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Dow Jones. By John Lippman. When I Tweeted that, I received a question on Twitter from cscboston:. The frogs…wtf was with the frogs??? A key aspect to interpreting the true meaning of this film lies in its many references of Exodus from the bible. The most obvious reference was in the scene right before the start of the Quiz show. Below are other examples of references to the numbers 8 and 2 in the movie, as listed in the trivia section of imdb.
People have reported raining squid , worms and fish. Fish are actually the most common creatures to fall from the sky, for obvious reasons -- they're very lightweight, and they're the most common water inhabitants [source: BBC ]. But waterspouts can pick up heavier objects, too. These types of wind speeds can pick up a very wide range of cargo because they can suck up objects from up to 3 feet 1 meter below the surface, and the low-pressure core they form is an extremely powerful vacuum compared with the speeding winds surrounding it.
Large water birds have also fallen from the sky. Presumably a waterspout can pick up a few things when it hits land, too, because it has also been known to rain tomatoes and coal [source: CMMAP ].
But it's when the frogs, fish and other water animals hit the ground that things really get gross. It's unlikely they survive the journey, what with the speeding low-pressure vortex and the impact once that vortex dissolves. Usually, the frogs die, although it's unclear when exactly that happens -- during the trip or as a result of the fall. However, sometimes the frogs luck out. When it rained frogs in a small town in Serbia in , people walked outside after the storm to see their streets blanketed in frogs trying to hop their way back to water.
High-pressure storm winds can lift birds so high in the air that they freeze, falling to the ground like rain when the winds subside. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Forces of Nature. Can it really rain frogs?
Jackson near-death experience in Pulp Fiction. When we see it in reality, we will know it is truth. Unfortunately, the stubborn world of truth is not expressed or accepted in a real world that is seen. We nonetheless continue our longing for truth to be made visible in this tangible world. We go on believing that if we just see something for real we will believe it is true.
But reality never seems to last. As soon as it happens it begins to decay. Reality, residing in memory, has a half-life, but truth, which does not live in our mind, is far more tenacious. It is no coincidence that his part of the Exodus story does not end well. Strange things happen all the time. This is the belief of the narrator.
If we see it in a movie—or perhaps read it in a book—we are inclined not to believe it—but our narrator assures us that these strange coincidences do happen all the time. But here too we are faced with irony. We do not see clearly the hand of God intervening in judgement, against the sins of the oppressors.
Instead we see coincidence, and are left to infer if there is any meaning to such strange things, or if they are just strange things and nothing more. Perhaps the sins of the fathers have been healed or forgiven. People have been saved, in the words of the Aimee Mann song. The gun is returned. The addict seems freed from her addiction. This is what we would expect from the biblical narrative, where the plagues save the people from Pharaoh. After all, strange things happen all the time.
Is there forgiveness? Perhaps not. As mentioned, the nurse weeps. His drug addicted daughter seems better, and the cop also leads the Macy character to make restitution.
Even if we cannot see a clear hand of God, as was so clear in the Exodus, the past will continue to hold us in its grip. Every now and then things will get so bad, and our sins will be so destructive of our relationships, that only a plague of such frightening proportion will be sufficient to re-orient us to a new future.
For some that will be the intervention of God, but for others, merely a random strange event. Post-modernism is all about perspective, and there are multiple perspectives in this film, with no meta-narrative to guide us, only ambiguity. Thanks so much for this post. Clearly, there are a variety of ways in which one could choose to interpret the frogs in Magnolia.
Magnolia is an ode to the unpredictable. Similarly, none of the weather forecasts in the film predict a downpour of frogs. Thus, the frogs come as a slap in the face or, perhaps, a harsh dose of reality for those foolish enough to claim that they know what the future holds.
In that way, they are a sort of summary of the entire film. I needed to find out what the frogs symbolized because I was affected not just because of the phenomenal actors, but, because of how much I related to some of the characters.
In frog scene helps open up and conclude the climax. In Theatre, DEM was the way they would end the piece. This is the frogs in Magnolia. The movie is absolutely brilliant. I remember first renting it on two VHS tapes. This movie resonates. It has sdtasying power. I reference his performance in my Film class all the time.
Parroting what others say is just simply sad. The only way for your thoughts to ring true is to make them be your own. Just watched Magnolia and find reading the comments very interesting.
I believe a simple way to interpret the frogs is to know that Exodus is about a cataclysmic event which helped but did not fully accomplish the freeing of slaves. Most of the characters in the movie are slaves to their past. Even Stanley, who is a child, studies wunderkinds from the past to learn their fate. The frog scene does not signal a moment of complete redemption for the characters, but it is the beginning of hope that freedom may be coming.
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