3. The religious connotations of the song are
shown a lot through the costumes of the
characters. In the first few shots it shows a
biker gang driving down a road and the
names of Jesus’ disciples are written on the
backs of the jackets. This is almost comparing
Jesus and his disciples to a ‘gang’, which is
done to create controversy.
The leader of the gang is wearing a crown of
thorns – this suggests that he is Jesus. Lady
Gaga plays the part of Mary Magdalene, one
of Jesus’ most celebrated disciples,
throughout the video. At the beginning of the
video Lady Gaga is sat on the back of Jesus’
motorbike, who represents good, however as
the video goes on she is being tempted by
Judas, who represents evil.

4. The first screen shot shows Lady Gaga pushing
Judas away from her and holding onto
Jesus, showing that she is resisting temptation.
In the second two screen shots there is a riot scene in which Judas starts a fight. In
this scene Jesus saves Lady Gaga from the crowd and she follows him.

5. As the video goes on, Lady Gaga begins sinning by falling for Judas. She points a gun at him but the only
thing which protrudes from it is a harmless lipstick, which is ironic as guns are weapons which are made to
kill and destroy. This shows that although she is trying to resist temptation she cannot bring herself to
harm/destroy her love for Judas.
The next scene shows Lady Gaga sat in a bath tub between Jesus (who represents good) and Judas
(who represents evil) as she is choosing which side she will serve. Later in the video she chooses
Jesus and he forgives her. However, because she has sinned by falling for Judas she stands in her
white dress while being stoned to death. This connotes that even if one shows remorse for their
sins, it does not mean that ones actions will not result in consequences.

6. Throughout the video low key lighting has been used to portray the dark meaning of the
song, which is about good vs evil.
In this video Judas is portrayed as being
evil and a rebel, and in the Bible he is a
traitor. Lady Gaga could have used Judas
as a metaphor to represent someone who
betrayed her or an ex-lover.

7. This video conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s
theory as Lady Gaga has used many inter-textual
references about religion in this video to create
controversy, for example, the crown of thorns
which Jesus is wearing. The video also illustrates
the lyrics of the song as they both have religious
connotations.
Other inter-textual references include Madonna’s famously controversial ‘Like a Prayer’
video and ‘Alejandro’ which is a previous Lady Gaga video. Both of these videos have many
religious connotations and have used religion to cause controversy and therefore get more
interest in the video.

8. Again this video conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s theory as Lady Gaga is frequently
objectified due to the skimpy costumes which she is wearing throughout most of the video.
This also links to the theme of voyeurism, as Lady Gaga is being seen as sexual object.
According to Andrew Goodwin’s theory, music videos must contain close ups of the
performer and the main subjects in the video. Lady Gaga is dressed in very unusual
costumes with extreme make-up, which is part of her unique iconography and makes her
image recognisable.