A film made by Alfred Hitchcock in 1963.
Plot Summary
A well-to-do young woman from San Francisco follows a man she
meets in a bird shop to his childhood home in Bodega Bay,
California to deliver a pair of lovebirds as a way of getting to
know him. For no reason at all, flocks of birds start attacking...
Actors
Rod Taylor .... Mitch Brenner
Jessica Tandy .... Lydia Brenner
Suzanne Pleshette .... Annie Hayworth
Tippi Hedren .... Melanie Daniels (as 'Tippi' Hedren)
Veronica Cartwright .... Cathy Brenner
Ethel Griffies .... Mrs. Bundy, elderly ornithologist
Charles McGraw .... Sebastian Sholes, fisherman in diner
Ruth McDevitt .... Mrs. MacGruder, pet store clerk
Lonny Chapman .... Deke Carter, cook in diner
Joe Mantell .... Traveling salesman at diner's bar
Doodles Weaver .... Fisherman helping with rental boat
Malcolm Atterbury .... Deputy Al Malone
John McGovern .... Postal clerk
Karl Swenson .... Doomsayer in diner
Richard Deacon .... Mitch's city neighbor
Cast list courtesy of imdb.com.
Opinion
The Birds was interesting. I was frustrated by the fact that they
never tried to explain why the birds were going nuts. It was left up
to the viewer to decide, if they chose to do so. In a way this works,
since the movie just focuses on the reactions of the characters and
doesn't stray from that. It keeps it simple and clean. I guess this
would have been a pretty scary movie back when it was made, but of
course it's pretty mundane by today's standards.
The one thing that really annoyed me about this film was the sounds
the birds made. The noise didn't seem real, and reminded me more of a
tape player eating the tape than of an angry flock of birds. In some
cases you could see where the birds had been super imposed on the
shot, but otherwise it was quite good. The birds looked real for the
most part, and I couldn't help but think that if this movie had been
made today, most of the birds would be CGI. The other slightly
distracting thing was some of the scene changes. The characters
stare off into the distance, and the scene fades out. It reminds me
of scene changes in a play.
The acting was quite good overall. The only scene that really
bothered me and which ruined an otherwise excellent movie was one
where the lead actress is watching a flame follow a trail of spilt
gasoline up a hill, anticipating an explosion when it reaches the
pumps at the top. The actresses face is shown for something like half
a second at a time, and is cut with footage of the flame racing up the
hill. The result is the ultimate in cheesy film sequences.
Part of this write-up was lifted from my very own blog.
From the chatterbox:
shannonhubbell says re The Birds : See, I love the fact that the birds actions aren't explained. Explanations always get me down. Ruin the mystery.
TenMinJoe says re The Birds: The thing that annoyed me the most was the way the film suddenly just ends, with no particular point or resolution
I've read (imdb forums I think) that he ended the film this way because the behaviour of the birds was never explained. The film ends in this way to suggest unending terror, since some kind of definite ending would have required an explanation and resolution.
spiregrain says re The Birds: The bird sounds in this film were an innovative use of early synths. I have no references, but seem to remember it won an award or other recognition...