Music Video
The music video depicts a relationship between a cab driver (George Michael) and a high fashion model (Tania Coleridge). Various intercut flashbacks tell a backstory that, like the song, can be interpreted in various ways.
One possible interpretation is that it depicts the breakdown of a relationship. At some point in the past a cab driver and model began an unlikely but passionate relationship. The model, however, had an affair with her photographer, which she quickly regretted. The cab driver suspected the affair, followed her, and discovered the truth. At some point in the future—perhaps the next day, perhaps months later—he appears at a runway show in which she is performing, either to forgive her or to let her know he is aware of the affair.
Another interpretation is similar to the first, except that the cab driver is the one with whom she is cheating, but he is unaware of it and his discovery of it ends the relationship.
A completely different interpretation is that the cab driver is a stalker. In this interpretation, there was never a relationship between the cab driver and model in the first place, except in the cab driver's imagination. The cab driver was obsessed with the model (cutting out pictures of her in magazines and putting them on his wall, following her, etc.) and discovered that she was in a relationship with her photographer. In his mind, the cab driver substituted himself in place of her real lover, and convinced himself that they were in love. The stress of this obsession took its toll on the model. The final scene with the cab driver in the audience thus takes on a far more disturbing connotation.
George Michael and Andy Morahan won "Best Direction of a Video" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards for "Father Figure".
Read more about this topic: Father Figure (song)
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“Noble and wise men once believed in the music of the spheres: noble and wise men still continue to believe in the “moral significance of existence.” But one day even this sphere-music will no longer be audible to them! They will wake up and take note that their ears were dreaming.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)