The Birds (1963)

119 minutes – Horror/Thriller

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Daphne Du Maurier (Story) Evan Hunter (Screen Play)

Stars: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren & Suzanne Pleshette

Summary

A wealthy woman from San Francisco who pursues a potentional businessman, that she has fallen for that heads to a small town known as Bodega Bay. She decides to find out where he lives a follows him. Things take a turn for the worst when, she finds him and leaves him his lovebirds with a note. On her way back across the lake, she is franticly attacked by seagulls. This was only the first attack, after this other strange attacks started to happen, at the locals put the blame on her. The women ends up getting attacked herself, and lands in hospital, on their way, listening to radio, they realise that, the attacks are occurring in other communities as well.

The threat is from nature, for instance the birds, which is a change in thrillers as normally it is villain attacking or pursuing the hero. The general speed of the film is fast pacing when action is present, for example when the birds are attacking. The pace increases and the tension builds.

Suspense is built up in different scenes, when they are trapped in the house when the birds begin to attack them, or when they are in the café with others and the birds begin to randomly attack again, and cause them to be trapped inside, unable to go anywhere. You could say the cliff-hanger is every time the birds attack as you wonder whether this time, ‘will they die’? The McGuffin that is in this film is that main element which is the birds; it catches the viewer’s eye, and is what drive the plot along.

In the film barely any music is used, there were just long periods of silence, with just the sound of the birds.

The dangers of some of the scenes are that they are real. The birds themselves are attached by nylon threads and are only allowed to scurry at a distance, but still causing harm, Hedren was scratched in the face by one of the birds. The film features 370 effect shots and the final shot is composed of 32 separately filmed elements. Numerous endings for the film were considered, but they decided to leave it where it hadn’t finished. Leaving it with an impression of an unending terror, this is not normal.

When the audiences left the cinema, bird noises we’re played, to scare the audience as they leave. This was an added affect for the film and made it seem more realistic.