Nature's Delicate Balance Disturbed.

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2006)

The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcocks best known, if not best loved, films. It tells the tale of a small northern California town inexplicably besieged by birds. Or does it? To say so is like saying that The Maltese Falcon is about a statue of a bird.
Any literary connection between this film and the Daphne DuMaurier short story is purely accidental. Hitch kept nothing more than the title, and the rest is Evan Hunter's creation. Hunter, part of Hitch's machine, created what became a perfect vehicle for Hitch's vocabulary that had, by this time, become almost cliché.
There is the domineering mother, the dutiful son, the salacious blonde, and the slow, gentle descent into terror that only Hitch could weave from these threads. But as with any great story, which this is, one must look deeper to see the true meaning.
Consider this. Only when Melanie Daniels arrives in Bodega Bay do the birds begin their attacks, which is to say that her arrival somehow spoils the balance in Bodega Bay. In what way, you might ask. Well, one can't help but notice that Mitch Brenner sees Melanie as someone he might be interested in, even to the point of neglecting his clinging and needy mother. Surely Melanie disturbs the stalemate between Mitch and his former lover, the long-suffering school teacher Annie Hayworth. And, with her big city ways, she is in general a disquieting influence on the town.
Nature too maintains a delicate balance that can easily be thrown off balance, just as Bodega Bay is thrown off balance when Melanie breezes in with her convertible, her mink coat, and that pathetic little Edith Head green suit that she wears day after day as the movie progresses. In fact, the first bird attack is on Melanie herself, and for a time the attacks center around her.
Once unleashed, however, the force of nature spreads throughout the town. Hitch himself said the central theme of The Birds is Man's unworthiness to have dominion over Nature. As the movie progresses, he reverses that condition, giving Nature dominion over Man. In fact, the small birdcage of lovebirds foreshadows a later scene in which the Brenner home has become a sort of cage with the birds imprisoning the Brenners inside.
Having made this point, Hitch seemed to have nowhere to go. The original ending had Mitch, Melanie and crew eventually speeding away in her sexy convertible. The ending Hitch filmed instead was far more memorable, because it is another stalemate, leaving the viewer to wonder what might ultimately happen.
This film has aged remarkably well. Having not relied on special effects, which date films so badly, it loses nothing over time. The true genius of The Birds is its slow and almost inevitable slide into a terror that doesn't seem far fetched at all, unlike the preposterous premises for most modern suspense films. Of course, another delight is the powerful cast. Jessica Tandy, Susanne Pleshette, and Rod Taylor are flawless, as is Hitch's masterful touch.
Highly recommended.