The Birds

The Birds

Picture the setting of a warm day in San Francisco, in a bird shop. This is where the story of The Birds begins. Called the scariest film of 1963, Alfred Hitchcock did a phenomenal job directing and casting this movie. On the cutting edge of technology for his time, Hitchcock delivers a truly scary and possibly disturbing film while using lesser known actors, no musical score whatsoever, and a great setting with great effects.

Melanie Daniels, a gorgeous young socialite played by Tippi Hedren is the leading lady in this horrifying film. When we first see her, she is on her way to pick up a bird that she purchased for her Aunt Tessa. While waiting for the shopkeeper to arrive, she runs into the successful lawyer, Mitch Brenner, who is portrayed by Rod Taylor. He knows who she is and proceeds to ask her if they sell any lovebirds. He wants them for a gift for his little sister for her birthday. Melanie leads him around the store, pointing at different birds and pretty much making a fool of herself. Mitch finally leaves the store, leaving her to her bird order. She orders the lovebirds for Mitch and attempts to drop them off at his apartment, but a neighbor informs her that he is home, in Bodega Bay, for the weekend.

She arrives in Bodega Bay and rents a boat to bring the lovebirds to Mitch. She leaves them in his house, and vanishes off back to the town, but on her way there, she is attacked by a seagull, thus marking the first of strange happenings in Bodega Bay. Bodega Bay is then engulfed by birds that are out for blood. No one knows why or how, but they believe that it has something to do with the new coming Melanie.

I believe that the creepiest aspect of this movie is that it has no musical score whatsoever, which really adds to the eeriness that Hitchcock is trying to portray. In different parts of the movie, such as the birds all sitting outside the schoolhouse, waiting to attack the children, it is completely silent, with the exception of the crows cawing every so often, which, in the dark, alone is really creepy. The lack of music is so elemental to this film and how disturbing the atmosphere it creates.

The acting in this film was overall pretty well done, with the exception that Brenner's mother, played by Jessica Tandy, was a little too predictable and I didn't really feel that she was in character with the part that she was supposed to be playing.