Comparing Children of Men and The Bird: A Film Analysis

To compare and contrast a film, you must go beyond simply describing the film and analysis of the film overall. The films that will be looked at in a more in-depth way are Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron and The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock. These two films are commonly referred to as classics because of their fame and success with the public. I want to take a closer look to see if the shots, music, and props had anything to do with the success of the film while also showing how the music, props, and shots affected the film in general.

In Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron, the world has reached a sudden state of infertility with no explanation as to why humans can’t reproduce anymore. The main character Theo played by Clive Owen is first seen getting coffee at a busy local coffee shop and then he walks outside only seconds before a bomb explodes in the coffee shop.

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This is a very important scene, not only it being the opening scene of the movie and it sets the tone, but it shows how infertility has caused a huge division between the government and the rebels and the normal civilians are the ones paying the price for the division. Theo then leaves his daily desk job to go to see his friend Jasper. While he’s at Jasper’s house discussing life problems there’s a very important angle where Theo is sitting in between a set of cannabis water pipes and a set of quietus, quietus is a drug that the government is offering to people who would like to end their life in a peaceful and painless matter.

This is a great shot that shows how Theo feels like he is in the middle of the situation.

The music in Children of Men is scattered over many genres varying from smooth rock to monotone dubstepish talking. The music at first glance doesn’t seem to play a very big part in the movie but after you analyze the film you begin to see that the music easily sets the tone and gives each scene an emotional presence that you wouldn’t be able to get without the music. The movie does incorporate the music in the least tense moments which makes for extra suspenseful slow scenes where the rising action takes place. One the climax of the action occurs the music seems to die down and the long shots engage. The movie is credited with it’s fairly long shots that aren’t noticeable when you are watching because the filming keeps your eyes on the screen hoping you don’t miss anything important because there is so much action occurring.

The Birds is a 1963 film that was produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker credited with the foundation of many film works we know today. The Bird is a different style of film placed around a woman Melanie Daniels who meets a man named Mitch Brenner in a bird shop in San Francisco, California. It is the apocalyptic story of a northern California coastal town filled with attacks of seemingly unexplained, arbitrary, and chaotic ordinary birds. It was the first shot at a horror-style film and certainly hit the mark for 1963, but today we have different expectations for what a horror film should be.

The Birds is a movie constantly ridiculed for its lack of sense and story, people feel like the film never actually states why the birds are attacking the people. But the film cannot solely be interpreted in a scientific manner, because as the actors in the film discover in the long discussion scene in the Tides Restaurant, there is no solid, rational reason why the birds are attacking. They are not seeking revenge for nature's mistreatment, or foreshadowing doomsday, and they don't represent God's punishment for humankind's evil.

The birds (the physical birds) in the film on an allegorical level, are the physical embodiment and exteriorization of unleashed, disturbing, shattering forces that threaten all of humanity (those threatened in the film are the schoolchildren, a defenseless farmer, bystanders, a schoolteacher, etc.) when relationships have become insubstantial, unsupportive, or hurtful. In a broader, more universal sense, the stability of the home and natural world environment, symbolized by broken teacups at the domestic level, is in jeopardy and becoming disordered when people cannot see the dangers gathering nearby, and cannot adequately protect themselves from violence behind transparent windows, telephone booths, eyeglasses, or facades. Numerous allusions to blindness are sprinkled throughout the film (the farmer's eyes are pecked out, the children play blind man's bluff at the birthday party, the broken glasses of the fleeing school child), giving the hint that the camera's lens is also being subjected to assault.

The film is also known for its lack of music, which I believe is intentional with the connection of anyone who is watching the film. It’s no secret that one of Hitchcock's major themes was ordinary people in extraordinary situations, which is what I believe he was trying to do here. Hitchcock knew that ordinary people experience their everyday lives without a musical background. So I believe that is not adding any musical soundtrack that he was trying to make a connection to the people watching to have them watch the movie like they were living their own life. This is quite a stretch to assume but there is speculation that this was his first attempt at trying to put the audience right in the shoes of the main character, but he then went on to make many other films like this without much of a musical soundtrack.