Tag: Birds
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American Beauty. Dir. Sam Mendes. DreamWorks Pictures. 1999.
Despite its iconic lusty red petals, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty is abundant with other striking images – one of which is a dead bird, lying on the grass of the school grounds, under the lens of Ricky Fitts’ camera. The bird becomes part of a vision of freedom and liberation, in a film where most of the…
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Project X. Dir. Jonathan Kaplan . Twentieth Century Fox. 1987.
Project X explores the journey of a chimpanzee named Virgil, taking him from the safety of his home with psychologist Teri Macdonald to an Air Force base where he participates in a secret experiment named Project X that trains chimps as pilots. We learn that Teri has taught Virgil to communicate with humans via American Sign…
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Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde. Dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfield. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. 2003.
Legally Blonde 2 attempts to interrogate the controversial issue of animal testing in a comedic domain. Although the realm of comedy is potentially limiting, due to its farcical and flippant nature, Herman-Wurmfield uses humour to expose issues in animal experimentation through his protagonist, Elle Woods. Elle realises her beloved pet Chihuahua Bruiser’s mother is trapped…
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Outbreak. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson. Warner Bros. 1995.
Outbreak forewarns of the devastating consequences of animal exploitation, encapsulating them in the scene where Jimbo delivers Betsy, host monkey for the deadly Motaba virus, to a pet shop where she will be sold illegally. The camera employs an establishing shot of Jimbo’s car on a road surrounded by a forest, juxtaposing road and forest in…
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Wir sind im Zoo. Dir. Bruno Kleberg. Progress Film-Verleih. 1953.
We are at the zoo is an 1953 Film about a class of pioneers visiting the Leipziger Zoo in the German Democratic Republic. On their visit the class is being accompanied by an Off-Speaker, who comments on the action and introduces the animals while the pioneers walk through the park. In most cases this is…
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Mighty Joe Young. Dir. Ron Underwood. Buena Vista Pictures. 1998.
Film provides a platform for racial stereotypes to indoctrinate its viewers and relay social prejudices. Lester and Ross argue that ‘the predominant juxtaposition of images of blacks and social problems- welfare, crime, poverty, drugs, violence…implicitly helps to activate long-existing stereotypes of blacks as sambo and savage’ [1]. The black African poachers in Mighty Joe Young…
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The Black Stallion. Dir. Carroll Ballard. Twentieth Century Fox. 1979.
The Black Stallion (1979) Dir. Carroll Ballard Pulled to the tropical shores of a desert island by a wild Arabian horse following a shipwreck, The Black Stallion follows the narrative of an unbreakable bond between boy and horse, man and beast. The only remnants of the shipwreck that remain are the black stallion (The Black), the boy (Alec)…
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White Fang. Dir. Randal Kleiser. Buena Vista Studios. 1991.
Baring his teeth to a Grizzly Bear on its hind legs, White Fang- a hybridised wolf-dog, forsakes his life to defend a young boy, Jack Conroy. Jack’s endures a perilous journey across Alaskan terrain to discover his Father’s claim during the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush, and an orphaned wolf-dog puppy whose trust renders him a…
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The Birds. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures. 1963.
The Birds (1963) is undoubtedly a horror film because it contains a deep sense of the uncanny, a term Freud coins as something that is terrifying because it is familiar.[i] The Birds contains many pockets of fear and gruesome imagery throughout the film. Hitchcock’s use of human bodies being pecked at by birds are an example of the…