A bit dated in spots, but still better than 90% of movies made today.

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2010)

This is one of the best films from one of the greatest filmmakers in movie history. It's not a perfect movie and parts of it do show their age, but the countless inferior horror stories in the same vein that followed The Birds testify to its exceptional quality.
Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) is like a Bizarro Paris Hilton. She's a rich man's daughter who doesn't think the rules of society apply to her. But unlike the debauchery and narcissistic self-promotion of Miss Hilton, Melanie Daniels is the sort of outrageous débutante that makes life more interesting. She's smart and bold and playful and uses her wealth and privilege to do things that normal people can't do, even though many of them wish they could. For example, after being taken to task one day by the charmingly arrogant Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), Melanie decides to take a day out of her life to drive up from San Francisco to tiny Bodega Bay with a pair of lovebirds, just to tweak this almost unknown man and let him know he didn't get one up on her.
Melanie doesn't get to have the last word and walk away, however. She meets Mitch's little sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and his brittle mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy). Lydia clings to Mitch like her rock in a raging sea and sees Melanie as a hammer that might break that rock out from under her. Melanie also encounters Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), the local school teacher who views the rich, worldly and more liberated Melanie the way a fisherwoman might view a storm on the horizon. She's also a woman who was in love with Mitch, but their romance couldn't withstand the cold opposition of Lydia.
While The Birds is still unsettling and full of powerful images and sharp, intelligent dialog, the most striking thing about it is that the relationship between Mitch, Melanie, Annie and Lydia could have been the core of a completely different kind of movie. You can easily imagine Hitchcock plunging these characters into his more traditional tale of mystery and murder. That's not what happens, though. Mitch, Melanie, Annie and Lydia, along with the villagers of Bodega Bay, find themselves caught up in an insane rebellion of nature. Birds begin attacking the people of Bodega Bay. First one at a time, and then thousands of them descend on the town in waves of blood and terror until it's not clear is anyone at all will survive.
The Birds is a tremendous bit of work, but I don't think there's any need to pretend about it as a story and a film. Though Hitchcock uses real birds to eerie effect, the 1963 special effects don't hold up very well. It's also true that to an audience that grew up with Jaws, Alien and Jurassic Park, the idea of murderous flocks of birds isn't quite as shocking or scary as it once might have been. Though it still has powerful moments, most modern viewers are going to be a bit jaded to some of the thrills this movie throws at them.
Those little chinks in The Birds' armor can't detract from the otherwise superb writing, direction and performances in the film. Tippi Hedren is gorgeous and magnetic. Suzanne Pleshette is strong and sexy and actually speaks with a sultry female tone and not the sound of sandpaper on a wet possum. Rod Taylor carries off the less formed role of the slightly dickish Mitch Brenner with the verve of an old time movie star. Jessica Tandy takes a character that could have been hateful and barren and gives her human depth. And while I'm not sure pop culture remembers, there are scenes and moments in The Birds that are as visually compelling as anything Hitchcock ever did.
Hitchcock is one of those filmmakers you have to watch. The Birds is one of those Hitchcock films you have to see. Do yourself a favor and rent it.