THE BIRDS

US, 1963, 119 minutes, Colour.
Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright, Charles Mc Graw, Ruth McDevitt?, Vonnie Chapman, Karl Swenson, Elizabeth Wilson.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous films and something of a classic – it is the archetypal story of animals menacing human beings without any given reason. Jaws and films like Jaws were the direct heirs of The Birds.

The film is based on a story by Daphne du Maurier who provided Hitchcock with stories from his last film in England, Jamaica Inn to his first film in Hollywood, Rebecca.

The film was made in the aftermath of Psycho and before Marnie. In Marnie he used Tippi Hedren whom he had introduced in The Birds when he was not able to get Grace Kelly to act. Tippi Hedren did not have a strong career – although her daughter, Melanie Griffith, was far more successful.

Rod Taylor is the strong star with good support from character actors, Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleshette.

The film was nominated for an Oscar for special effects. The atmospheric score is by Bernard Herrmann who wrote the score for a number of Hitchcock films including Psycho.

This was a period when Hitchcock was making a great deal of material for television – but The Birds stands out as his key film of the 1960s.

1. What were audience expectations of this film? As a horror story, a film about birds? How were expectations fulfilled or thwarted?

2. What were audiences expecting of a Hitchcock film? Suspense, the bizarre? fulfilled or thwarted? Why? Do the expectations prejudice the effect of the film?

3. How seriously was the film meant to be taken? The atmosphere of practical jokes at the start, good and evil, omens, human beings and nature, human foibles, terror and violence?

4. Many commentators see the film as very serious in its underlying techniques. They speak of unexplained and merited evil? Menace, destruction? Humans and nature with people fleeing? The world of good and evil? The effect on the world of evil?

5. Comment on the techniques of the opening, and the involvement of the audience: the credits, the modern atmosphere, the shock sequences, the joke about the birds, Melanie. Melanie as good or evil, a Jonah bringing disaster, Mitch and the court sequences, Mitch and the attack of the birds, the initial gestures of the birds and the human response? The atmosphere of San Francisco making the audience perhaps somewhat complacent?

6. The significance of the journey to Bodega Bay? The journey? Melanie’s purpose, malicious enjoyment? Concern for Mitch's sister? The fascination of Mitch? The significance of the town, its look, locations, its ordinariness? These aspects of the town, Annie, the Brenner Family?

7. The impact of the birds, their introduction? The fact that they were left out of consideration for some time? The focus on the family and its significance for the film? Lydia and the psychological relationship between Mitch and his mother? Cathy, the love birds? The relationship between Mitch and Annie? Melanie's intrusion into the family? The normality and yet the crises?

8. The initial impact of the bird attacks? The climactic build-up with few birds, then more? The puzzle about the birds, and who sent them? Such sequences as the birds in the fireplace, on the wires, in the playground etc? How did Hitchcock build up the menace of the birds?

9. How dramatic had the film become with the sequences of the school? the murdered man, the children, the attacks, Annie’s death, the need to rescue Cathy? How did this all prepare for the final siege and the escape? What was the meaning of all this upheaval and attack of the birds?

10. Comment on the techniques of communicating menace, the rescuing of Cathy and the walking past the birds in the school yard, the observation of the birds from on high? Viciousness, the attack ?)n Melanie, the death
of Annie? The sea itself, the, electronic music for the birds, their pecking through the walls? The final attack on
Melanie and the shock?

11. What was the relationship of the birds’ attack and their menace and punishment on evil? What effect did this have on each person? The change in Lydia and her attitudes, Mitch, Melanie and her way of life?

12. The importance of seeing Melanie as punished and rescued? The initial attack on Melanie in the boat, Melanie in the phone box, Melanie in the upstairs room?

13. How significant was the climax? The fact that the humans were allowed to escape? Their driving away? Many critics commented on the flatness of the ending. Do you agree? Why?

14. What values was the film exploring about human nature and the puzzle of the world in terns of an animal thriller?