She says if the birds of the FIVE continents were against us we would lose. There are birds on all 7 continents! why did she say FIVE? and if she discounted flightless penguins, that still makes SIX!
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is that considered trolling in your culture? Everything I said is a fact. And I asked in an Ernest way. You don't think its strange that the "bird expert" in this movie says there are birds on only 5 continents? You are the troll.
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Maybe she didn't include North America since that's where they were located.
shareThats a logical statement!
But im still confused because if she discounted North America, it would leave 6 continents where birds are known to live. Penguins live in Antarctica..
Penguins cannot fly, so their chances of reaching North America are zero.
So that leaves Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe And South America. Five continents.
the lady isnt saying that birds are coming to north america. she says simply that there are birds on ALL FIFE CONTINENTS. she is not suggesting some mass migration of all birds to north america.. .
please people, view the movie to see what im saying before commenting. thanks.
many people refer to the 'five continents' based on the 5 INHABITED continents. this is what was taught many years ago and still is in some countries.
this has been discussed on this board before and i really don't get why people can get so hung up on minutia like this and not just enjoy - or don't enjoy - the film. jeez.
Your answer makes sense. thank you.
I felt that the comment she makes in the film was GLARING and not minutia, thats why i posted my question. I didn't see it posted anywhere else like you describe.
If I may offer a suggestion, you could have simply googled your question and gotten an answer. It's much easier than subjecting yourself to derision and ridicule from message board folks.
shareThats so weird.. I just took your advice and googled "how many continents are there" and it says 7. Then I googled "Penguin habitat". You will never believe what it says! Shock! Amazement! Bitter-most Sarcasm!
shareThere was a time when people counted the Americas (North and South) as one continent and failed to include Antarctica at all (perhaps a hangover from a time before much was known about it, primarily that there was a land mass beneath the ice, unlike the North Pole which is rightly not considered a continent to this day because it is only frozen water; either that or because it had/has no permanent/indigenous human inhabitants).
When people talk variously about the five or seven continents, I often find the difference in how they count them is generational. I learned about the seven continents at primary school (in the 1990s), but when discussing this with my mother she considered that there were only five (she was educated in the 1950s/1960s). If children were still being taught about the five continents at the time that the film was made, it seems highly likely that an old woman who learnt elementary geography some decades earlier would also count the Americas as one and omit Antarctica.
I know Eurasia is pretty large, but I'd count it a single continent before I'd put the two Americas together. Although I guess the fact that they're both called "America" is telling.
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Africa
Asia
Europe
Oceania=everything in the Pacific Ocean, including Antarctica
America=from Alaska, Canada and Greenland to Tierra del Fuego.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)
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Oh, really? They sure were able to make it all the way to the Middle East.
To get aboard Noah's Ark.
And then they got all the way back again.
So I, for one, would say that their chances of reaching North America are pretty damned good.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
She was pretty old, so maybe in her era, Australia wasn't discovered yet :-)
In all seriousness I think we tend to catch goofs like that in older movies because todays viewers tend to be more critical and expect more believability. The Core for example was slammed for being one of the most scientifically inaccurate movies. Had they had filmed it back in the 50's the audience could have cared less that it was inplausible.
Also, some people don't count North America as two continents.
For them it's America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia.
Perhaps She put the Americas together, had Antarctic, Africa, Eurasia and Australia. I'm not sure.
shareKuzyakuzya got it right. Europe and Asia used to be combined into one continent, "Eurasia", and she wasn't thinking of the penguins in Antarctica.
shareno you both are wrong. totally. I had to research it myself because everyone here gave outlandish and unsatisfactory answers. According to my own research there were only 5 continents PRIOR TO THE PANAMA CANAL. North and South America joined as one.
This still dosnt answer why the bird expert lady thinks there are birds on only 5 continents, assuming that north and south america were 1, it would leave 6 continents for birds to exist in. so its still unanswered.
"eurasia" has never been a continent. its a term like for a region like "central america" or "middle-east".
The bird lady was an EXPERT, dishing out her knowledge. Of course she was aware of penguin habitat.
no you both are wrong. totally.
ok i clicked on the link you provided. this is what it says:
The seven-continent model is usually taught in China, India and most English-speaking countries
so the lady was.. NOT a bird expert and was also taught geography outside of the english speaking world. This is the explanation?
ok i clicked on the link you provided. this is what it says:
The seven-continent model is usually taught in China, India and most English-speaking countries
so the lady was.. NOT a bird expert and was also taught geography outside of the english speaking world. This is the explanation?
LOL I just had a mental image of the orginal poster laying in bed awake at midnight asking; WHY? WHY? Did that old bitch in The Birds say there were 5 continents! LOL
shareThat was an awesome post - thank you for making my day!
Asia and India are more usually considered to be sub-continents. They aren't always counted separately. That's the answer to your original question without snark. It's more of a political separation to count them separately.
I doubt this is the what the old lady meant, but Europe and Asia are technically one continent.
shareUntil the late 1960s the standard teaching was that there were five continents: Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Europe. So there is nothing to question about a character saying it in a film made in 1963.
Most of Europe still teaches a six continent system of Africa, Antarctica, America, Asia, Australia/Oceania and Europe. A lot of geographers also use a six continent system of Africa, Antarctica, Australia/Oceania, Eurasia, North America, and South America.
Seven continents is still not universally accepted and it definitely wasn't when the film was made.
When I went to school in Europe in the 1980s for a year, they were flabbergasted that I listed 7 continents. They teach Europe, the Americas, Africa, Antarctica, and Oceania (Australia and all of the South Pacific islands). This is also the rationale for the 5 Olympic rings--one for each continent of the world.
I protested that ther are 2 Americas, that 40 miles doesn't count and they said, yes it does, they touch! Then I said how Europe and Asia touch and they said, well, that's different.
Maybe she didn't count Anartica because even though it has some birds it doesn't have many like other continents. Then maybe Europe and Asia were combined as they sometimes were which made it EuroAsia which would make 5 being North America, South America, Africa, Australia and EuroAsia.
shareThis is a very erudite, educational, and well-reasoned thread to read!
"The Birds" isn't known for having one of the better screenplays in Hitchcock, despite its being written by respected novelist Evan Hunter.
But I would expect that Evan had to put some research into the bird lady's detailed and scientific orinthological speech and likely copied that "five continents" reference from whatever research materials he used.
I would note that Hitchcock would often call up the research department of whatever studio he was working at to inundate his writers with books and articles about technical topics taken up, however, briefly, in a Hitchcock film. Psychology, cultures(such as Muslim in "The Man Who Knew Too Much 2"'s Morocco), nuclear science(Torn Curtain), even the history of SONGS.
Why does the olympic flag have five rings?
"The Olympic flag has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red. This design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism." Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics (1931)
Back in the day it was taught that there were 5 continents. Things were sometimes taught differently in the past.
In my country kids still learn that there are 5 continents.
Why is this a big deal, anyways? So the screenwriter mistakenly or consciously neglected Australia and Antarctica. The fact that Mrs. Bundy used the words "ALL five continents" and not "five of the world's continents" gets her basic message across. Birds are everywhere!
shareits not a big deal but the sence lasts like 10 minutes long thats a major blunder in flim-time.
sharelike your spelling?
shareOh I use a cell phone it changes what I type in some type of autocomplete. To the wrong thing. You couldn't tell?
sharewhat a great excuse. would your spelling be improved if you turned off the auto-correct or about the same? you can also review what you've typed prior to pressing send. just a suggestion.
shareInteresting that you do not name the country where they sapozedly teach that. I call b.s.
share1931. Thats an interesting historica tid-bit but ? This movie takes place in the late 1960s.
And would Antartica have an olympic team anyway?
Thats interesting but the movie does not take place in Euorpe.
shareWhy does it bother you people that others notice such details? Some of us just care about knowledge. It does not interfere with our enjoyment of the movie--rather, it increases that aspect because we pay attention to details. Do you get bent out of shape over Jeopardy viewers too?
shareI dont know, she gets on my wick anyhow the old lady.
You have Melanie explaining about the attack and she's going 'impossible, that didnt happen, birds dont attak together blah blah blah.''
If I was melanie I'd have said 'listen you old wind bag, I didnt make it up, go outside and make me a lier you stupid think you know it all loud mouth nosy cow. No body ASKED your opinion so shut up. ''
And when she lost her eye or whatever it was I'd have said to her 'Ah proved you wrong!!'
This movie is dead to me because I simply can not get over the fact she says 5 continents. No one at all anywhere in the wrld in the 1950s and 60s considered there to be less than 7. Period.
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