By Samantha Keating
Spectacular. Incredible. Groundbreaking. Tear-jerking. And an all around phenomenal. These are only some of the adjectives I would use to describe Taylor Swift’s recent masterpiece of her “All Too Well” short film.
Though Taylor Swift’s initial announcement of re-recording her hit album Red had some controversy, with her dedicated fans living their lives in pursuit of the album and others felt it would not be much of a success. Swift prevailed and Red (Taylor’s Version) became the most- streamed album in a day by a female artist on Spotify with 90.8 million global opening-day streams. While there was much excitement surrounding Taylor re-recording her hit album, many fans were most excited for the release of her short film for the ten minute version of “All Too Well”.
The film begins with a quote from the poet Pablo Neruda, “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” A beautiful way to encapsulate the tone of All Too Well.
The film depicts Sadie Sink who is supposed to be a 20 year old Taylor Swift and Dylan O’Brien who is allegedly based off of actor Jake Gyllenhal who is 10 years older than Swift. The start of the film depicts a very in love Sadie & Dylan but as the film progresses the relationship between the two begins to suffer. Dylan ignores Sadie and refuses to solve their issues in a healthy way. He resorts to gaslighting Sadie and insulting her.
Swift perfectly depicts the toxicity that many women sadly face in relationships. An alarming number of women were able to relate to the cruel behavior portrayed through the video. The relationship between Sadie and Dylan (or Taylor & Jake) is painfully real and devastating. It is a depiction of first love turned first heartbreak and the reeling and pain that long lasts with it.
The age difference between the two led to many issues in their relationship yet many viewers could argue even though Sadie is a decade younger she still possessed more grace and maturity than Dylan. It was heartbreaking to see Sadie try to calmly express her feelings as Dylan discredited and berated her- stopping only when he brought her to tears.
Swift uses her timeless and beautiful hit single to bring awareness to toxicity in relationships and remind young women they should never settle for someone who refuses to hold their hand in public and give them the treatment they deserve. “All Too Well” was incredibly beautiful and insightful. Swift is a musical genius and an incredible role model for women everywhere.