The Birds (1963)

The Birds will come.. and bore you.. to death.

Being a Hitchcock film, I anticipated a lot. Thrilling scenes. Exciting editing. Fantastic acting. And I got a load of seagulls and crows ganging up in unlikely large crowds, pecking random citizens of Bodega Bay, covering them in what seems like large amounts of tomato ketchup.

Starring Tippi Hedren in her acting début as the stereotypically Sixties upper class socialite Melanie Daniels and romantic interest of Mitch (Rod Taylor), who, along with Mitch's mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy) and sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), get attacked by crows... or are they blackbirds? And seagulls.

Though the film does have a cohesive sub-plot concerning Melanie and Mitch's relationship... with barely a kiss between them, it is difficult to see which plot is meant to dominate, as no real ending is provided to either the mysterious invasion or the romance.

Not only does the film disappoint (with large periods of the film not progressing the narrative at all, just massive arguments with large groups of middle-aged women with perfect Sixties hair), the backstage production is also not exactly the most honest. With Hitchcock mentally torturing his cast with the use of live birds (which, back in the days when "No animals were harmed in the making of this film" never appeared in a film's credits, worries me greatly), and the 1952 book the film is based on is equally confusing.

Also, watching this, I see the resemblance the Spielberg classic Jaws. I personally have never seen the film, but like Jaws, this film seems to translate the genuine worry of a contemporary issue (the Birds are supposedly meant to represent the worry of Asian and Russian Communism invading England.. or a small American village, which is never even thought about in the film), being unashamedly forced onto the innocent and beautiful creatures, Though this is touched upon with the minor elderly ornithologist character Ms Bundy (Ethel Griffies).

Overall, this is the second Hitchcock film I have seen, the first being Rebecca, and neither takes my fancy. However, I award two stars, purely for sympathy, one for the beautiful star Hedren, and one the director himself, Hitchcock.