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15 Famous Movie Blackbirds

Even in lighter fare, they point to something sinister, be it imminent attack, loneliness, or even racism.

The Raven

In what’s unfortunately one of the lesser films about a literary great, John Cusack wields a quill and a gun as The Raven’s Edgar Allen Poe, a legend who would’ve skewered this thriller in one of his sharp-tongued newsprint critiques. What’s perhaps best about the movie is the eerie mood that’s established, a mood symbolized by the titular winged creature. Blackbirds have been harbingers of doom in many a dark tale, and otherwise added spooky style to countless filmic palettes. Even in lighter fare, they point to something sinister, be it imminent attack, loneliness, or even racism.


The Crow

The Crow (1994)

Brandon Lee’s final film surely became his most iconic, a cult and goth fave that saw the Kung Fu legend’s son resurrected to avenge two deaths: that of his rock star character and the rock star’s doting wife. Serving as a link between the underworld and this one, a crow is what allows Lee’s hero to rise from the ashes, so he can assemble an all-black kit of duds and accessories, and paint his face in a manner that would launch a million Halloween costumes.


Dumbo

Dumbo (1941)

Disney’s flying elephant movie rarely gets as much attention for its circus pachyderm as it does for its chorus of crows, who despite helping Dumbo face his fears and flap his ears (a black feather proves the ultimate placebo), squawk and talk jive to an extent that led many to holler charges of racism. Voiced by black members of the Hall Johnson Choir, the blackbirds even have a leader who goes by the name of Jim Crow, which was reportedly tossed around in production and stuck. Whether or not you buy the opinion that the birds are offensive, they certainly kicked off an unfortunate Disney trend, wherein people of color provide the vocals for hordes of babbling clowns.


28 Days Later

28 Days Later (2002)

One of a handful of survivors in a plague-ravaged London, Brendan Gleeson’s benevolent father figure (Megan Burns’s daughter character is also among the saved) takes a break from evading ravenous zombies for a moment of reflection. Unfortunately, a crow feeding on one of the dead nearby rubs Daddy the wrong way, prompting him to shout and shoo it off. Looking up at the bird, Gleeson’s character gets an eyeful of infected blood, cutting short his respite…and his life.


The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Birdman of this beloved Frank Darabont drama’s Alcatraz, Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) is known for his loves of books and birds, working in the prison library alongside Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), and tending to his pet and best pal Jake, a loyal crow. When Brooks is finally released after 50 years in the pen, his first painful order of duty is to let Jake fly free, and it isn’t long before we learn both jailbirds are bound for the heavens. Unable to cope with life on the outside, Brooks calls it quits with a noose.

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The Blackbird

The Blackbird (1926)

In this Jekyll-and-Hyde-like silent drama directed by Tod Browning, Lon Chaney Sr. plays two characters, one a saintly man known as The Bishop, and the other a thieving mastermind who goes by The Blackbird. Playing up the ruse that the two characters are brothers, Cheney’s antihero uses both to fight for the affections of Mademoiselle Fifi Lorraine (Renee Adoree), who’s also being pursued by the wealthy Bertie (Owen Moore). Set in London’s Limehouse District, The Blackbird ends with a bit of tragedy, but boasts a formidable dual performance from its leading man.


The Stand

The Stand (1994)

Another plague movie to feature nature’s darkest bird, ABC’s miniseries rendition of Stephen King’s The Stand used a crow as its flagship symbol, pairing its title card with a bird that sits ominously perched. One could say the crow is a catch-all for all the sprawling telefilm’s evils, including death, the incurable AIDS-like disease, and the very Satan-like Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan). And certainly, this TV movie needed an image to sum it up—it’s jammed to the gills with not just dead bodies, but threads of plot.


Willow

Willow (1988)

In order to properly battle the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh), pint-sized, first-time adventurer Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) has to enlist the help of the Sorceress Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes), who before finally resuming human form, has to morph into multiple animals thanks to Willow’s botched spell-breaking. Raziel scurries as a muskrat, stumbles as a goat, and soars as a squawking blackbird, who warns of the arrival of the Queen’s dreaded army before a violent castle skirmish.


Night Watch

Night Watch (2004)

The film that launched the career of action director Timur Bekmambetov, Night Watch proved a derivative opening to a Russian vampire trilogy, which gathers pieces from The Matrix and Star Wars and still has yet to release its third installment. Along with characters who sprout whiskers and go transparent but for their veins, one of the key images of this hyper-stylized movie is a massive vortex of crows, which hovers over the home of a pivotal, cursed blonde (Maria Poroshina), and likewise hovered over all of the film’s marketing.

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The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Considered by many to be the first film noir, The Maltese Falcon also lays claim to being the first film directed by John Huston, the first film to feature Sydney Greenstreet, and the first film to introduce the kind of actor Humphrey Bogart would become. Bogart’s Sam Spade leads the film with a signature gruffness, roped into the search for what could be called the ultimate MacGuffin, the Maltese Falcon, a blackbird statue rumored to be encrusted with jewels and gold. Everyone form Greenstreet to Peter Lorre is after the item, which has already contributed to the deaths of many men. And ultimately, the coveted bird has everything and nothing to do with the story.


Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Indeed, Snow White and the Huntsman has yet to prove whether or not it can show up Mirror Mirror, but we’ve already had plenty of glimpses of Charlize Theron’s wicked queen, who has a penchant for milky baths and metamorphosis, flying apart into shards of glass and flocks of birds. Theron looks awfully cool as she takes the form of a swarm of crows with a swoop of her cape, but she owes quite a debt to Madonna, who did the same thing—and better—in her 1998 video for “Frozen.”


The Beatles

“Blackbird” by The Beatles (1968)

Penned by Paul McCartney in 1968, the Beatles track “Blackbird” began as a response to racial tensions, and has grown to become one of the supergroup’s more popular tracks. In recent years, it’s accompanied scenes in filmgoer favorites I Am Sam and Across the Universe, both of which devoted their entire soundtracks to songs by the Fab Four. In her cover, Universe star Evan Rachel Wood proves capable of hitting the notes, but she can’t beat the rendition by Sarah McLachlan, who gifts I Am Sam with its loveliest tune.


Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! (2008)

Though it can’t quite hold a candle to this year’s vibrant rendering of The Lorax, 2008’s filmed version of Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! boasted plenty of highly impressive animation, namely in terms of feathery henchman Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett), a vulture who does the bidding of the nasty, non-believing kangaroo Jane (Carol Burnett). Continually plotting to steal Horton’s (Jim Carrey) flower, which holds a speck that holds an entire civilization, Vlad flaps and molts with stunning artistic clarity, making him a villain you hate to love to look at.

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Opera

Opera (1987)

Dario Argento’s masterful follow-up to Phenomena opens on a close-up of a crow’s eye, fusing two elements that are integral to this stirring ode to the shaken gaze. Said to have always wanted to fix his viewers’ eyelids open with tape and needles, Argento enacts his wish on opera singer Betty (Cristina Marsillach), whose participation in a performance of Verdi’s Macbeth results in her being forced to watch a shocking string of murders. One of the more memorable set pieces sees a mess of crows released inside the opera house, homing in on the tender eyeballs of at least one target.


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

In the first chapter of Peter Jackson’s sprawling trek to Mount Doom, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and company cross rivers and scale mountains, all the while striving to keep hidden from the all-seeing Lord Sauron. While traversing a craggy passage, the Fellowship gets a fly-over from Sauron’s Crebain, spies who take the form of ravens. The birds swoop and screech and scour the land for clues, but never blow the cover of the heroic nine.


The Birds

The Birds (1963)

Technically, all types of birds attack in Alfred Hitchcock’s definitive creature feature, with Tippi Hedren and Jessica Tandy running for their lives from seagulls and finches. But crows join in on the terror too, gathering creepily in the playground of a children’s school, and soon attacking Hedren and the kiddies in a pulse-pumping swarm. No list of fearsome birds would be complete without these presumably possessed beasties, whom a few characters believe are ushering in the apocalypse.

R. Kurt Osenlund

R. Kurt Osenlund is a creative director and account supervisor at Mark Allen & Co. He is the former editor of Out magazine.

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