The Climb (song) - Music Video

Music Video

Matthew Rolston directed the music video for "The Climb", which premiered on Cyrus's MySpace page on February 11, 2009. The video commences with a shot of Cyrus holding a guitar and a suitcase as she begins to walk down a long path extending through a valley. At the end of the valley, the sun breaks out over a distant mountain. The entire scene is enhanced with computer-generated imagery. Cyrus has her hair tied in a bun and wears a traveling jacket, a gray tank top and cowboy boots. In a separate setting, Cyrus, wearing a gray short sleeve shirt and her hair loose, begins to sing "The Climb" beneath a blue spotlight in a purple room. The two settings alternate throughout the video. A vignetted scene from Hannah Montana: The Movie appears in front of Cyrus as she walks on the path. The video zooms into the scene and a montage of film clips plays, featuring Cyrus's character and her love interest, Travis Brody (played by Lucas Till) horseback riding. The video returns to Cyrus walking; she picks up a rose fallen on the path, then throws it behind her. As the video progresses, she also sees things such as a herd of horses and a shooting star cross her path. A new setting enters the video in which Cyrus dances in a purple room with a countdown or, occasionally, film clips projected on the wall behind her. Rain begins to pour in the path setting. Cyrus puts down her jacket, guitar case, suitcase and boots, and continues onwards with only her guitar strapped to her shoulder. More film clip montages play in the same manner as the first. As the last montage ends, Cyrus finally reaches the summit of a reddish, CGI mountain and triumphantly looks over the cliff's edge to watch the sun shining over a shimmering lake. An alternate version of the music video excluding the Hannah Montana: The Movie clips exists and was sent to several channels, including VH1.

Bill Lamb of About.com said the video took an "inspirational approach". Todd Martens of The Los Angeles Times wrote that while he enjoyed the song, he was unsure about the video. He commented that while the video was an improvement since Cyrus's video for "7 Things" (2008), the settings in "The Climb" music video looked as though they had been painted by Thomas Kinkade and Cyrus's dancing appeared off-beat. Travis of MTV described the video as "beautifully shot (although heavily digitized)". Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo! Music remarked that the summit setting was similar to that of the music video for Britney Spears' "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman". Parker also felt the scene in which Cyrus looks out over the cliff, shot using large sweeps with an aerial camera, had been "lifted straight out of an '80s Bon Jovi video". In 2009, the video received a MuchMusic Video nomination for Best International Artist Video, but lost to Lady Gaga's music video for "Poker Face".