The Birds 1963

The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock (1963)

 

Writers- Daphne Du Maurier (story)

              Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Stars- Rod Taylor

          Tippi Hedren

          Suzanne Pleshette

Genre- Horror/Thriller

In the film ' The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock is full of shock and suspense. A wealthy San Francisco socialite Melanie Daniels(Tippi Hedren) pursues a potential boyfriend Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) to a small Northern California town. On her way to San Francisco Bodega Bay where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and Younger sister Cathy, Melanie gets attacked by a seagull crossing the bay in a small boat. Things then start to take a turn for the worst as all kinds of birds begin to attack people. As the film progresses the amount of birds that attack increase and become more vicious.

The Fist Attack

Also in 'The Birds' the external threat is from nature which is effective as it is harder for the characters to find a solution for and harder to escape from. In Hitchcock films there is often nowhere to hide just like in 'The Birds' Bodega Bay. The whole film is packed with frequent fast pacing action, lots of drama and suspense which is typical of a Alfred Hitchcock film and most thrillers.

Alfred Hitchcock talks about how mankind abused birds throughout history. For example using their feathers for hat decorations and stealing their eggs.

This could have given him the ideas for the film 'The Birds' as it could be seen as them seeking revenge on mankind.

"A thriller is a villain driven plot whereby obstacles are presented which the hero must overcome"

This is true in the birds as the birds can be seen as the villains which create an obstacle throughout with the constant attacks. The characters must then try and overcome this.

Dramatic irony is used in the school yard scene when the birds are seen building up behind Melanie (Tippie Hedren) and she is unaware of this but the viewers are.  This scene creates a lot of tension as the viewer is worried for her and as more and more birds show up, there is a big build up to the moment when she finally notices the birds.  Also in this scene there is a contrast between innocence and evil as a child's song is played along with the evil nature (the birds).

Alfred Hitchcock also uses deliberate irony in the cafe scene where there is a 'bird loving lady' and another character orders southern fried chicken.

In the 'cafe scene' where the birds attack there is a very high camera angle. This can be described as "The gaze of a pitiless god who cannot be bothered to intervene". It also suggests something that is above everybody and everything else.

'The Birds' uses usual evasions as the characters are denied science and religion, they are on their own. This creates a scary thought as there is no extra help for them.

In 'The Birds'  there does not seem to be a use of a MacGuffin, but Tippie Hendren can be seen as a MacGuffin as Rod Taylor puts his life at risk to protect her.

Hitchcock said he wanted viewers "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like", which he has succeeded at by using elements of a thriller successfully, the fast paced action, dramatic use of music and fear for the characters, ect.

More about 'The Birds'

The scene where Tippie Hendren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to shoot. To film this birds were attached to Tippie's clothes using long nylon threads so they were unable to get away.  She was actually cut in the face by one of the birds in one of the shots.

'The Birds' features 370 effect shots and the final shot is a composite of 32 separate filmed elements. There were also other considered endings to the film such as the Golden Gate Bridge being completely covered by birds. The film does not end with the usual shot of 'THE END' title because Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror.

During the premiere to 'The Birds' as the audience left the Odeon at Leicester Square they were greeted by the sound of screaming and flapping birds from loudspeakers which were hidden in trees to scare them.

There is also no musical score for the film apart fro the sounds that were created on the mixtrautonium, Oskar Sala and the children singing in the school.