fun. never tell us what we're fighting for in their "Some Nights" video.

When I first watched fun.'s "Some Nights" video, from the album of the same name, that opening shot of horses and antique-y sienna lighting totally made me think I'd stumbled upon some Zac Efron movie or "The Notebook" remake or something starring Channing Tatum. Or some American-ized verison of "Downton Abbey" where the fancy middle sister (the prettiest, IMO) falls in love with the peasant-class driver. But really, "Some Nights" is a video about war and its tragic outcomes. It's also probably the first time in the history the term "jack my style" was used in the context of war reenactment.

Watch fun.'s "Some Nights" video after the jump.

Director Anthony Mandler takes fun. back to the 19th century/ on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg (yes, I realize Williamsburg refers to the American Revoution, but just go along with me for the sake the video, okay?), where a budding young romance is interrupted as shots ring out. Fathers and sons load up cannons and other Civil War-era vestiges as fun.'s shimmering harmonies go to battle over war scenes so cinematic it's almost preposterous that Tom Cruise doesn't ride in on a white stallion. (This also may be the first time AutoTune has ever been employed at the same time as a bayonet.)

During gory, visceral attacks, the video flashes back to the days when the sun shone on our tragic heroine's father's idyllic farm and he calmed himself by petting horses. But back on the battlefield, we see what ostensibly results in the man killed by the hand of his daughter's boyfriend. (I'm almost 100 percent sure that's the dad and the boyfriend, but Civil War guys with beards all kinda looked the same back then.)

Whereas I was rooting for fun. to pull off a happy ending, that's not what happened, and it's unclear if this is a cease-fire, a surrender or  a resignation to the inevitable. Instead, it's a reminder that no one wins at war, and that war is bad for children, boyfriends, dads, and all other living things. Perhaps most tellingly, as with real war, it's never clear what anyone's really fighting for.

+ Watch fun.'s "Some Nights" video, and watch fun. perform "We Are Young" with Janelle Monae at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards.