The Automatik

Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” was a huge hit when I was a teenager, peaking at number seven on Billboard’s Top Ten chart in 1984.

The song is utter crap. Inexplicably, I adore it and have for over twenty years.

It’s got a spooky keyboard groove and dark guitar noodling, both elements that are completely typical of the time period. The lyrics are ridiculous: I wear my sunglasses at night/So I can, so I can/Watch you weave then breathe your story lines. Yeah, I have no idea what that means, either.

The video is equally wretched and baffling. Let’s watch, shall we?

Corey has two signature gestures that appear frequently in this video: a shoulder “pump” action and a gratuitous pout. (It could be argued that his third signature gesture is a wide-eyed vacant stare, but that may be less of a gesture and more of an indication that he’s trying to “act.”)

We are introduced to these gestures early on, along with scenes of cops or perhaps prison guards, crosscut against the 180-degree rule so Corey seems to be reacting to himself in the distance. This could be some comment on the duality of sunglasses-clad Corey vs. sunglasses-free Corey or it could just be bad editing.

Oh look, Corey’s running down a hallway and then he just disappears! What does this mean? I am impressed with the way the director edits between shots on the shoulder “pump” action. I am now rethinking my earlier criticism of his skills.

Pay phones are only shown in videos 1) when someone is having a fight with a boyfriend or girlfriend (see also The Stray Cats’ “Don’t Stand In My Way” video) or 2) when someone is in trouble. At this point, it’s safe to assume the latter applies. I tend to laugh hysterically when it becomes apparent that the existing phone in the booth has been replaced by a white house phone. Is Corey a germaphobe? Or maybe the cops/prison guards did it to catch him, because there they are!

Corey whips out the Ray-Bans and implores his captors not to “switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no” and then immediately takes them off before being led away. That is dedication right there.

The wistful looks exchanged between Corey and the female guard (who may or may not be from Golden Earring’s video for “The Twilight Zone”) are portentous. I think. They’re both wearing sunglasses, at any rate, although Corey’s seem to disappear and reappear constantly.

Now Corey is in his prison cell, which is actually a pretty sweet set up as he has a tasteful lamp and a jam box. What exactly is he doing on the bed? Never mind, I don’t want to know.

The camera pans down a shadowy hallway of other prisoners awaiting judgement for crimes against eyewear, including, oddly, a ten-year old girl. Now I am confused. Are they in jail for not wearing sunglasses or for wearing the wrong kind? Maybe they are just in line for a Depeche Mode concert.

Corey’s paperwork is being stamped (by another ten-year old girl – do child labor laws not apply in this prison?) so I guess he’ll be processed now. There is a close-up of Corey’s red jazz shoes. Ah hah! I’m not sure what this means, but it must be a clue. (I’d also like to note here that this video preceded the strikingly similar visuals of Lars Von Trier’s dystopic film Europa by a few years.)

After an exciting montage of Corey being led away, the ten-year old furiously stamping paperwork, and Corey rocking out with his sunglasses next to his kitchen stove, he appears to lose a bit of steam and stops shoulder pumping to look off into the distance. I find this unbelievably funny for some reason.

Then it’s up the stairs, accompanied by the guards and a wailing guitar note and drum machine noises that I have no right to enjoy as much as I do. Corey comes face to face with Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS and she looks pissed. Corey also looks a bit startled when the bars of his cell almost hit him in the face.

More writhing on the bed ensues (must be the bad prison food). Corey grabs on the bars of his cell and pouts and shoulder pumps like there is no tomorrow, but Ilsa remains unmoved. Or does she?

Seductively, she removes her frames and approaches Corey to release him. But then he wakes up from one of his writhing sessions, still in jail. But then! We see Corey snoozing in the exact same position he was in the beginning of the video (next to a table with an overturned Pepsi glass, a book, and his sunglasses). I guess it was all a dream…