Madonna - Oh Father

What this video is

Released October 24, 1989 as the fourth single from Madonna's landmark fourth studio album Like a Prayer (Sire Records), 'Oh Father' marked a decisive turn in Madonna's artistic identity — away from dance-pop spectacle and toward deeply personal, autobiographical expression. The video was Madonna's cinematic reckoning with her mother's death from breast cancer in 1963 (when Madonna was five years old) and her…

Why it matters

A landmark of the late-1980s cinematic music video form, 'Oh Father' exemplifies the Propaganda Films model of director-as-auteur in the music video medium, treating the format as a vehicle for narrative short filmmaking rather than promotional spectacle. Fincher's black-and-white Citizen…

The director

David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962, Denver, CO) co-founded Propaganda Films in 1986 and became one of the most celebrated music video directors of the late 1980s–early 1990s before transitioning to feature films. His music video work with Madonna…