Fish, Birds and Frogs Falling Out of American Sighs

Finn here. Sitting at my desk after a Cobb salad and wondering why thousands of birds have fallen out of the sky in Arkansas and Louisiana, and why some 80,000 fish turned up dead in the Arkansas River. I am not highly apocalyptic in thinking, though it did remind me of a scene in P.T. Anderson's Magnolia, where frogs fall from the sky to signal not only Old Testament style judgment, but also New Testament style changes of heart as characters' hearts soften and people are set free from the Pharoahs internal and external.

Wikipedia actually has a pretty good write up on the film, and if you are feeling at all ill at ease or in general wonderment over the world out there, it's a good film to hunker down in front of.

At the end of the film, a rare but precedented event occurs: frogs rain from the sky. While the plague of frogs is unexpected, there have been real-life reports of frogs being sucked into waterspouts and then raining to the ground miles inland.[2] While there have been incidents of a moderate number of frogs falling from the sky along with other precipitation, there has never been a recorded incident of a dry, torrential frog downpour as is depicted in the film.

All along the film there are references to the Bible's Book of Exodus 8:2 "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with {a} frogs", some of the props around the characters are shaped to resemble these numbers and also clocks, weather services and other items refer to these numbers, most notably at the beginning of the contest a man is holding a sign with Exodus 8:2 which is taken away by one of the hosts and also some lines of dialogue include these numbers.

The movie has an underlying theme of unexplained events, taken from the 1920s and 1930s works of American intellectual Charles Fort. Fortean author Loren Coleman has written a chapter about this motion picture, entitled "The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia," in one of his recent books.[3] The film has many hidden Fortean themes. The fall of frogs is merely one of them. One of Charles Fort's books is visible on the table in the library and there is an end credit thanking Charles Fort.[4]

(Wikipedia)

Some have complained that the movie is one long soap opera, and that it's filled with a dark, depressed world that does not fully reflect reality. It is a soap opera, and dark, but it's also brilliant. Though darkness permeates the film, its impact is made light by the elevated themes of redemption, and by a romance that forms a powerful antidote to the unexplained events and sad choices.

Whenever I see birds fall out of the sky or other unlikely oddities, my mind jumps back to Magnolia, a film that did practically nothing at the box office. To me it's the perfect film for moments like now when so many things hang in the balance.

Watch the role of the police office played by John C. Reilly.  He is filled with dedication to task and a quiet faith that does not make him perfect, but allows him to see where others see nothing at all.

Eventually I will be back outside as the new day dawns, and looking up, wondering what might drop into my path, and hoping for something swell as I head to work.