Death from above

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2016)

A Hitchcock classic from 1963 featuring Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels who goes to Bodega Bay to surprise Rod Taylor's Mitch Brenner with a gift for his young sister. Almost at the same time as arriving flocks of birds begin attacking the townsfolk with deathly consequences.
Based very loosely on a Daphne du Maurier story by the same name (Hitchcock has used her material before), and also based on a real, but strange, incident in Monterey Bay (1961) where birds frenzied after eating toxic substances. The film shows the start of the attacks and how those affected cope with it and try to survive. The acting is great much like you'd expect from a Hitchcock film and the script allows them to come across as authentic and believable - albeit Melanie comes across as a bit of a stalker at the start of the film the way she hunts and follows Mitch. The cinematography is superb although there is a lot of studio filmed footage in the film which is noticeable by today's standards - this however doesn't detract from the film. Being the master of suspense Hitchcock decided to leave the films ending open to interpretation although 40+ years later people are still debating why the birds began attacking in the first place. Is Melanie's arrival with the caged love birds a catalyst? Is it a revenge for the treatment of birds in real life (as mentioned at various points in the film)? Is it (as mentioned a few times) the end of the world slowly unfolding? Whatever the reason behind it audiences who watch this today will be as baffled as audiences who watched this in the 60's. As a standalone film this is great, by today's standards of quality you may be disappointed by the CGI and fake blood, maybe even the naivety of some of the townsfolk too. If you forget those things and sit and watch the film for what it is you'll surely enjoy it.
I'm giving this 6 out 10. Having studied Hitchcock at college it still gives me a wry smile thinking about how he pitched to sell this to studio executive as a profitable venture. :)