Something Fowl

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2014)

The Birds failed to make it on the American Film Institute's list of one hundred greatest American movies, but nonetheless, it has still been influential. A true horror movie, The Birds inspired such films as Jaws, and is unique among Hitchcock films because, unlike others, which rely on psychological horror, The Birds is graphic, violent and terrifying. The plot follows a young woman (Tippi Hedron) as she journeys to a tiny village in northern California called Bodega Bay. It seems like an average small town until a bizarre event happens. Formerly peaceable birds suddenly begin attacking people without provocation. The first attack is nothing more than a knick from a seagull but larger swarms of birds begin to strike to kill and nobody can figure out the cause of such violence. The Birds makes use of some innovative filming techniques to capture the vicious scenes but Hitchcock was not above putting his actors in danger in order to get a shot. Most notably, the final attack scene was all real and live birds were used. The Birds is a good film but not necessarily a great one. It is a movie that seems to focus on the horror and intensity of the attacks rather than the logic behind them. Thus, the plot suffers and is not as strong as the story lines of previous Hitchcock films (although the plots of most Hitchcock movies seem to fall apart if over analyzed anyway.) The film also seemed to lack the star power of Hitchcock's previous movies. In its most primitive development, Hitchcock had wanted The Birds to star Cary Grant and Grace Kelly but the former was aging and the latter had married Prince Rainier of Monaco and had retired from acting. So, Hitchcock ended up with Rod Taylor and a rookie Tippi Hedron.