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Summary: The Birds
Review: One of the all time greats. Great acting and plot .Will make most people very nervous/very fast. Good all round SCARE.Would recommend viewing/adding to your collection. Enjoy Lisa C.
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Summary: The Birds: Feathered Friends or Feathered Fiends?
Review: "The Birds," which was Hitchcock's follow-up to "Psycho," is a creepy tale about a woman who travels to Bodega Bay, meets up with a love interest, and encounters a series of vicious bird attacks. The film doesn't explain where these birds come from or why they attack, but this is a film that doesn't require logic or deep thought. Despite its otherwise flimsy plot, "The Birds" still has the stuff to scare the wits out of you, and it has earned its status as a horror classic. Also, be sure to check out the features, which include a documentary and trailers. My only complaint is that a film like this would be much more effective in 5.1 surround sound, but it's instead presented in mono. Still, "The Birds" should be among your first purchases if you're looking to start a Hitchcock collection.
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Summary: still terrifying
Review: Still terrifying even today, Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS is the ultimate for sheer thrills and exitement.Tippi Hedren (MARNIE) and Rod Taylor (THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT) lead a strong cast as Melanie Daniels and Mitch Brenner. When Melanie travels down to Mitch's family estate in Bodega Bay (bringing a pair of lovebirds with her), a bizarre chain of events begins when she is attacked by a seagull. Soon more and more birds flock and descend on the sleepy hamlet in one horrifying attack after another, each more gruesome than the one before... With an effective use of flapping wings and ominous bird sounds as opposed to a full musical score, the atmosphere is tense and moody for the whole duration of the motion picture. The DVD includes the documentary "All About The Birds", Tippi Hedren's screen test with Martin Balsam, the trailer and original ending/deleted scene with original storyboard art. With Suzanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy.
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Summary: One of my Favorite Hitchcock Films
Review: I never really thought that THE BIRDS was about some apocalyptic event. For me it's about people and their frailties in the wake of nature and their surroundings. This is a movie that I never tire watching. The performances by Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and Veronica Cartwright are all very good. Robert Burks' cinematography and Ub Iwerks' special effects go hand in hand. The DVD extras are excellent.
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Summary: A Strange and Creepy Masterpiece of Horror
Review: Comment: It's easy to take invading aliens, giant ants, zombies, or vampires, and make a horror film. In "The Birds", Alfred Hitchcock took one of the most ordinary and innocuous things in the world - birds - and created true horror. This film is not for the squeamish, although it actually has a lot less gore and blood than most modern horror films. Most modern horror films subscribe to the "More is better" concept, while "The Birds" shows you just enough to create true horror. I also think that this movie creates more suspense and tension than any other movie I've seen, with the possible exception of "Alien". You know the birds are right there, but they don't always attack on sight. Sometimes, they just watch, which is more suspenseful and creepy. Story: A young woman (previously unknown model Tippi Hedren) goes to Bodega Bay, California, a small seaside village, to visit a man she just met and might be falling in love with (Rod Taylor). Unfortunately, her timing is rather poor, as she visits just as all the common, ordinary, everyday birds in the area decide to attack people en masse. We're not talking about big scary eagles, vultures, condors, and hawks; we're talking about crows, seagulls, sparrows, starlings, etc. They are coordinated, they are vicious, and they are lethal. If that doesn't sound possible, watch the movie. We never know why they did this, or how widespread the attack is, or why it eventually stops. That just adds to the suspense, as the people wouldn't know those things either, if it were to actually occur. Afterthoughts: When I think of this movie, four things come to mind: 1. In "Jurassic Park", the paleontologist says to the kid, "I bet you'll never look at birds the same way again." 2. If current theories about dinosaurs are correct, modern birds are their direct descendants. In essense, birds (big scaly ones) used to run the world, and maybe they might want it back. 3. Are we sure that birds don't still run the world? They're everywhere. Maybe we're just new-comer house-guests. 4. House-guests stay at the whim and will and sufferance of their hosts. Hhmmmmmmm.
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Summary: Interesting if uneven thriller from Hitch and Evan Hunter
Review: I loved The Birds as a kid. The film is pretty frightening stuff and is one of the few films of Hitch's that crosses the line from thriller to horror (along with the much maligned but terrific little film Frenzy made with Anthony Schaffer of Sleuth fame. The effects, script and eerie "score" by Bernard Herrmann make this a late period classic from Hitch. The script is a bit uneven and the performance of Tippi Hendren can generously be called "wooden". Rod Taylor gives a nice, complex performance that enhances the film. All the performances with the exception of Hendren's are stellar. It's not that she's necessarily bad she just doesn't fit in the Hitchcock universe despite all of the appearences to the contrary. Nevertheless the film benefits from a number of powerful set pieces including the sequence where Hendren is trapped in a telephone booth. The first major assault by the birds is effective and frightening. The effects work by Albert Whitlock given the time the film was made is nothing short of astonishing. With Psycho Hitch seemed to turn a corner in his career. His films took on both a new complexity and venture into territories that he hadn't visited before. Although Hitch would have a few missteps after this film (Marnie, Torn Curtain and the uncertain Topaz)he managed to close out his career with two minor classics with Frenzy and the comical Family Plot.
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Summary: Psychoanalysis of The Birds
Review: I may be reading too much into this movie, but it seems to me that there is a really great subtext throughout, which continuously informs the suspense and horror of the film in general. Even if I'm totally out to lunch, it's a fun concept to keep in mind while watching. It all seems to revolve around the central notion of a Jealous, Irrational and Mysterious Feminine, or Possessive Maternal Principle. Before laughing, consider these elements: a) Several times throughout the movie, maternal figures quite literally freak out, including the mother in the cafe ("I think you're evil...evil!") and Jessica Tandy's mother-character, who flips out in the family home between bird attacks. Though not a mother, Tippi flips out as well, after the upstairs bird barrage. And then of course there is the biggest mother-character of all, Mother Nature, who flips out in the form of the actual bird attacks. b) Notice the preponderance of the color GREEN in the movie, a color which we usually associate with jealousy (see Tippi, wearing a green dress, with green eye shadow, speaking into a green telephone...) c) There is a jealousy factor involved in almost all of the adult female relationships here. The school teacher is jealous towards Tippi. The mother is jealous of both the school teacher and of Tippi. All are possessive of the male character. And notice that precisely when Tippi decides that she will attend the birthday party, consciously disregarding the mother's jealousy, a bird slams into their front door...that's the "Mother" lashing out! And then Tippi, while at the birthday party, refers to her own strained relationship with HER mother, a character that otherwise plays no part in the movie at all! d) All the adult female characters have questionable motives and questionable pasts. What exactly was the schoolteacher's relationship with Rob Taylor's character? What was her real motive for staying in Bodega Bay even after their breakup? What exactly went on in Hedrin's character's past, which is never fully revealed, but which we are led to believe is rather wild? And why is the mother (Jessica Tandy's character) so hostile? All of these things are only partially explained; they are left, for the most part, mysterious. Likewise, Mother Nature's mysterious attack in the form of the birds is never explained. Her motives are only implied. There are some fun, deeper currents running beneath the surface of this terrific thriller, which become more and more obvious with repeated viewings. To me, that is the hallmark of a truly brilliant movie (and we KNOW that Hitchcock loved to insert double-meanings everywhere he could, in all of his pictures). Whether Hitchcock truly had ALL of these ideas in mind or not is debatable. But I'm sure he would have loved this sort of analysis, and would have been flattered.
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Summary: HITCHCOCK INTRODUCED TIPPI HEDREN
Review: After Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief - Hitch was sold on Grace Kelly and her image. Indeed he tried to recapture the ice cold blonde with Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint and Janet Leigh. However; the most successful of them and probably the best(with Kelly) was a newcomer, Tippi Hedren. Now - the DVD offers a LOT of special features including Tippi`s screentest and a "making of" showing us Miss Hedren 2day. The film has not dated at all and still is among my favorite Hitchcock films. Story, star performances and good production values makes this a treat - repeatedly.
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Summary: Among Hitchcock's worst
Review: The short story by Daphne du Maurier is far superior, and it's a shame that one of the official reviews credits the story to Hitchcock's seeing a true story in a paper and only incidentally to Hitchock's memory of the Maurier story. Maurier, the creator of the underlying story, without whom the film never would have existed, deserves more credit than that. Anyway, Hitchcock did indeed alter the original Maurier story, and all for the worse. The B-grade soap opera, involving a sort of love triangle, that carries on throughout is exceedingly bad. On top of this thread, Hitchcock has thrown lots of birds, as if to distract us from the lame drama. The birds in no way interconnect with the dramatic story going on between the people here. They have nothing to do with it, not literally, not metaphorically or symbolically. They're just a bunch of birds. It's really ridiculous. I loved this movie as a kid. Now that I'm older and I've seen most of Hitchock's films I hate it. His skillful choice and co-development of screenplays that weave dramatic stories in with whatever the "hook" is (be it a murderer across the courtyard as in Rear Window, or a spy) led me to expect more. I was shocked to see a screenplay that does such a poor job of delivering anything remotely interesting here. There are birds and plenty of them and some nice shots, such as the ariel view of the seagulls hovering above the chaos they have caused, but there is really no story here to speak of, and on recent attempts to watch it I've become very bored, and slipped in North by Northwest, Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, or Marnie, or just about any other Hitchock film after awhile from sheer desperation.
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Summary: Stay outta Bodega Bay!
Review: Actually, if you are visiting San Francisco, it is well worth the trip up the coast to see it- the town looks totally different, but the old church is there. And it is a magnificent drive. As for the movie- what can I add? This is a classic that still manages to provide a good deal of shocks. (I still dread the scene where the farmer is found) 'Tippi' Hedren is great as Melanie- Hitch used her slightly stiff, icy quality to great effect. Rod Taylor is sufficiently hunky and Jessica Tandy is great as the quietly boiling mother. A must see
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