The Birds (1963)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Daphne Du Maurier, Evan Hunter

Tagline: Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!

Actors: Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright

Runtime: 1h 59m

Category: Creature, Thriller

Synopsis: Melanie Daniels has come to the small port town of Bodega Bay to play a joke on Mitch Brenner, a man whom she barely knows but is intrigued by. She has purchased a pair of lovebirds and has brought them all the way from San Francisco to give to his younger sister Cathy for her birthday. The two meet up at the docks after Melanie is attacked by a seagull. Nothing serious but it does seem peculiar to Mitch. Soon after, the rest of the townsfolk have noticed that the birds have been acting very strangely…and amassing their numbers! After an attack on the local school, the town is in an all-out panic. The “Bird War”, as they start to call it, has begun. How can we defend ourselves from the birds of the air?

Review: Every time I watch this movie it gives me the chills. I don’t find it particularly scary or anything, but it does make me uneasy about walking by the ducks and geese at the pond in our apartment complex. Apart from the obvious reasons of being disgusting animals, this movie delivers the paranoia of “couldn’t all of these birds be plotting an attack?” Even though the Mrs. Bundy character was right about the fact that birds do not have sufficient brain power to organize and plot strikes like that, it still makes me uneasy.

The story was something that the world had never seen before. It was an idea that not many people had thought of. The concept alone is worth a high rating. It’s stories like this that spread world-wide paranoia. I can guarantee that after seeing this movie back in ’63, everyone was walking on eggshells around all birds. The story was terrific and well written…they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

The acting was actually very good. I usually laugh a lot while watching older movies, as I did with this one, but the acting was still really good. The characters were believable and well written. Not very often does a movie have a good script and good actors…usually one is lacking in some respect. But these actors were great, well-rounded actors, making the movie that much more believable.

The script was something that I haven’t seen a lot of lately. It was clever, funny at parts, and simple. Not a lot of hooplah and fancy stuff…it sounded like the actors were just talking to each other, instead of acting. That is what you look for in acting; if the actors/actresses can act without looking like they’re acting. But this script was simple enough to be effective and attention-grabbing.

The effects were something really spectacular. I know that they look cheap and hoaky by today’s standards, but think of it in context. In 1963, this was all new stuff. They were able to mix puppets, real birds, and green-screen technology to create the effect of swarms of birds. This would be the equivalent of using CGI to make ghost-like effects on people, or using superimposition to do a complicated car crash sequence. It’s all about the times and their available technology. This was the best they could do back in ’63…and it was great!

Rating: 23. I loved this movie but I could have done without a lot of the back-story. It just seemed unnecessary to me. But overall it was awesome. I had to laugh throughout the whole thing though. I noticed that every time someone was walking it sounded like the ground was covered with Cocoa Pebbles. Maybe it’s just me but I find stuff like that hilarious. Just like when Melanie spent the night at Mitch’s, and the next morning she’s all like super-wife and stuff; making his mother tea and sending him off to help with the investigation, and they’re not even married! I just found it funny that she had been in that town less than two full days and she is already becoming a doting housewife…without the housewife part I guess. Oh, well. Just watch the movie! (23of25).