Look out! ... It’s October again, and animals are un-caged and
dangerous! All throughout October, I’ll be reviewing horror movies that revolve
entirely around animals gone bad. That’s right, Sharks, Bats, Spiders, Gorilla’s,
Snakes and other animals are all on the loose, and they’re going to be my main
focus this Halloween season. As such, what better film to kick off this month then one of
Hollywood’s most iconic and treasured Horror movies ... its Alfred Hitchcock’s
1963 classic “The Birds”. While
there had been several B-Grade animal attack movies in the 50’s, mostly revolving around
giant insects or giant spiders, "The Birds" was the first that took audiences by total
surprise, and scared the hell out of them with a concept that no one could have
imagined, or ignored after they saw the film.
The movie
begins with a set-up that really has nothing to do with the plot, as it’s just a
way to introduce us to the characters. Basically, a woman named Melanie works at
a local bird store, and one day a customer named Mitch gets her attention. This
guys a lawyer, and decides to toy with her a little after watching her pull a
prank in court. She immediately develops a crush on him, and wants to get his
attention by playing another joke on the guy, this time involving a pair of caged love
birds. She heads to Bodega Bay in California to leave him his surprise gift when
she’s suddenly attacked buy a seagull. The incident doesn’t seem like that big
a deal at first, and it gives her an excuse to spend some quality time with
Mitch and his family. Slowly but effectively, several other small incidents
involving birds take place, and soon they begin attacking in full force. The
feathered fiends end-up running the whole town into hiding, leaving them
wondering what the heck is going on, how do we fight back, and most important
of all ... how do we survive this invasion.
The brilliance
of this movie is that it takes something so mundane, even beautiful, and turns
it into something frightening. Fear is a natural reaction when you
encounter sharks or spiders, but birds are just a wonder of nature, they fill
the air with beautiful music, they come in a colorful variety, and rarely do
anything aggressive. After seeing this film, no-one looked at birds the same
way again, and I distinctly remember seeing this movie for the first time at a
young age, and being terrified to go outside thinking that I might just get
attacked by a rouge bird.
It’s also alarming because you can’t fight
against these birds the same way you can kill a single deadly shark like in “Jaws”, and that raises the
stakes. Some of the effects are really cheesy looking by today’s standards, and there
are some obvious blue-screen moments, but I personally found the visuals to be
very impressive for the time. In fact, the movie won the Oscar for best Special Effects. They're a lot of memorable scenes and visuals that just stick in
your head long after the movie ends. All those ominous shots of the
birds perching themselves on objects and electrical cords, as well as scenes
in which children get attacked, and some scary shots of dead bodies with their eyes pecked out. One of the best visuals is when Melanie sits on a park
bench, and behind her we see one bird after another landing on various play
ground equipment ... then after a long hold on Melanie’s face, she slowly
turns around, and see’s the entire park covered in black crows. Whenever I think
of this movie, that’s always the first image that comes to mind.
Now obviously, this concept of killer birds is admittedly very silly, but Alfred Hitchcock
wasn’t your average campy filmmaker. In fact, you can always feel his stamp of
quality in anything he dose, and “The
Birds” is no exception. His method of setting up shots and editing is
brilliant, but the key ingredient he brings to this film is the buildup. To be
honest, the most frightening scenes are all the quiet moments that slowly build-up to when the birds actually attack. His style may come off as slow and boring
to some people, so you really have to be in the right mind-set to appreciate it.
Now, I’m not going to lie, there are some really boring scenes in the first half-hour of the movie, which involves the characters in long conversations that all
become irrelevant when the birds finally attack. However, there is some ominous
foreshadowing of things to come, which is just enough to keep you invested, and
when all hell breaks loose, it becomes an exciting rollercoaster thrill ride. The
characters themselves all feel like they belong in a different kind of film,
like a generic 1960’s romance, but they hold your attention fine, and you do
want to see them survive till the end. The female lead Melanie is played by
Tippi Hedren and she does a mostly serviceable job, looks fantastic on screen,
however she does have some really hockey moments. Another great aspect of this
film is all the mystery surrounding the bird attacks. Most monster movies give
lots of exposition as to what’s going on and why, but things are never clear in
this film, and the characters themselves are almost driven mad trying to
figure out what’s causing these birds to act so aggressively. The only red
hearing thrown in the equation are the two caged love-birds. The movie never
tells us that their a prime reason for all the attacks, but it does leave you
wondering.
Of course, Hitchcock is one of Hollywood’s most famous directors, filmmakers, and one of
the first to receive wide-spread attention. I myself can praise his style and
direction all day long, but the man himself was admittedly kind of rough around
the edges, and did some questionable things. He even had a reputation for not
taking good care of his actors while on set, and nowhere was that more obvious
then in “The Birds”.
There’s an
infamous controversial scene in which Tippi Hedren’s character gets trapped in
a bedroom, in which she’s attacked by various birds. The scene itself is very
disturbing, as she gets relentlessly picked apart by the little devils, and it
almost echo’s back the famous shower scene from “Psycho”. However, something even more disturbing happened off
screen. Before shooting, Hitchcock presumably told Tippi Hedren that all the
birds in the scene were fake, so it was a real shock for her on the day of the
shoot when real life birds started flying all around her in this tight, and
claustrophobic setting. While the actress wasn’t physically endured, it drained
a lot of energy from her, and she ended up spending the following week sleeping
on her couch in a comatose-like state. This further proved that while Hitchcock
was a master filmmaker, he was also very careless toured the safety of his cast
and crew, which is really hard to glance over.
So, on that
cheery note, let’s talk about some of the actual bird attack scenes, which are
admittedly very thrilling, and heart pounding moments. There’s the scene in
which a flock of crows attack some children at their school, and another
memorable moment when they crash a birthday party. The best scene of all is
when the birds attack a gas station. The buildup in this scene is fantastic, as
all the characters are gathered in a dinner discussing this bird situation, and
a woman who claims to be an expert on the subject gives us some info on birds
in general, which only builds on our anticipation. Then without warning, the
birds attack the nearby gas station, causing a gas tank to tip-over, and a chain
of exploding cars follow. It’s a big spectacle, with birds flying all over the
place, things are catching fire, and our female lead finds herself trapped in a
phone booth. It’s the most famous scene of the movie, and very effective as your
stuck in this tight, claustrophobic phone booth with our star, and watching all
the chaos unfolding around her. With all the mangled bodies, birds crashing
into windows, and lots of destruction, this could have almost been the climax of
the movie.
The actual
finale takes place in a barricaded house, with our hero’s trapped, and fighting-off various bird attacks. Both the cinematography and visuals are top notch
here, and the sounds of screeching birds over head create an eerie mood. Now, I
feel the need to comment on the ending, so spoiler alert if you care. After one
of the characters gets endured, our survivors quietly make their way to the car ... while surrounded by several birds ... and all the while a radio announcer claims that
the mysterious bird attacks are increasing, and the national guard is debating
on whether they should take action. As the car drives off, we get one heck of
an eerie shot as birds seem to cover the entire landscape, and just when you
think you’re about to follow these characters on their adventure across the
country side ... the movie abruptly ends! It’s so sudden, and it doesn’t even feel like
a proper conclusion ... the movie just stops. This can easily turn some viewers
off, as it seems to come out of nowhere, and it’s personally my least favorite
part of the whole movie.
There was a sequel
that came out several years latter titled “The
Birds 2: Lands End”, but it had little connection with the first, and while
I personally haven’t seen the film, it doesn’t seem like it captured the same
magical haunting touch of its predecessor. While several movies have tried to
recreate the formula of man battling animals and nature, there haven’t been too
many films focusing on birds as the villains. The only other film that comes to
mind is a 2010 picture titled “Birdemic:
Shock of Terror”, and its sequel “Birdemic
2: The Resurrection” ... both terrible movies that used the same premise, except with terrible acting, terrible writing, and some of the worst special
effects ever seen on film.
As for Alfred
Hitchcock’s 1963 classic “The Birds”,
it still holds-up great after all these years. It’s one of my favorite movies
he ever directed, and I honestly think it’s the greatest animal attack movie of all
time ... just a hair above “Jaws”. Granted, I'd rather watch "Jaws" over this movie, as it has more of a fun-factor, but I just can't dismiss Hitchcock's stamp of quality. While
it still has some problems that might keep modern audiences from liking it,
there’s still plenty of thrills, and excitement that come-off so much stronger
in this movie then most other monster flicks. You really just need to keep a
humble perspective while viewing the film. If you let the atmosphere and build
up sink in, you’ll find yourself feeling like your right there in the action,
wondering what our hero’s are thinking, dreading another attack, and it’s just a
really fun ride. While Hitchcock did some questionable things, he was
undoubtedly a talented filmmaker with vision, and this is one of his greatest
accomplishments in his long legacy of quality films.
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