Habemus papam: pigeons supporting the new pope supporters

Title: Habemus Papam

Year:  2011

Director:    Nanni Moretti

Running time: 104 min.

Country: Italy

This film permits us to muse on the way of life of the pigeons in St. Peter's Square, a quite busy area (in term of pigeon activity) like the Piazza San Marco in Venice or Trafalgar Square, in London. Going back to the film, the cardinals are summoned to a conclave in Vatican city for electing a new pope. But this traditional process that has been followed for centuries takes a different path when the new elected pope is overwhelmed by the situation and feels reluctant to accept his duty. The film depicts how this situation is managed by the Vatican and the reasons of the Pope for rejecting his position.

This process produces great expectation and many people gather in St. Peter's Square waiting for receiving news about the events that are happening.

The Pope meets a therapist to analyze the source of the problem related to his withdraw decision

Some nuns are waiting with great expectation for news about the new Pope.
 Of course, there are pigeons around.

Alongside the people a group of pigeons roams around. A very kind support for the new Pope!

We can observe pigeons next to the people

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Habemus Papam. Starring moment: 0:39:44.
• Pigeon activity: The typical urban pigeons activity: roaming around, looking for food or any other curious artifact.
• Symbolism: None. They represent the typical pigeons in a city.
• Relevance: None. As far as I know, they are not able to influence in the Pope's election.
• Training level: None. They are not trained pigeons, but feral-urban ones.

Revisiting Home Alone 2

Recently, I revisited Home Alone 2 and I found a funny (though unkind) scene that went unnoticed in my previous review. Here Harry (Joe Pesci) notices a nearly group of pigeons. In his usual way, he gently invites the birds to keep their distance him. I really enjoyed Pesci's acting and how he is able to create such comic scenes with his bad mood. Harry, the pigeons will never forgive your rudeness.

Home Alone 2: The attack of the hungry pigeons

Title: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Year:  1992

Director:   Chris Columbus

Running time: 113 min.

Country: United States.

Central Park at night is not a safe place. When darkness falls, many harmful creatures appear in the middle of park, including hungry pigeons.A naive reader could think that pigeons are not a serious risk for humans, but in Home Alone 2, we can see a clear example of how to fear a wild pigeon flock.

The sequence is as follows: a massive flock of pigeons gathers in Central Park waiting to receive food and care from a Homeless lady. 

She obviously was very fond of these creatures and loved to be surrounded by them. Meanwhile the protagonist was being chased by the two bad guys of the film. During his escape he meets the lady and her feathered gang.

Fortunately she is on the side of the protagonist and she helps him throwing a sticky mixture of pigeon food on the bad guys.

Soon, both of them are surrounded by hordes of hungry pigeons that literally cover them in an orgy of seeds, pigeon poo and scared humans. Fortunately, pigeons are vegetarians (as far as I know) so the bad guys survived this event but in a very bad nasty condition.

This scene is a clear example of how a big flock of tiny birds can definitively discourage and harm a medium--size mammals.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Starring moment: 1:39:00
• Pigeon activity: They create a feathered wall that blocks the bad guys to chase Kevin. 
• Symbolism: None. Pigeons are mere hungry animals that inhabit Central Park. 
• Relevance: High. Thanks to the pigeons Kevin could successfully escape from the attackers. 
• Training level: Medium. Technically the scene consists of dumping lots of pigeons on both men. 

Special thanks to Michael Filosa for suggesting this film. 

Castaway On The Moon: leveraging pigeons for survival

Title: Kimssi pyoryugi (Kim's Island) - Castaway On The Moon

Year:  2009

Director:   Lee Hae-Joon (AKA Lee Hae-Jun)

Running time: 116 min.

Country: South Korea

This film is about a man stranded as a castaway on a deserted island and was a pleasant surprise for me. The story evolves very unexpectedly and I really enjoyed it. It contains many memorable funny scenes and a bizarre love story. Wait, wasn't he alone? The answer is a bit complex, so it is better to watch the movie.

I don't intend to write a review about this film. There are many blogs that do this job better than mine. This is a pigeon-centric blog so I'm only summarising here the human-pigeon interactions. There are actually several of these moments which are very interesting and funny. Before talking about them, let's firstly contextualize the scenes:

At the beginning of the story we find a starving castaway called Kim who is trapped on a desert island. What should he do when his stomach is demanding some immediate action? To try to take food from all the sources he can. And the sources are limited to a few options: some mushrooms, fish and some wild birds.... including an enjoyable (and nutritious) group of pigeons:

So, for Kim the answer is clear: it is necessary to hunt the pigeons (nothing personal, just hunger).

First attempt: hunting pigeons

The first attempt is quite straightforward: to prepare some kind of trap in order to attract and catch an innocent animal. In this case, he used an old pot, held by a stick attached to a cord. Some vegetables would attract the pigeon. The result: a complete fail (for him) and a happy ending for the lucky pigeon. Maybe this trap works for mice in cartoons, but not in real life.

Second attempt: the miraculous food poisoning

 

In the end, Kim finally caught some fish and could sleep with a full stomach. Meanwhile, a flock of pigeons descended to nose around the remains of dinner. Pigeons are vegetarian and they don't like to fly during the night, but in this case it seems that they are different to the usual ones.

What happened next was that that either the pollution in the fish or the fish itself was not good for the pigeons, and the next day, when Kim wakes up, he surprisingly finds a dead pigeon... extra food for him.

Third attempt: leveraging pigeon poo

Eating pigeons only provides a limited amount of food. Our protagonist discovered an indirect way for obtaining food from them: given that seeds are part of the pigeons' diet, some indigested seeds could be found in the pigeon's poo. Planting it would grow cereals, the best kind of food. Kim finally found a smart, sustainable and pigeon-friendly way of leveraging pigeons for survival.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Kimssi pyoryugi- Castaway On The Moon. Starring moment: 0:23:13, 0:25:55, 0:44:32
• Pigeon activity: They are wild pigeons which stay with a castaway on a insolated island. A very risky place for pigeons. 
• Symbolism: There is no special symbolism in the movie.
• Relevance: High. Thanks to the pigeon, the protagonist is able to get some food and survive in a lonely environment.
• Training level: Medium. There are some very nice the scenes where the pigeons are staring at the protagonist. However, in the scene of the nocturnal pigeon visit, they descend in a very unnatural way, clearly showing that they are thrown by a pigeon specialist.

Caramel: a wedding and some pigeon droppings

Title: Sukkar banat (Caramel)

Year:  2007

Director:  Nadine Labaki

Running time: 96 min.

Country:  Lebanon

A wedding is time for celebration and joy, and nothing can spoil it. Not even a pigeon performing a carpet bombing of the guests. This film presents the life of five women in modern Beirut. I really enjoyed how it combines comedy and drama. I also was delighted when I found a pigeon appearance which I'll describe here:

At a certain point of the film, there is a wedding and the bride throws the bouquet from a balcony. Several of the guests are women that are grouped with great expectation for being the one who catches it.

But instead of that, a woman receives a dropping directly on her face. This is a very unpleasant situation. Try to imagine how such dropping can spoil a dress that was carefully chosen for the celebration or cause a serious makeup disorder.

Very nasty.....

What we see is a pigeon flying away in the distance. It is the culprit of this wedding madness.

Immediately, the panic spreads among the guests and everybody looks upwards looking for the source of the dropping.

After that they realise that the danger was over and now, all of them are safe from further droppings. The joy comes back again, the woman cleans her face and the celebration resumes with full intensity. The complete scene can be seen here.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Sukkar banat (Caramel). Starring moment: 1:25:06
• Pigeon activity: It is a pigeon which performs an on-the-fly deposition over the wedding guests.
  
• Symbolism: Low. In this case, this situation that is used to show us how an awful situation can be overcome by a positive attitude.
• Relevance: Low. Despite the pigeon intervention at a critical point of the wedding, the women managed that with good humour and the joyful situation was soon restored.
• Training level: It is difficult to analyze the pigeon's training level because of the short appearance. It is probably a wild animal. 

Pigeon Impossible: the secret agent, the pigeon and the doughnut

Title: Pigeon: Impossible

Year:  2009

Director:   Lucas Martell

Running time: 6 min.

Country: United States

I really enjoyed watching this short action film, which includes one of the most intense human-pigeon duels even conceived. The story begins with a secret agent and a curious pigeon that is more interested in the doughnut that the agent is eating than the mysterious briefcase that he is carrying. In the following pictures we can see this initial scene: under the surface of this professional-looking secret agent with his serious expression there is actually an awkward, amateurish agent that is unable to keep under control a pigeon that is irresistibly attracted by his doughnut.

Accidentally, the pigeon takes the control of the briefcase, which is actually a high-tech nuclear weapon, armed with the latest technology. As we can observe in the picture below, the pigeon is not as innoccent as it looks and it will fight till the end for its doughnut. The rest of the story features the duel between both protagonists for the control of the briefcase and the doughnut itself. It is better to watch it on the official web site. Link here.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Pigeon: Impossible. Starring moment: all the recording.
• Pigeon activity: It is a common pigeon wandering around the streets. However, in the recording we can see that the pigeon progresses from a quite simple animal to a very skilled die-hard enemy almost impossible to defeat. 
• Symbolism: This is an example of how the combination of innocent-harmless creatures and deadly weapons can create lethal situations. 
• Relevance: Absolute.
• Training level: Not applicable. 

The rebound: pigeons over the world

Title: The rebound

Year:  2009

Director:  Bart Freundlich

Running time: 97 min.

Country: United States

This film tells the story of a romance between Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Aram Finklestein (Justin Bartha). Sandy is over 40, recently divorced with two children, while Aram is only 25 years old. After meeting on several occasions Sandy and Aram hit it off. Soon, Aram is fully integrated in her family, taking care of Sandy's children. At this point it would be perfect to discover that Aram is a psycho criminal and start a bloody slayer film. However, the writer decided to preserve Aram's innocence and good intentions and record a romantic film with important deficiencies in the plot.

After a while, a sincere romance starts between both characters. Nice and believable. What is more difficult to understand is their reason for subsequently breaking up. Aram decides to live a solitary life and starts a big trip around the world. He visits France, India and Africa....now try to figure what he meets on this trip... yes, some pigeons.

 This romantic film contains two short pigeon appearances. The first one is in Paris, while he walks upstairs in front of Le Sacré Coeur he crosses with a pigeon and ignores it. The second one is in an Indian temple. In the scene we can see several pigeons outside observing the protagonist.

Aram stares at the Le Sacré Coeur while a pigeon approaches him.

In an Indian temple we can see the small silhouette of a pigeon standing outside on an arch.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: The Rebound Starring moment: 1:20:36 and 1:22:31
• Pigeon activity: Two common pigeons from different parts of the World.
• Symbolism: there is no special symbolism. It is interesting to see that originally both Sandy and Aram live in New York and not a single pigeon appears there. However, close to the end of the movie, when Aram travels, these feathered creatures make an appearance.
• Relevance: None.Actually Adam didn't realise about the existence of these pigeons.
• Training level: High. The Parisien pigeon is a highly trained specimen that does its duty very well (a perfect diagonal flight). Regarding the Indian pigeons, I suspect they are wild animals that appear in the film by chance.

How high: a pigeon slaughter

Title: How High
Year:  2001

Director: Jesse Dylan

Running time: 96 min.

Country: United States

This film contains one of the most villainous and violent acts against pigeons that I have seen. In the scene, innocent pigeons are used as explosive devices for orchestrating a cruel revenge against Dean Carl Cain. The evil mind behind this operation is Mr. Silas (Method Man), a Harvard student well known for being very fond of Botany, more specifically in one plant type that I will omit because it is not related to the violent acts that I'm depicting here. Silas and Dean Carl Cain have a bad relationship, so Silas planned to pay the Dean back in his own special way.

In this part of the film, Silas and two chums get into the Dean's office and scatter a mix of birdseeds and laxatives. Then, Silas opens a window allowing a flock of pigeon to come in and start a unexpected feast of seeds. The poor pigeons are unaware of the dangerous side effects of the food. After a while, the laxatives provoke a voilent attack of diarrhea that makes them bloat and then.... suddenly they start to blow up, like popcorn in a pan, covering the entire office with a nasty mixture of feathers and droppings. Very funny, Mr. Silas, very funny... but don't forget that pigeons always hold the grudge. One day you'll receive some poo and that will be no coincidence. The complete scene can be seen here. 

Mr. Silas smiles while he reveals his evil plan.

Happy pigeons having a birdfood feast in the Dean's office.

Snapshot of a pigeon just before blowing up.

State of the Dean Carl Cain's office after the pigeon slaughter

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: How high  Starring moment: 0:50:35
• Pigeon activity: They are street pigeons that enter in an apartment in search of bird seeds. Pigeons are usually shy and they don't like to enter in houses. However, this kind of pigeon behaviour is frequently employed in many films -like this one. The special effects of the scene are remarkable. Instead of using computer animation they just cut the scene, and replace the original pigeon with an explosive reproduction which blows up very realistically.
• Symbolism: This scene lacks of symbolism. The pigeons are common pigeons that avidly eat all the food that they find.
• Relevance: Medium. With this action the Dean's office is completely devastated. This event contributes to deteriorating further the bad relationship between the Dean and the main characters of the film. 
• Training level: Medium. The pigeons fly into the apartment in a non-natural way. It is evident that they are thrown in from outside. However, when they are in the apartment they behave pretty well eating all the seeds with great excitement.

Valiant: pigeons at war

Title: Valiant
Year:  2005
Director: Gary Chapman
Running time: 105 min.
Country: United Kingdom

This movie is about pigeons at war. At the beginning Valiant is a young recruit of the Royal Homing Pigeon Service. The film shows the pigeon training in Britain and subsequent service in France during the WWII. It includes all the ingredients of a war movie: hard training in a recruit facility, many action scenes, and a romance between Valiant and Victora, a nurse dove.

It is interesting that the characters behave just like humans and they are not pigeon-realistic at all. However, they perform a genuine pigeon duty: to deliver messages during war time. Another characteristic of war movies is the character's evolution: at the beginning Valiant is a young pigeon that seems to be unable to go to war, then during the war he evolves into a tough pigeon and finally he becomes a veteran hero (see pictures below).

Dickin Medal

I would like to mention that at the end of the movie Valiant received a Dickin Medal, which honors the work of animals in war. In the real world this medal was conceded for the first time to three pigeons named White Vision, Winkie and Tyke. All of them carried out outstandingly heroic actions. For instance, White Vision was released from a sinking flying boat. She flew 60 miles back to her loft carrying the plane's location in very hard conditions: heavy seas with low visibility and strong headwind. Thanks to this action the plane could be located and the crew rescued. After that, many other pigeons received this medal. In the Royal Pigeon Racing Association you can see a summary and a brief description of each feathered hero. This movie shows an important contribution of pigeons to the war effort. Is this an advanced kind of human-pigeon symbiosis?

Valiant as a young pigeon before recluitment.

Valiant as a soldier

Valiant as a veteran hero

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Valiant   Starring moment: the complete film
• Pigeon activity: Valiant and his friends are pigeons which serve the Royal Homing Pigeon Service. They are involved in many war actions against the enemy: German falcons.
• Symbolism: In the end, the pigeon characters behave like humans that do pigeon duties, so this is a mere excuse to record a war movie with a different perspective from the others. 
• Relevance: Complete.
• Training level: Not applicable.
   

Stardust memories: rats with wings!!

Title: Stardust memories
Year: 1980
Director: Woody Allen
Running time: 90 min.
Country: United States

I'm not sure if Woody Allen hates pigeons, but I'm pretty sure that his character, Mr. Sandy Bates, does. In this movie, during a romantic scene, Sandy is flattering his lover, Dorrie, about being a good actress. Suddenly, a pigeon enters in the apartment. Dorrie says, What was that thing? That's so pretty and Sandy replies It's not pretty at all. They're rats with wings. Then there is a funny moment of panic, rage and confusion. It's got a swastika under its wings, Bates says while he grabs a fire extinguisher and opens it aiming at the poor bird. The pigeon, very scared, tries to escape and eventually, leaves the apartment. We can see the expression of rage on Woody Allen's face. He is a good actor, indeed, but he probably isn't acting and this expression is real because he actually feels a great pigeon hate.

The expression Rat with wings is used in this movie. I don't want to position myself in favour or against  pigeons. I'm a mere reporter. But I think that these nice animals that have been living together with us since the early beginning of the history, that are the peace symbol, these beautiful-harmless animals don't deserve to be called rats with wings. Link to scene here.

The pigeon escapes from the kitchen.

Bates agressively scares away the pigeon with a fire extinguisher.

Finally, the pigeon leaves the apartment dreadfully scared.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Stardust memories. Starring moment: 0:26:29

• Pigeon activity: it innocently entered into the apartment where it received a hostile welcome. Mr. Bates can be a very gentle man when dealing with women, but in the case of pigeons, he is not gentle at all.

• Symbolism: This pigeon represents the typical urban bird that accidently comes in the apartment.

• Relevance: Medium. It created a moment of tension that was eventually solved with a kiss between the two characters (Bates and Dorrie). This is a very romantic situation that deserves a medium level in the relevance ranking.

• Training level: High. This pigeon was deliberately placed in the apartment. It is a well trained specimen that does its duty well.

Mars attacks: the pigeon that almost annihilates the human race

Title: Mars attacks
Year: 1996
Director: Tim Burton
Running time: 106 min.
Country: United States

Humans finally met aliens. There was great joy on the human side. Everybody was thinking about how we were not alone in the universe and that we had found new friends. Probably the aliens were also excited.... but thinking of a very different kind of friendship. We prepared a big reception in the Nevada desert. Everything was fine, the alien spacecraft landed, the Martian ambassador went out and the first contact was made.  General Casey started the greatest speech of his entire military career.... "On behalf of the people of Earth, welcome!!"

Lovely...... Everything was fine until we made a mistake: a peaceful-harmless dove was released by a pseudo-hippie. This dove apparently scared the aliens and they shot it down as well as most of the human attendees. In the end, the aliens only wanted an excuse to start a military invasion... exactly like us during many moments of our history.  The analysis of the President of United States is very funny: [...] this could be a cultural misunderstanding. Yeah. Maybe to them, doves mean war. We all saw how they reacted to that dove. It frightened them [...]   It is like in “Lost in Translation” but with evil aliens. The complete scene can be seen here.

Just one technical comment: for recreating the flight and death of the dove a computer-graphic representation was used instead of a real dove. This imagery is of very poor quality because in 1996 the software models were not well developed.

Details of the pigeon starring

• Source: Mars Attacks. Starring moment: 00:40:04

• Pigeon activity: It was held in the pacifist's hands, then it flew freely and finally it was shot to death.

• Symbolism: The dove symbolizes peace. A peace that was not respected by the aliens.

• Relevance: Very high. It was assumed that the dove triggered a large scale interplanetary war. Even the President of United States complained about this animal.

• Training level: High. It is a lovely dove that is used to being caught in human hands.