Cheap The Birds (Video) (Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren) (Alfred Hitchcock) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Birds

A Sentimental Favorite
Sure, the acting is a bit stiff at times and the special effects aren't up to today's standards and it's anybodys guess why the birds decided to attack - but Tippie Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette look fantastic... and darn it, this is a good film! Hitchcock does a great job in building the suspense: birds acting strangely at a pet store, Melanie is hit in the head by a gull, the attack at the birthday party - Tippie & Suzanne have a sleep over. My favorite scene is when the main characters have boarded themselves in the house, suddenly one of them notices a small bird sitting on the coffee table - then whoosh! The house is filled with birds flying down the chimney. Also, when the birds are pecking through the front door - I've had nightmares about that for years. And who can forget the bloody man trying to get into the phone booth with Tippie - imagine the gall of that guy! Yes, it looks fake sometimes and the subplot of the love triangle is a bit annoying but there will always be a special place in my heart for "The Birds".

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It's the end of the world
It's interesting to see how critics today look at this film vs. how critics received it in 1963 (some of them even thought Hitchcock was losing his mind). I personally think the film is one of his most terrifying - it's certainly the most graphic (the scenes where Jessica Tandy and Tippi Hedren discover people dead are examples), and not incorporating a musical soundtrack even heightens the suspense (all you hear throughout the film is the squawking of the Birds in the background). The Hitchcock touches are still evident, however: odd characters interspersed throughout (the restaurant scene is a good example of this) and his wonderfully macabre sense of humor (example - the famous scene where Hedren sits in front of the school jungle gym, which slowly becomes covered with birds). This film is one that most either love or hate; personally I feel Hitchcock can virtually do no wrong, and this film is an example of his ability to elicit terrific performances out of those who, under other directors, tend to give rather mediocre performances (Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor). The special effects are also very impressive for 1963 - yet it still lost the Oscar to, of all films, "Cleopatra" (what special effect were they referring to in that film, I wonder? Elizabeth Taylor's behind?) In my opinion, an under-rated classic that is worth a place on any film fanatic's shelf.

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Beware THE BIRDS!!!
The Birds is one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films. Perhaps that has a lot to do with the beautiful Tippi Hedren, who shines in everything she does. The gorgeous scenery, adorable costumes, and lavish colors also add to the surreal atmosphere, which quickly gets disrupted by a flock of killer birds. Like many firsts Hitchcock introduced with his films, this is the first "nature run amock" film, just like Psycho was the first "slasher" film. This Psycho follow-up was yet another ground-breaking addition to the horror genre and further revealed the master director's darker obsessions.

Like Hitchcock's fabulous Rebecca and mediocre Jamaica Inn, this is based on a story by the extremely talented Daphne Du Maurier, but Hitchcock was left with the task of fleshing out the short story into a feature film. He did one hell of a job. Hitchcock and screenwriter Evan Hunter borrowed only the title and basic conceit of Daphne du Maurier's 1952 short story, "The Birds." Du Maurier's tale, conventional and utterly humorless, is a Cold War parable that uses the unexplained bird attacks as an apocalyptic metaphor for nature thrown out of balance by technology and warfare. It's told from the perspective of Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran and farmhand living in a cottage with his family in the British Isles.

The film version is set in Bodega Bay and follows bored, spoiled socialite Melanie Daniels (Hedren) as she romantically pursues dashing lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor). Tension soon develops among Melanie, schoolteacher Annie Hayworth, Mitch's former flame (Suzanne Pleshette), and Mitch's domineering mother (Jessica Tandy). The emotional interplay is interrupted (and reflected) by the sudden and unexplained attack of thousands of birds on the area.

Hailed as one of Hitchcock's masterpieces by some and despised by others, THE BIRDS is certainly among the director's more complex and fascinating works. Volumes have been written about the film, with each writer picking it apart scene by scene in order to prove his or her particular critical theory--mostly of the psychoanalytic variety. Be that as it may, even those who grow impatient with the slow build-up or occasional dramatic lapses cannot deny the terrifying power of many of the film's haunting images: the bird point-of-view shot of Bodega Bay, the birds slowly gathering on the playground monkey bars, the attack on the children's birthday party, Melanie trapped in the attic, and the final ambiguous shot of the defeated humans leaving Bodega Bay while the thousands of triumphant birds gathered on the ground watch them go.

Eerie, scary, and suspenseful, this is a great film and classic Hitchcock, which highlights his genius. There is no sound track to cue the audience in as to when to be scared. And what other filmmaker could take the simple sound of wings fluttering in a house and turn it into the sheer sound of terror?