Clarice and I just watched a very strange Sundance/indie movie courtesy of Netflix. It was
disturbing enough to take our minds off of Snowy owls and other things.

Movie is a 2006 release called "The Hawk is Dying." Rented it because Paul Giamatti,
Michael Pitt, and Michelle Williams are all excellent actors (and they do a good job in this
flick). But the main actor was an adult pale morph Buteo augur which the Giamatti character
called a Red-tailed Hawk (this is the same species of hawk that got some movie exposure in
the western "3:10 to Yuma" when Russell Crowe is introduced, shown making a sketch of
one of these birds while waiting for his gang to show up. In the Russell Crowe movie it was
easy to forgive the stand-in hawk, as the short scene was a clever way to quickly symbolize
the raptor-like Crowe character, seemingly bonding with the bird until his dastardly cohorts
arrived) Here, however, the whole hawk thing seems just strange.

For a short while, I thought about reading the book to see if the original written version called
the bird a Red-tailed Hawk or merely a hawk with a red tail, which would be fine for this
buzzard. After all, the Giamatti character catches it in Florida, and who knows what you'll find
there. Didn't pursue it too far when I couldn't find the book in the card catalogue for either the
Pierce County or Puyallup libraries.

The hawk is in practically every scene after the first introductory ones. It hwas hard for me to
watch the treatment. Hawk is tethered outside, leash appears too long, given no shelter, is
not fed natural prey animals, and is carried almost constantly while Giamatti is shown running
at night, driving a car, and arguing with relatives. Also, the Giamatti character is portrayed as
having let his last capture (called a "sparrow hawk") die while he tried to keep it in a closet.
Obviously falconry is not his expertise; the point seeems to be that for some people
interacting with an animal replaces interaction with people.

Using a bird to symbolize how people treat, hurt, and avoid others is intriguing, but I suspect
that any falconer that sees this one will be heart broken.

--
Jerry Broadus
253-279-4774