You know, it wasn’t awful. I was encouraged that the main female character wasn’t made out to be totally helpless and clueless. That was refreshing. The movie itself though, meh. I liked the work Hitchcock did with the framing of scenes and characters. But the progression felt slow, pedestrian even. Maybe that’s a result of how the more popular movies of today move faster, not just the Marvel series movies, most all of them move more quickly through the story. The sort of everyday conversations that are taking place pretty much for the entire movie are, at first, interesting. The dialogue is then sprinkled with news reports of odd bird activity. A little bit at first, more news and odd behavior comes in then the big attack. That build up was kind of obvious and felt a little forced maybe but that could because my reference of how movies develop today does not reflect the same growth. But…when Melanie watches the single bird fly across the empty sky then land on the playground equipment with like a hundred other birds…that was a cool moment!
• What do you think is the most appropriate snack to eat while watching this film?
I don’t eat meat, so not meat. Nothing like a bacon wrapped steak or little pieces of meat in a bowl or certainly not a corn dog. Not gonna eat that anyway. I used to eat a lot of Pirate Booty, that’s good, easy to eat out of a bowl (bag is way too loud) and doesn’t crunch too much in my ears. Taki’s are another good choice but they make your fingers orange and are kind of loud. Popcorn is always a good one - salty, quiet, not orange.
•Who gave a performance that you appreciate, and why? (Name the actor/character they played)
The old lady in the restaurant, Mrs. Bundy (Ethel Griffies) the bird expert…she’s such a drag! “I have never known birds of different species to flock together….Why, if that happened, we wouldn’t have a chance!” What a miserably close minded old bat. That is how science fails btw. I bet she’d make me eat all my lard potatoes or something if she were my grandmother. Gross. But she’s not my favorite. I guess I liked Tippi Hedren probably. She’s not that clueless female lead but she does have to overcome a lot of doubters and get through a lot of trauma. Even the woman she befriends, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), is kinda awkward considering Cathy used to date Mitch (Rod Taylor) and might be suspicious about their relationship. I wouldn’t say overcoming trauma is a great reason to like the character necessarily but it does show some internal strength. Her expressions also, the way she holds herself and delivers her performance, it didn’t feel obvious or too “acted.” I think Rod Taylor’s (Mitch) deliveries were too scripted, too typical male and not particularly attractive.
•How does Alfred Hitchcock use ONE of the cinematic elements we’ve learned so far to create suspense in The Birds?
Considering the name of the movie, Hitchcock makes particularly good use of eye-line matching, or primarily in this case mismatching. That is, the birds are most often overhead, perched or flying and the actors all looking up. It begins to feel a little like a predator/prey situation. With the viewer’s general knowledge that the film is about menacing birds and then as the story progresses to developing from menacing to something more nefarious I think having the birds always overhead enforces or amplifies that feeling of vulnerability. It’s not unlike in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) (**…Spoiler Alert: do not continue to read if you haven’t already seen the movie…**) when Obi-wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) are fighting on the lava fields of Mustafar. After a lengthy and beautifully orchestrated dual, Obi-wan finds a strong position and proclaims: “It’s over Anakin ! I have the high ground!” When Anakin then tries to overcome that deficit, (“You underestimate my power…”) Obi-wan literally cuts him in half!! So the lesson is, the high ground equals predator and any other location equals prey.
•How many stars would you give this film?
I’d probably give it 3.5/ 5. I appreciate that for the time it was made the movie likely would have ranked higher, maybe 4 or 4.25. But some of the flock scenes were just over done. Like, multiple tens of seconds too long. C’mon, we get it. Birds are coming to fight and they want to kill the children and don’t care who gets in their way. For instance, the attic attack scene - when Melanie goes to investigate - is literally like two minutes long. That is also when she sort of comes across as the helpless female, she can’t open the door, the birds keep poking at her, she collapses, big strong man Rod has to save her. Perhaps no.