The first time I watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, many, many years ago...I didn't go a bundle on it. It takes forever to get to any of the brutal, feathered action, and even then it seemed less than thrilling. Over-rated might be the appropriate term. Having seen it again recently, and with me now having a more mature and experienced set of eyes, I can appreciate the film's qualities more.
The Birds is much less about the bird attacks in the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, than it is about the relationship between San Francisco socialite Tippy Hedren and mummy dominated lunk Rod Taylor. Birds are used throughout the movie metaphorically to show the effect their relationship has on Taylor's family and fellow townsfolk. As you'd expect from Hitchcock it's directed with precision and it's a confident man who releases a movie with no music score to support the visuals...allowing a superb sound mix to add tension.
While much better than I remember it, The Birds is still nowhere near my favorite Hitchcock movie (that's still a battle between Rear Window and Psycho). But it's still a grand piece of the art we know as film making.
1 comment:
Quality film expertly made that works on several levels. It still contains one of THE truly great sequences in cinema. You know the one I mean. School. Climbing frame. More and more and more birds...
Brrr
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