Essential Hitchcock film

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2005)

Esteemed director Alfred Hitchcock's follow up movie after Psycho. The Birds depicts what happens when a coastal town is overtaken by hostile birds. Socialite Tippi Hedren meets handsome Rod Taylor in a bird store. She follows him to the town where he lives with his mother and young daughter. It seems every time Hedren shows up there is some kind of bird attack. She herself is attacked by a gull as she drives a boat across the lake. Why are the birds attacking? Hitchcock and writer Evan Hunter never answer that question. The birds are the "maguffin", Hitchcock's term for a plot device to get the story moving but having nothing to do with the actual story. Once again Hitchcock creates a film that can be read on different levels. For an excellent analysis of the movie see Daniel Spoto's "The Art of Alfred Hitchcock."