How Hitchcock and Allen Create and Display Their Swarms
Assignment 4 - Week 4
In Whissel’s book on page 60, she describes the idea of Multitude/Swarms being used in film as “herald(ing) ‘the End’”, or the revelation of some sort of apocalypse which has arrived. Indeed, any such instance in film where the Multitude or Swarm appears could be read as a kind of symbolic “emblem” communicating a catastrophic ‘end-times’ rhetoric in general across several filmic genres (Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy).
Using the following clips from Hitchcock’s film The Birds and Irwin Allen’s The Swarm, please review Whissel’s brief discussion on page 62 where she finds the ‘attack’ scene in The Birds to be representative of the fragility of “humanity’s supremacy in the food chain” (i.e., humanity’s faith in its technological, scientific, and societal progress may be something of a joke), and then draw a comparison between these two films which critique this idea of human superiority over nature.
After discussing how these two films are similar, then ask yourself (and answer) more particular questions such as: How do Hitchcock and Allen both create and display their “swarms”? How similarly and/or differently do they use their cameras (though shot framing, angles, speed, visual SFX, etc)? How is sound used in each film/clip? Does the size of the individual creatures that make up each “swarm” matter, and do the differences in size (and kind) make one of the other creature more effective as a harbinger of the Apocalypse?
Hitchcock, The Birds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplpQt424LsLinks to an external site.
Allen, The Swarm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOxh_fN_yELinks to an external site.
NOTE: I am not looking for a massive, multi-page essay here (though, one could write one!), just a one (or one-and-a-half, to two) page response. You can keep it brief, for instance, by simply giving a one to two sentence answer to the first overall comparative question, then moving on to discuss the particulars hinted at through my last questions.
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The prevailing idea is that humans are superior to nature (Paez, 2019). However, Whissel (2014) uses Hitchcock’s film The Birds to demonstrate that humans are vulnerable when nature strikes. In the movie, the bird’s sudden attack shows that despite humans' advancements, they cannot withstand nature. Humans cannot control nature, and their attempts to control it are fruitless. Similarly, Irwin Allen’s The Swarm, the film disputes the idea of human superiority using a swarm of bees. The deadly bees attack humans and demonstrate that humans can be disrupted.
Hitchcock (1963) starts with a closeup of the crows, which initially appear harmless. However, soon the crows become aggressive and chase after the students. The crows increase in number as they move toward the students. In the same way, Allen starts with a small colony, which gradually becomes massive. The bees can be seen all over the streets, attacking anyone exposed. In both films, the directors use their swarms to demonstrate the destructive power of nature. The multitudes create a sense of fear in humans and evoke a feeling of helplessness. Humans are overwhelmed by the creatures and cannot use their massive technologies to deal with the issue. Seeing children falling due to bee attacks is heartbreaking. It serves to amplify the gravity of the issue.
In both films, the directors use a mix of shot framing. The shots range from close-ups to long shots, depending on what the scene displays. For instance, Hitchcock's closeup of the crows helps to draw attention to the birds. When they start attacking, a long shot is used to demonstrate the magnitude of the birds. A closeup focuses the audience's attention on the crows as they attack the students. Allen (1978) uses a long shot to show the huge swarm of bees. This allows the viewer to understand that this is not a normal colony. When the bees start attacking the people, clos...