The Birds (1963)

 

The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous and most spectacular films (and a particular favorite of mine). Ostensibly the story of how birds begin attacking humans for no apparent reason, the film’s plot centers around Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), a wealthy woman who meets lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet shop and stalks him all the way to his family’s home in the isolated California coastal town of Bodega Bay. Over the course of a weekend, Melanie seemingly becomes integrated in the life of the town, meeting Mitch’s mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy, using a highly theatrical acting style completely out of sync with the rest of the cast but all the more fascinating because of it), his younger sister (Veronica Cartwright), and even one of his old girlfriends, schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette, who almost steals the film with her enigmatic line deliveries and world weary facial expressions). However, it’s not the plot that got the film its sole Oscar nomination; it was the series of bird attacks, still one of the key reasons for which the film is viewed by film lovers and academics. Numerous sequences stand out, such as the one involving a flock of crows going after school children, another taking place at a gas station with some particularly aggressive seagulls, and even the final much-copied sequence as Mitch and his family escort Melanie through a crowd of birds who are momentarily resting before they perhaps begin another attack. The film does have some interesting psychosexual implications, especially in the relationship between Mitch and his overly-clingy mother (a bit too Freudian in its suggestiveness), and its use of only diegetic sound and editing techniques are certainly noteworthy, but after watching a children’s birthday party ruined by another bird attack, you might be forgiven for overlooking some of the film’s underlying implications and marvel at how the filmmakers managed to wrangle all of those birds.

Oscar Nomination: Best Special Visual Effects