Leaves one question in the air: «What if birds turned against us?»

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2010)

'The Birds' is one of the highest achievements by The Master of Suspense. It's a strange but interesting movie. It combines suspense and horror in a classic but fascinating way.
However, it isn't just some suspense/horror film. It is very original and unusual. In this motion picture, the birds turn against humans. Apparently, this movie made many people fear the birds after watching it. I don't believe this could happen in real life. I mean, I know that birds can attack when they are messed up with or when they feel threatened but I don't believe they'd attack with no reason, much less entire crowds of birds.
Nevertheless, this is what could happen if birds declared war against humankind in real life. The movie is triumphant on this. What it lacks is an explanation. The movie is nearly 2 hours long and it just ends without explaining why did the birds attack people. Was it revenge? Some kind of mental disease or virus? We don't know.
While I wouldn't exactly get "bird phobia" because of this film, it somewhat makes one look at birds differently. I even remember once coming near some construction near the sea and I realized there were a cup of gulls standing on its roof and it was a bit creepy - it made me think of this film, particularly the scene when Melanie is on the school yard sitting on the fence near the playground, smoking a cigarette and we see behind her a bird flying to a jungle gym and then more and more birds show up until the whole playground is full of them.
The birds of the film are mostly seagulls, crows and ravens (they're the ones that viciously attack) but there also parakeets (hilariously called "lovebirds" in the film). The parakeets never do any harm, but they get crazy in some scenes.
The film takes place in Bodega Bay, California - which is almost like the apocalypse with all those birds attacks. Many of these birds attacks are impressing, including those which children are attacked at school. Besides, the loud sounds of the birds are brilliant and accent the atmosphere: both the sounds of them "yelling" (they are well know for being noisy birds) and the crazy sounds of them flapping their winds.
As for the cast, the best ones are Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels, Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner and a very attractive Suzanne Pleshette as the teacher Annie Hayworth.
This should definitely be on Top 250.