MovieChat Forums > Marathon Man (1976) Discussion > pigeon crap on his shoulder

pigeon crap on his shoulder


the scene when the droppings from a pigeon landed on Dustin's shoulder, was that scripted or was that by lucky chance ?

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I've wondered that, too! In Boston (happens all the time), it's considered a sign of good things to come.

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i have had bird crap land on my shoulder only once in my life and it looked exactly like it did in the movie, thats why i was wondering if it was scripted or just by chance.
reviewing the video several times and observing the actors expressions, i would tend to believe it may have been by chance and left in the movie though the strong possibility exists that it may indeed have been cleverly scripted.

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The only thing that made it seem a little staged was that Babe was learning seemingly innocent words from Elsa and then quickly knew the translation to s#it. Personally, I'm all for unscripted moments like that, similar to the scene in Blow Out when Jack was suppose to go into this long story about his past, but Travolta just says something like "I don't want to talk about it." Nancy Allen's face is priceless.

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