The Birds - The Community vs the Outsider

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2003)

I think this movie is about the problems of outsiders in being accepted in a small self-contained community. The community is fine until Melanie shows up with the lovebirds. Nothing untoward happens until Rod Taylor jumps into the car to go after Melanie, thus effectively indicating his acceptance of Melanie into his world and into town life. Then comes the first attack.

Note the resemblance in hairstyles when Melanie meets Rod Taylor's mother. He is obviously searching for the love he did not find in his mother. As the birds do not accept the presence of Melanie and the lovebirds in town, so the mother will not accept a new woman in her son's life. She wants someone in her own life badly and realizes too late the barricades she has put up. Not even her own son has been allowed to enter
The birds single out for attack the sister, who befriends Melanie, and the schoolteacher, who takes her into her house. When the schoolteacher arrived in town, she was rejected by Rod Taylor, thus not incurring the enmity of the birds. Also note the striking moment when the woman at the restaurant hurls abuse at Melanie. "It's your fault! Nothing happened here until you came!" The community always seeks to ostracize and drive away the newcomer. The opera "Peter Grimes" tackles the same theme. The birds allow the family to leave as they have won. Melanie and the lovebirds drive off to San Francisco. The town can return to normal daily life. Anyway, that's my take on this Hitchcock opus.