The way back: doves in a buddhist temple

Title: The Way Back

Year:  2010

Director:    Peter Weir

Running time: 130 min.

Country: United States

Several prisoners in a Russian gulag manage to escape a make a trip of thousands of kilometers to their way to freedom. I enjoyed watching this adventure film with great shots and some intrepid doves. When the group of survivors reach an abandoned buddhist temple they decide to investigate the ruins.  

And this is when two doves and a pigeon suddenly appear from the ruins and fly away, startles, from the new visitors.

The dove silhouettes can be noticed at the bottom of the image.  

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: The way back. Starring moment: 1:14:20
• Pigeon activity: A small group of birds flying away when the protagonists arrive at the scene. 
• Symbolism:  Although there are some references to doves in buddhism, the use of doves and pigeons in this films seems to be more coincidental relating to wild animals that occupied an abandoned building. 
• Relevance: None. The birds do not interact with the protagonists of the films thus they do not influence the film plot. 
• Training level: Medium. It seems that they are trained animals released in the film scene. They perform well flying almost vertically in a narrow building.  

La casa de las palomas: the tragic ending of the pigeon inquisition

Title: La casa de las palomas

Year:  1972

Director:  Claudio Guerín

Running time: 90 min.

Country: Spain

A film entitled La casa de las palomas (The house of the pigeons) looks promising in terms of pigeon activity. After watching it, I have to confess that it was much more than I had expected. There are pigeons everywhere, outdoors, indoors, on the characters' heads an even within their minds. We are facing a pigeon-intensive film with feathered appearances of great symbolism and even horror.

This film presents a bizarre love triangle (between humans) in which we aren't particularly interested initially, given that we focus, as usual, on the pigeon appearances. However, in this film, the sexual conducts of the humans has a strong impact on the future (and tragic) actions related to the pigeons.

From my perspective, this film has some parallelism with Requiem for a dream. What at the beginning looks like a romantic film (in this context, with pigeons involved), later turns into a drama that leads to a pigeon apocalypse with several gory scenes (with pigeons as the tragic protagonists). Let's start from the beginning. Note: the following contains several spoilers about the film plot.

There is a man, that has a mistress who is the daughter of his would-be lover. They conduct their affair secretly in a house that belongs to a lady, who happens to be a pigeon fancier.

The lady pigeon fancier that lives in the house with one of the animals. Based on the subsequent actions taken by the birds, Torquemada (a famous Spanish inquisitor) could be a good name for the dove.

The pigeon lofts are in the roof of the house. It is interesting to highlight that all of them are doves. These animals, known for their purist symbolism really do turn out to be puritanical creatures that do not approve of the immoral relationship that is taking place in their abode (with the approval of their keeper).

It looks like a innocent dove, but do not be fooled, we are looking at a feathered inquisitor.

So, the doves decide to act, with all the possible enforcement measures that this creature is capable of. They focus on the mistress, maybe because she was weaker than the man, maybe because she was the female (in this case, we are also be talking about sexist birds).  Consequently, the first punishment action occurs in the pigeon loft, when the girl comes to visit the birds. Several doves attack her and she has to escape, just a little scared (of course, we are talking about doves, not Hitchcock's crows).

The mistress being attacked by the doves when she was visiting their loft.

The thing is that the doves and pigeons in this film are magical, and have the ability to appear supernaturally in the house. Knowing the intention of the birds, it doesn't bode well.

Doves and pigeons magically appear in the living room looking to deliver punishment.

Then, one an amazing sequence is displayed. We can see an eye-to-eye stare-off between the girl and the inquisitors. With a little  imagination we can see the look of judgement in the pigeon's glare.

Eye-to-eye stare-off between the protagonist and the inquisitor pigeons.

The punishment process continues. The girl faints and the the birds enter her mind by means of dreadful nightmares. The girl sees herself dead, surrounded by the doves.

Representation of a dead girl surrounded by the pigeons. At least in dreams, they have reached their goal.

Fortunately for the protagonist, there is an unexpected turn in the plot when a fan that was activated in the room got rid of the pigeons by cutting them with the blades. Amazingly, this romantic film turns into a gory massacre for the pigeons.

When the girl's lover comes in the room he finds a dead pigeon next to the door. He surprisingly finds all the doves dead and the girl saved. This is the end of the story: all the birds have been killed by the fan and the lovers reunite.

Tragic shot of a dead pigeon next to the room's door. 

The lovers finally reunite in a room filled with dead birds and avian blood everywhere. 

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: La casa de las palomas. Starring moment: many of them, 0:41:37, 0:49:43, 1:26:00
• Pigeon activity: There is plenty of pigeon activity. In this film we can find normal pigeons in many locations: in the loft, rooms, on furniture, even on the characters. They exhibit an aggressive behaviour against the girl. The doves in the film look lovely, but they are actually evil and full of resentment. They are even worse than the Pigeons from Hell. 
• Symbolism: Very high. The film uses doves to reflect a pure (or puritan) moral opposed to the liberal conduct of the film's protagonist. In a different way from the conventional symbol of pigeons (peace, fraternity, ...) these indignant animal decide to take action and punish and kill the protagonist. 
• Relevance: Very high. Pigeons are responsible for tormenting the protagonist in many ways, including physical action and physiological torture that almost took the life of the protagonist.  
• Training level: Very high. The doves act very well in this film. There are no special effects, thus all the performances are real and feel very realistic taking into account the complexity of the storyline. 

Mr Nobody: pigeon superstition

Title: Mr. Nobody
Year: 2009
Director: Jaco Van Dormael
Running time: 133 min.
Country: Belgium




It is very interesting to find a non-pigeon-oriented film (I mean, not a documentary about pigeons) where the main credits are exclusively devoted to a beautiful dove. And of top of that, to illustrate how clever the animal is at solving complex tasks.  Indirectly, this scene also introduces us to "pigeon superstitious animal behaviour".

In the scene we can see how a dove is trying to catch a piece of food. Unfortunately, the tasty meal is too high and the bird cannot reach it.

Oops!!! The pigeon realises that the food is too high.

The suspense level dramatically increases when the dove notices the existence of a pedestal than can be used to reach a higher position but it is too far away from the food.

However, the dove is able to drag it using its beak, and finally, in a quite surprising way, leverages it to reach the tasty meal. From the bird's perspective, this is a happy end to the story.

The pigeon is dragging the pedestal

And finally gets the food

If this scene was not enough birdy propaganda, the film producers use additional time in the film's credits to  show more experiments (in black and white) showcasing pigeons solving complex tasks.  The complete scene can be seen here.

In the following experiment we can see the presence of superstition in pigeons. In the experiment, some food was automatically provided to the pigeons at regular intervals of time, with independence of the animal's conduct. What happened was that the pigeons seemed to associate the delivery of the food with the actions they had been doing before and, with the intention of obtaining more food, they continued  to perform the same actions

A happy superstitious pigeon.

The interesting thing about this theory was it's link with human behaviour.

The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one's fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one's luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing—or, more strictly speaking, did something else.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source:  Mr Nobody. Starring moment: 0:1:13.
• Pigeon activity: Pigeons and doves appear solving complex tasks and proving that they can exhibit complex behaviours. 
• Symbolism: High. This scene can be seen as a allegory of the different choices that one person makes in his life and how they change his/her destiny. 
• Relevance: Low. It is surprising to see how such pigeon-intensive credits have no relevance to the film's plot. 
• Training level: Medium. Some of the pigeons were subjected to an artificial environment that causes the behaviours described in this post. 

Hard Target: a cocktail of Van Damme, violence and pigeons

Title: Hard Target
Year:  1993
Director: John Woo
Running time: 92 min.
Country: United States

What would you expect from a film directed by John Woo and starring by Jean Claude Van Damme?

Some action?  Sure

Plenty of violence?  Absolutely

Traces of romance?  Few (actually none in this film)

Any pigeons?  Tons of them!!!

This film includes several pigeon-related scenes which develop a significant role in the plot. In the film there are two sides: the goodies and the baddies. On one hand, we find Chance Boudreaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). He is a hero who is helping Natasha in the search for her father. On the other, there is a group of bad guys commanded by the evil Emil Bouchon. This group eventually finds Mr. Chance and tries to hunt and kill him. In between, there are many pigeon appearances -always supporting the protagonist-. I summarize these appearances in three scenes that I think that are the most representative.

Scene 1, the dove's miraclous guidance

Chances respectful stares at the dove

Chance is at the place where the corpse of Natasha's father was found. He is looking for new evidence when suddenly a dove enters the scene.  Chance follows the flight of the dove, which stops on a wooden railing. We can see how the dove nods pinpointing  the evidence that Chance is looking for.

It is a general consensus that Jean Claude Van Damme didn't perform an exceptional interpretation in this movie but in this scene I think that he does pretty well: he seems to be very interested in the pigeon's behaviour and he shows a respectful attitude (as opposed to Woody Allen in Star Dust Memories). Somehow he knows that the dove is helping him and he appreciates very much this gentile help.

The dove shows Chance the criminal evidence that he is looking for

Scene 2, the martyr pigeons

The hunt for Chance is approaching the climax. He is cornered in an abandoned warehouse. Two John-Woo-style-bad-guy-pimps are chasing him driving motorbikes inside the warehouse. One of them (that we are going to call Bad Guy) stops and searchs for his victim, Mr. Chance. The Bad Guy is not aware of the presence of several pigeons above him. In parallel with this action, and pressed under the circumstances of a heavy vegetable-based breakfast, one of the pigeons poos on the helmet of the Bad Guy  (left picture). This is always a very disturbing event, but if you are a bad guy armed with a machine gun the consecuences can be fatal. This is the case of these innocent pigeons which were massacred under the indiscriminate revenge fire of this pigeon maniac. A bloody-feathered slaughter. After ending his revenge Chance appears in the scene and pronounces his famous and very deep phrase: Hey Pigeon!. The bad guy is unable to kill Chance (given that he finished all the ammunition firing at the pigeons) and Chance takes his time to kill the Bad Guy in a very terrible and painful way which I will avoid describing because it is not related to pigeons. The complete scene can be seen here.

The pigeon feels relaxes after pooing on the Bad Guy

The massacre of the innocent pigeons under the indiscriminate fire of the Bad Guy

Scene 3, the beginning of the killing rampage

After hiding in the deepest side of the warehouse Chance is ready to show his skills as a killing machine in a bloody rampage. Before starting the orgy of violence we can see him with a feathered friend. They are staring each other. I really like the complicity between this two characters.

Mr. Chance waits to start the killing rampage with his feathered friend

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Hard Target  Starring moment: Scene 1: 0:29:45, Scene 2: 1:12:57, Scene 3: 1:15:44
• Pigeon activity: The pigeons develop several roles. In scene 1 there is a providence dove that guides the protagonist. In scene 2 there are common pigeons that live in an abandoned building. Finally, in scene 3 there is a friendly pigeon that fraternizes with Van Damme.
• Symbolism: Again, each scene has a different symbolism. In scene 1 the dove represents the search for justice. Maybe even it could symbolise Natasha's father's soul guiding the protagonist. In scenes 2 and 3 they are common but friendly pigeons.
• Relevance: High. The pigeons help the protagonist in several parts of the movie.
• Training level: John Woo invested a large budget for using pigeons in this movie. Apart from the scenes commented on in this post there are many appearances of pigeons flying across the scenery. All of the pigeons are remarkably well-trained.

Thanks to Dogghound's Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire for suggesting this film

The Descendants: pigeons on the beach

Title:The Descendants
Year: 2011
Director: Alexander Payne
Running time: 110 min.
Country: United States

Matt King (George Clooney) is in a very complicated situation. His wife had a boating accident and is in a coma with no chances of survival. The relationship with his daughters (especially with the older one, Alex) is also difficult. In addition, he has to decide whether or not to sell a large portion of land that his family owns. Many many problems are on Matt's mind. 

In this scene we can see Matt resting on a beach while his 10-year-old daughter swims on the sea. Close to him, we can notice a couple of pigeons roaming on the sand. Matt is thinking about all his problems but during a short scene we see him looking at -supposedly- the pigeons. Maybe he will get some relief from this feathered company.

 

Mr. Matt is sadly looking at the doves

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: The Descendants  Starring moment: 0:14:34
• Pigeon activity: There are two doves pecking at the sand close to the protagonist. Given that pigeons usually stay close to food and given that they don't have any special preference for seaweed there are two possible scenarios for this behaviour. Scenario A: Matt is a pigeon fancier and he gave some food (maybe the leftovers of his meal) to the pigeons. Scenario B (non desirable): Matt is not a civic-clean citizen and he had thrown some food on the beach. Pigeons detected that event and came for a search-and-eat operation.
• Symbolism: I think that the reasons for using pigeons in this scene is to provide George Clooney with additional expressiveness. In the scene he is initially looking ahead -where his daughter is- with a serious expression. Then, he looks at the pigeons changing a little his expression and showing that he is actually sad.
• Relevance: None. It is a shame that George Clooney didn't win the Oscar, because the pigeons would have contributed to his achievement. Given that it didn't happen, the relevance is negligible.
• Training level: Nice and well trained doves that behave very naturally in a sand environment. I wonder what they are actually eating there. 

Red Cliff: the trip of the spy dove

Title: Red Cliff
Year: 2009
Director: John Woo
Running time: 148 min.
Country: China

In War, never trust anything, especially innocent-looking doves. In China in 208 AD a force commanded by Cao Cao invaded the southern region controlled by an allied group of warlords. It is time for intelligence, and that means that it is time for pigeons... more specifically doves. Zhuge Liang is the strategist of the allied side. He sends a dove on a round trip. Its mission is simple: fly to the enemy camp, make contact with the allied spy and bring back critical information about the enemy. Mission impossible? Not for this well trained dove. John Woo has the predilection of including doves in his movies... in this case the pigeon performance is very important.

Zhuge Liang attracts the attention of the dove using birdseed.

Zhuge Liang frees the dove which starts its risky mission. Commander Zhou Yu observes with attention.

The crossing of the Yangtze River is breathtaking (and heavily computer rendered)

The pigeon finds the spy, or is it the other way around?

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: The Battle of Red Cliff   Starring moment: 0:59:44
• Pigeon activity: It is a messenger used for espionage.
• Symbolism: A dove is employed to provide an additional touch of innocence. It is critical to do an undercover operation and the harmless look of the pigeon reduces the risk of being intercepted.
  
• Relevance: Medium. The information that it carries allows the allies to discover an evil plan of the enemy forces. 
• Training level: High. It is a well trained pigeon which is used to being in contact with humans. It is not clear if the pigeon flight was made using a computer-animated pigeon instead of a real one. All the background was rendered but I think that the pigeon probably was as well. How much was the budget of this scene....  a lot of money for sure.

Special thank to Htcdude Commander of the Wild Empire for suggesting pigeon appearances in John Woo movies.
     

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.

Blade Runner: I want to die with a dove in my hands

Title: Blade Runner
Year: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Running time: 112 min.
Country: United States
 



Roy's life is expiring and he can't do anything about that. Deckard is a mere spectator of his agony. But Roy doesn't want to die alone, or in the company of the evil man that killed all his friends. Roy chooses a pure friend during his agony. He chooses a dove. Rest in peace, Mr. Roy.

 I really like science fiction. I saw this scene many many years ago in my childhood and I still clearly remember this white dove in Roy's hands.

Note: I'm not mentioning Roy's memorable speech because this is a blog about pigeons.It can be seen here.

Roy's last speech

Pigeon flight

Details of the pigeon starring

• Source: Blade Runner. Starring moment:: 1:41:56

• Pigeon activity:  A dove resting in Roy's hand.

• Symbolism: It is very interesting to see Roy's character: a replicant that is a soldier and a killer. A tough guy that chooses a pure dove during his final moments of agony. Just try to imagine Rambo doing the same. However, I think that this act is very well performed in Blade Runner. My hypothesis is that the dove represents Joy's soul, leaving his dead body and ascending to... heaven?. I think that it proves that replicants have souls.
  

• Relevance for the movie: High. The dove is used to prove that replicants have souls. This is an important question that is raised during the entire movie. 

• Training level: High. This is a well trained dove.

King Pigeon Jr.