The Birds: Review By slysnide

Based on the 1952 novella by Daphne Du Maurier and a bizarre incident that occurred in Capitola California on October 16th 1961, Alfred Hitchc*ck filmed a truly riveting & unexpected thriller in late 1962 north of the San Francisco Bay Area near & at Bodega Bay. Like "Psycho" (1960), he financed the film from his revenue gained from his successful television show "Alfred Hitchc*ck Presents." Although the special effects required for most of the attacking birds boosted production costs for a final budget of $2,500,000.

What was most notable besides the special effects was the combination of suspense & fantasy elements. For the plot consists of a wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) buying a mynah bird at a pet shop in San Francisco. There she has a run in with Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a man she once met in court. Intrigued by Mitch, Melanie buys him two lovebirds he'd been searching to buy for his aunt, and she delivers them to his house in the coastal town of Bodega Bay fifty miles north. Over the next few days, Melanie builds friendships with Mitch, his mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his 11yr old sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and Cathy's teacher & Mitch's ex-lover Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) while a series of vicious & unexplained bird attacks plague the area.

The special effects were truly great as the birds looked so real in every shot. Sometimes it was even hard to discern the fake ones amongst the real ones since it was done so well. The flapping bird wings for the swooping shots of the attacking birds was done at Disney Studios by animator Ub Iwerks who used the sodium vapor process or 'yellow screen' to achieve the effects. Being a film student, I'll tell you how it works: They started by filming the subject (the birds) against a screen lit with narrow spectrum sodium vapor lights. Both elements of the footage are filmed simultaneously by use of a beam splitter, in which one reel of footage is regular photography, and the other is emulsion sensitive to the sodium vapor wavelength only which produces precise mattes. Meaning that the effect is achieved as realistically as possible, and spotting the effect in the film can be attributed to the sixties film quality in which certain objects have a thick black borderline around them or appear to have been pasted on the screen rather than being a part of the original footage. So that's the only reason the effect wasn't as easily spotted in the film. But they were still great when intermingled with the real swooping birds and the SFX ones.

While the effects didn't win any of the numerous awards they were nominated for, this 119 minute classic walked away with $11,403,529 in ticket sales after its March 28th release. And the most memorable thing about the film for me had to be the night boarded up in the Brenner House which was located across Highway 1 from the Bodega Bay Visitor's Center. The idea of a swarm of monsters trying to get inside has been done many times before, as recently as Mark Night Shyamalan's "Signs" (2002). The suspense constantly builds and builds through these sequences as the possible entry points not boarded up swarm around in your mind as you wait for the birds to attack. Plus this was the first film to pitch that idea which has been copied time and again. Most notably in George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). But it was done best here.

The iconic images of the schoolhouse, the jungle gym outside of it that was covered in birds, and the front yard of the Brenner House chalk full of birds where the cedar trees lie will always remain iconic in viewer's minds. And that's what Alfred Hitchc*ck achieved here: creating something totally new and unexpected. Something that could happen anywhere at anytime. Truly creepy. While the schoolhouse has since become a private residence, it's sometimes open for tours, while the Brenner House has since been demolished, but the grove of cedar trees remain greatly unchanged from their appearance in the film. Having been to the area on May 17th this year, I can tell you that while I didn't spot any of the filming locations, it was easy to picture the whole thing play out along Bodega & Bodega Bay as I passed through on Highway 1. Beautiful and creepy at the same time.

So overall, while this film certainly had a more fantasy/scifi aspect to it with the plot, the film was still just as effective in its suspense and perfect visuals. A true masterpiece that should never be forgotten, or placed below other Hitchc*ckian works of lesser value.