Alfred Hitchcock "The Birds"

                                                            The Birds Phenomenon
            In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock released a horrifying, bone-chilling thriller called "The Birds." To this day, this indelible classic is watched by people, leaving them shaken and disturbed. "The Birds" was Hitchcock's first film with Universal Studios. The movie won a plethora of awards, including an Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1964 and an Edgar Award at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards in 1964.
             The movie takes place in San Francisco and holds a five day period, first day being Friday. The humorous, fun fact about the film is in the beginning of the movie, the protagonist of "The Birds", walks into a Pet Store, Alfred Hitchcock himself is walking out of the doors, being pulled by a two terriers. And the best part about that is those dogs were his own in real life, named Geoffrey and Stanley. The two main characters in the film are Melanie Daniels and Mitch Brenner. Melanie is a very wealthy, spoiled socialite who can get her way in anything. met Brenner, on the other hand, is more low-key and genuine, and is buying love birds for his sister and mother. They meet in the pet shop and Brenner ends up bringing Melanie with him to his home just an hour out from San Francisco. When she gets to his town, she is attacked by a regular bird, not any sort of prey bird, which throws off everyone. However, nobody bothers to ponder on it, for there have been but few occasions where a seagull attacks a human. After that, more and more bird offenses are happening. Birds are crashing into windows, violating people and property, over-crowding on school grounds and lines. Schools are releasing their students so they can be protected at home. Homeowners nail wood boards to their houses so birds cannot get through. The climax of the film is when birds are flooding the town chaotically. People take refuge at any place they can get. Melanie, the star, hides in a phone booth and has to frantically wait for the bird swarm to pass. Annie, Mitch's sister, dies. The famous last scene, Melanie goes to the attic to see what the racket is and opens the door to see dozens of birds have torn through the roof and are flying senselessly in the room. Melanie is badly injured and the family races her to the nearest hospital, ending the movie is a frantic halt.
         
          This movie was such a success, Hitchcock received $3.3 millions dollars. A behind the scenes task the director had to do to attract birds was put meat and anchovies all over the ground and area. A lot of the scenes were done with puppets. However, the final scene was real. It took Hitchcock a week to film right and he insisted on using live, trained gulls to attack Melanie. On the final day of shooting, Melanie got stabbed in the eye and immediately started crying. The craziest thing about this 1950's film, that you do not see in the majority of films, even to this day, is there was no music score; all the background sounds were birdcalls and noises from an electron proto-synthesizer called a  trautonium. Overall, Alfred Hitchcock had a huge success with this film, managing to disconcert his viewers timelessly.


Sources
http://news.moviefone.com/2013/03/25/the-birds-alfred-hitchcock-25-things-you-didnt-know/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/awards
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/plotsummary


Movie Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrN_U830_Gc

Earth Day

     The movie, "Fierce Green Fire" is about the beautiful world and the environmental movement that is so greatly needed to save the earth. In the movie, they discuss the plans for the dams and how hey have effected the world. Builders want to put dams into thr Grand Canyon, but there is a lot of protest against it. Scientists also say that chemicals are expanding across the world and that a huge cause of whales dying is the chemicals. To preserve the whales lives, groups of people have gone on marches and protested. A non-violent act that environmentalist did to save save trees was rap themselves around tress so forest service men could not cut down the trees. In 1988, it was officially claimed that the green house gasses are a major role in carbon dioxide build up and pollution. In the 1930's, the biggest whale killing field was in Antarctica. But in 1982, the anti-whaling campaign was created to prevent future whales deaths. Whales numbers went from 275,000 to less than 5,000. This is a good example of why the world needs to become a green machine and save the planet.
        A major concern for whales is that if they die off the entire food chain gets messed up. Whales are AT&T he very top of the food change and make a huge difference in how everything else below them live and function. Whales are one of the biggest animals in the world. They can be lengths up to a football field and weigh as much as 200 tons, which is equivalent to 33 elephants. A cool fact about whales is hey are warm blooded, like humans, and to keep hem warm living in the ocean, they have thick skin fat called blubber.
         Another endangered animal is the leatherback sea turtle. They are the only turtle that has a soft leathery back, hence it's name. They are he largest turtle of the ocean. It can stay under water incredible amounts of time, and converts sea salt water to fresh water. Leatherbacks swim deep in the sea most their life, but come to shore to lay their eggs. They are very smart, advanced animals. The unfortunate thing is jellyfish are their pride and joy. With plastic waste drifting through the sea, many leatherbacks are dying, mistaking the plastic for jellyfish. This exceptional animal is a perfect motivator for people blasé about not littering/recycling. If people see what their ways are killing, they will realize how much they need to shape up and save the earth and all it's creatures!


http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/whale

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/biodiversity-and-environmental-halls/hall-of-biodiversity/promos/for-educators/endangered-leatherback-sea-turtle

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What was the goal for Roosevelt after the war?  What were Soviet goals about Germany?
-that the victory over the Axis and the newly created UN would lead to more peaceful world. Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and that soviet was in control of countries between Germany and soviet union

What did FDR think was 'key' to world peace?
- president felt the key was economic growth

What was 'declaration of liberated europe, and how successful was it?'
-it asserted the rights of all people to choose the form of government they will live upon. It led to the cold war because it increased tension between US and Soviet Union mad issues were not solved thoroughly. 

How was Germany to be controlled?
-Truman let them maintain their factories spans work to build back up economy, and had the pay back for war debts by trade and goods rather than cash 

What was Truman's view about how to deal with USSR?
-stand up to him, rather than appeasement

What is a satellite nation?
-

What is an 'iron curtain'
-the political and military barrier that isolated soviet-controlled countries of Eastern Europe after WWII