Fascinating; Freudian analysis of The Birds

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2000)

One would think, not having seen this film, that it is just a normal horror film where a mass of animals attacks people who run from them and scream. Well, this film is different, in that it was directed by the single greatest director of all times, Alfred Hitchcock. The Birds was made during his peak. It follows on the heels of such films as Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. It is as well directed as those films. In fact, it is even more daring than those. Several classical Hollywood elements are missing from this film. For one thing, and perhaps the most effective choice made by Hitchcock for this film, there is no musical score. Even in his best films, Psycho and Vertigo, for instance, the films are swept along by the score. They are great scores, by maybe the best score composer who ever worked in the movies, Bernard Herrmann, but to see a Hitchcock film without a score is just fantastic. Even the best musical scores are meant to manipulate your emotions, so here we get a chance to see just how effective a film can be without one. Also, the end of this film is perhaps the most unconventional you're ever going to see (although Vertigo also has a very unconventional ending). It is possibly the most startling image I've ever seen.
Even if it just had Hitchcock's amazing direction going for it, The Birds also benefits from an absolutely masterful script. It is never as if the story is just that birds attack people. It is much, much more complex than that. And herein lies my Freudian Analysis. Of course, coming right after Psycho, Hitch was probably jumping to keep the whole Oedipus theme alive here. Annie, the school teacher, expresses this literally. But I would like to interpret the birds as more of a symbol than actual matter. Think back to the film Forbidden Planet. Remember the Monster of the Id, the invisible and immaterial beast who destroyed every person who attempted to take Dr. Morbius and his daughter off the planet, basically whoever threatened to steal his daughter from him? I think the birds in The Birds serve the same function for Lydia. When Melanie Daniels, a supposed sexual predator, enters the small, peaceful town of Bodega Bay, she does so to prey on Mitch Brenner. We find out, just as much by her actions as by Annie's speech, that Lydia is very jealous of her son's women. Melanie is also introducing her carnality onto the town as a whole. She brings the love birds for Cathy. Mitch had at first asked that the love birds not be too willing to display their love, and the first thing that Cathy asks is, "How can I tell which one is male and which one is female?" Notice also that the mother in the restaurant attacks her for being responsible. This ought to seem ridiculous, but it seems perfectly logical in the text of this film. The woman says, "I think you're responsible. Who are you? WHAT are you?" At the end of the film, Lydia does seem to accept Melanie. The birds are still there, but they do not harm them as they leave.
Too often this film gets shoved into the horror genre and left there. I believe it was Hitchcock's most successful film, and for some reason, I think that more people could identify it and identify it as a Hitchcock film than any of his other films except for maybe Psycho. The Birds, and Psycho, too, which is also often classified as a horror film (which it is not in any way) are far too complex to be labeled with such a small label. They are both masterpieces. Psycho has always been regarded as one. The Birds is sometimes, but not as often. It is certainly one of Hitchcock's best. This man was a god. The Birds is a godly film. 10/10