The Birds (1963)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 119 minutes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright, Ethel Griffies, Charles McGraw, Ruth mcDevitt, Lonny Chapman, Joe Mantell, Doodles Weaver, Malcolm Atterbury, John McGovern, Karl Swenson, Richard Deacon
Oscar Nomination: Ub Iwerks (special visual effects)





The movie starts out in San Francisco, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), and Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) ran into each other at a pet store. Mitch confused Melanie as a sales clerk, and told her he wanted two love birds for his sisters birthday. He left, then Melanie made it a mission, to track him down, and give two love birds to the sister, for her birthday.

Melanie finds herself in a little town of Bodega Bay, California. She knocks on a strangers door, Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) who's the school teacher from Bodega Bay and moved to Bodega Bay, because she was in love with Mitch. Melanie found out from Annie, what Mitch's little sisters name is. She arrives at their house, via boat, opens the door and places a letter next to the bird cage. Melanie is attacked in the head, by a seagull, and Mitch comes to the rescue. He bandanges her up, and invites her to dinner. His mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy) was not too thrilled of a beautiful woman swooning in and charming her son.

The second attack was at Cathy's (Veronica Cartwright) birthday party, attacking little children. Third attack was at Lydia's house, birds came through the the chimney and attacked Mitch, Melanie, Cathy, and Lydia. They called the police over, and he blew it off like it wasn't a big deal, and it was a freak accident. Lydia was worried, and decided to go check on her father, when she walked into his bedroom, she found this...

Lydia was frantic, and Melanie forced her to bed, and to ease lydia's mind, she offered to pick Cathy up early at school. Of course...there's another attack on the children, but now they were Black Crow's, causing more injuries to the kids.

When watching this movie, you have to keep an open mind. It's 1963...they did the best that they could do, special effects wise. Some of the birds were fake, some were real. The fake birds reminded me a lot of the special effects used in Mary Poppins. If you look past the corny special effects, and put yourself in the shoes of the individuals who saw this movie in the theaters in 1963, it'll scare the poop out of you! Birds are everywhere, I bet a lot of people saw this movie, and anytime they hear a bird swoop by their head, they were jumpy.

The best part for me, was when they're in the town diner, and an old lady tried to tell us everything about birds and explain why birds were acting this way, giving us an education on the birds. Then down at the other end of the bar, was a scruffy drunk man screaming, "It's the end of the world!" It was so cliche, the random know it all, and the individual who believes it's the end of the world. The climatic end wasn't too bad, I just wish when Melanie was attacked and pecked at, that she would've cried out in pain, but of course, she didn't. It seemed fake. If I was being attacked by birds, I'd be hysterically loud! Watch the movie, the attacking scenes were intense and the music + flapping wings added a lot to the movie. I understand why this movie is considered a classic, but keep an open mind when you view it.