Amsterdam, Directed By David O Russel: Importance Of Cuckoos

Joshua Georgeson
Halvorsen
Composition 201
3 March 2023
The Importance of Cuckoos In a time of rapidly changing government systems and economic crisis, rises the conflict retold in the movie "Amsterdam," directed by David O'Russel. Amsterdam is set in the early 1930s following a business plot to take over the government in the United States. Throughout the film, O'Russel referenced birds numerous times, making them a key symbol throughout the movie. The most influential bird is the cuckoo, a bird known for causing issues in the wild. O'Russel used cuckoos to give reference to the situation in a natural way, one that makes the situation more primitive and simple. He did this by giving detail about the bird and its habits, referencing other

Cuckoos raise their young by laying their eggs in other species of birds' nests, forcing natural selection to take place as the cuckoos compete with the host birds for food. Cuckoo younglings trick the host bird into believing they are their chick by manipulating the chirps of the host's chicks. They grow larger than the other chicks in the nest, giving them the ability to win the battle for food. As the cuckoos grow, they have been known to kick the host chicklings out of the nests, lowering further competition for food. The cuckoo life span is a style of the overthrow, planting an egg in another's home, only for them to invade and take over what is already established. As time continues, and the population increases, the problem worsens(National Geographic). The only way to stop the cuckoo from completing this cycle is to cut it off at the beginning. Similar to governments around the world who have faced situations in which the governments that had been active for extended periods of time were challenged, the ones that were successful in stopping the overthrow, stopped the movement before it became too powerful. In O’Russel’s movie, we see an example of a time when the dictatorship was prevented, and when the dictatorship became detrimental to

Dictators began controlling countries and their militaries. Many of them were power-hungry and merciless to those who stood in their way. Countries were in a state of repair or financial depression, "nests" were everywhere, and it was only a matter of time before one of these government overthrows occurred. The most famous being Adolf Hitler, Hitler rose to power through an organization that helped start the Nazi party. The Nazi party started taking strides following World War 1, Germany was in a state of repair, having billions in war reparations. The country had to start over and rebuild, similar to the eggs being laid in an unsuspecting bird's nest. As Germany began to grow, so did the Nazi party, gaining more and more traction and support. Led by Hitler, the supposed cuckoo of this situation, the old government system in Germany had fallen to the rising Nazi party. Hitler replaced the traditional government with one that he saw most fit for him and his supporters. This led to a large group who had a similar idea, that there is one ideal race, the Arian race (The National WWII Museum). Similar to the Cuckoos, this foreign style of government, infiltrated Germany. Hitler did not care for those who were not like him, as cuckoos do not care about the bird's eggs already laid. The Nazi party looked to replace the population with whom they saw most fit to live in it. Cuckoos are no different, they do not