and start to blur things and make it hard to focus.  The words on the frames go as follows, “a veteran doesn’t understand why his sacrifice went unappreciated” (3:32-3:39). The man is drinking because he is a war vet and didn’t get exactly what he expected from doing what he did and has gone into a depression that causes him to drink. He also shows disappointment at how life has ended up, he is not homeless but the home he is in probably isn’t a great one. He is also angry because this isn’t what he deserves, this isn’t what any vet deserves for giving up some of his freedom so we can have ours free of our own pocket. He is also resentful of those who don’t do anything to help and appreciate the veterans of America, even though they are the reason they here and free still. 

Thought the military is an essential thing in the US and other countries, what happens to people who have served don’t always seem to get back what they gave up to join the military. All the people want is a life to go back to and that doesn’t always happen but sometimes it does but for those it doesn’t happen to they either end up homeless or in a home almost unsuitable for life. Many vets turn to alcohol in their free time because at the moment it seems to help but in the long run it can kill you in large amounts. Some of the men and women who served also never find work again since the job market is destroyed right now. For a lot of these people there doesn’t seem any hope and they just want to end the suffering that is why almost 5000 veterans end their own lives every year, because to them there is no other option, but there is people want to help the word just doesn’t get out and some of the people who want to help can’t because they don’t understand what it feels like the only people who understand are other veterans and sometimes a brother is the only thing that can help someone through a tough time. 

 