The Birds (The Alfred Hitchcock Collection)

It all seems to revolve around the central notion of a Jealous, Irrational and Mysterious Feminine, or Possessive Maternal Principle. Before laughing, consider these elements:

a) Several times throughout the movie, maternal figures quite literally freak out, including the mother in the cafe ("I think you're evil...evil!") and Jessica Tandy's mother-character, who flips out in the family home between bird attacks. Though not a mother, Tippi flips out as well, after the upstairs bird barrage. And then of course there is the biggest mother-character of all, Mother Nature, who flips out in the form of the actual bird attacks.

b) Notice the preponderance of the color GREEN in the movie, a color which we usually associate with jealousy (see Tippi, wearing a green dress, with green eye shadow, speaking into a green telephone...)

c) There is a jealousy factor involved in almost all of the adult female relationships here. The school teacher is jealous towards Tippi. The mother is jealous of both the school teacher and of Tippi. All are possessive of the male character. And notice that precisely when Tippi decides that she will attend the birthday party, consciously disregarding the mother's jealousy, a bird slams into their front door...that's the "Mother" lashing out! And then Tippi, while at the birthday party, refers to her own strained relationship with HER mother, a character that otherwise plays no part in the movie at all!

d) All the adult female characters have questionable motives and questionable pasts. What exactly was the schoolteacher's relationship with Rob Taylor's character? What was her real motive for staying in Bodega Bay even after their breakup? What exactly went on in Hedrin's character's past, which is never fully revealed, but which we are led to believe is rather wild? And why is the mother (Jessica Tandy's character) so hostile? All of these things are only partially explained; they are left, for the most part, mysterious. Likewise, Mother Nature's mysterious attack in the form of the birds is never explained. Her motives are only implied.

There are some fun, deeper currents running beneath the surface of this terrific thriller, which become more and more obvious with repeated viewings. To me, that is the hallmark of a truly brilliant movie (and we KNOW that Hitchcock loved to insert double-meanings everywhere he could, in all of his pictures). Whether Hitchcock truly had ALL of these ideas in mind or not is debatable. But I'm sure he would have loved this sort of analysis, and would have been flattered.


A classic! Deceiving packaging.   April 6, 2000
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

The Birds is one of my all time favorite movies. The setting, the special-effects, and the performances are all perfectly suited to a story about birds gone berserk! I first saw this movie when I was eleven. At the time I was caught up in the suspense and special-effects. In subsequent viewings of this film as an adult, I have picked up on many scenes which I am convinced Hitchcock included for their humor. In one scene Melanie is flying down the coast highway towards Bodega Bay and each time she rounds a curve her tires are squealing. In one shot, the lovebirds she has in her car are shown in their cage leaning this way and that for leverage. In another scene, Melanie is at the house of Annie Hayworth, the school teacher. She has never met her before in her life. She goes to the front door and knocks. Annie is in the backyard and calls out, "Who is it?" Melanie answers, "Me." These scenes always illicit a laugh from everyone when I play this film. I ordered this DVD right after it came out, eagerly anticipating the "Deleted scene" and "Original ending". I was greatly disappointed. The deleted scene is nothing more than shots of the script alternating with production stills. The original ending is shots of the script alternating with storyboard sketches of what the original ending would have looked like. I think that it is very deceiving to include that information on the DVD packaging and not elaborate on the actual content. When people see "Deleted scene" and "Original ending", they expect to see a filmed version of it, not script shots and storyboard sketches flashed across the screen. They didn't even include any narration with these "extras". That would have made it a little more interesting at least. I did find the behind-the-scenes documentary "All About The Birds" fascinating and delightful. It includes a lot of technical information and behind-the-scenes stories from some of the cast members. That, and Tippi Hedren's screen test more than made up for the disappointing "Deleted scene" and "Original ending". The only other criticism I have is the 2.0 Mono audio track. Why? This movie is the perfect showcase for stereo sound with all of the special sound effects of the bird attacks. If you are a fan of The Birds, I would recommend that you purchase this movie. Even with its drawbacks, you won't be sorry this DVD is in your collection.


Hitchcock Didn't Have a Computer; He Didn't Need It   April 19, 2001
carol irvin (chesterland, OH United States)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

Alfred Hitchcock knew how to make a movie. This is true despite his not having the high tech at his disposal that today's filmmakers have for making a film that needs all of these attacking birds' sequences. What he used instead was his imagination and also the best collaborators in the business for every aspect of the film. Most importantly, he did not get so lost with the wonder of his special effects that he forgot that his prime job was to make a movie that worked. This was my primary thought upon finishing this excellent movie and comparing it to all of these dismal action adventure yarns of today which have little to recommend them besides their state of the art special effects. Hitchcock gives us a small coastal town in northern California that a socialite, Melanie (Tippi Hendren), visits for a few days to follow up a chance meeting she had back in San Francisco with local resident Mitch (Rod Taylor). This romantic interest is soon eclipsed by a much bigger event that begins shortly after Melanie's arrival, when a seagull attacks her hairdo (the nest like French Twist fittingly enough). The bird attacks on the populace begin shortly after this and consistently escalate in the number of birds involved. Hitchcock used a combination of real and machine made birds for his bird cast, even employing a bird wrangler for handling the real ones. Hitchcock never deals with why the birds are attacking. He simply develops the possibility that it could happen and how powerless we'd be if it did. So meticulous was he in staging his sequences that after a solid week of being attacked by birds in the house's attic, Tippi Hendren had to be hospitalized for exhaustion she was such a wreck. In the "making of" film that is also in the DVD, you learn the incredible preparation Hitchcock did for every single aspect of this film, including the drawing of it from start to finish on storyboards. He didn't zero in on just one aspect of making a film but concerned himself with every single detail of it. Rod Taylor and Tippi Hendren had the roles of their careers here. They are not Jimmy Stewart or Grace Kelly, used previously by Hitch, but in Hitch's hands they are up to the task of this very unsettling film. You feel like never going outside again after seeing this film much like you felt like abandoning taking showers after "Psycho."


The Birds Flies High   February 21, 2001
Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best movies. The plot revolves around massive flocks of birds attacking a quiet Northern California town of Bodega Bay. A then unknown Tippi Hedrin is luminous as a young socialite from San Francisco who visits the dashing Rod Taylor in the small town. A young Suzanne Pleshette plays a school teacher and former love interest of Mr. Taylor and Jessica Tandy plays Mr. Taylor's overbearing mother. The scenes were the birds attack are well staged and scary, but the times in between the attacks are truly chilling. Mr. Hitchcock keeps things eerily quiet and the attacks happen so suddenly that you never see them coming. Mr. Hitchcock is of course the master of suspense and this is another example of how he keeps you on the edge of your seat. The effects also show his deft hand as a director. Nowadays a director could just plug in the bird with digital effects, but Mr. Hitchcock had to use real birds in some scenes and fake birds on wiring systems. This took a tremendous amount of skill and the end results are fabulous. The effects don't look like the cheesy B movie effects of the time, but realistic.