Tippi Hedren, who, by the way, is Melanie Griffith's mother, plays San Francisco resident Melanie Daniels who meets a lawyer in a pet shop. The lawyer, played by Rod Taylor, piques her interest in a strange conversatiuon in which she pretends to be a saleslady selling him two lovebirds. He saw through her ruse and she figures she will turn the tables by discovering who he is and buying him a surprise gift of the lovebirds. She discovers that although he lives in San Francisco, he spends weekends with his mother and little sister in a coastal community 60 miles north called Bodega Bay.

She makes the trip up to Bodega Bay and interesting relationships start to develop. She discovers that the local school teacher was an earlier romantic interest of Taylor's character and she discovers that his mother, played by Jessica Tandy, is somewhat distant and detached. She has a discussion, about the two, with the teacher (played by Suzanne Pleshette) and there is interesting character development in the works. These developing relationships take a different turn, however, when there are creepy, frightening attacks by groups of birds. A group of gulls breaks up a child's birthday party. Later, a larger group of crows attacks frightened school children. Each successive attack grows in intensity and in number of birds involved.

There is a climatic scene in which Melanie is attacked by gulls who bore their way into an upstairs bedroom. The history of the filming of this frightening scene is fascinating. Director, Alfred Hitchcock, wanted real birds, not fake ones used. He also, wanted Hedren, not a stunt woman or double being attacked. To get the birds to peck at Hedren, some were tied to her. Tippi Hedren must have been one heck of a good trooper to go through all that in order to film this scene the way Hitchcock wanted it. And, of course, she had to go through a lot since the scene was filmed in multiple takes.

Anyway, this was a frightening movie but there are lots of questions unanswered. The character development gets cut off as the focus of the film shifts to the bird attacks. Thus, there are unanswered questions about who some of the characters really are and what makes them tick. Also, we never get even a hint of what it was that set the birds off. Because of these unanswered qestions, I waver between 4 and 5 stars. However, I think that Hitchcock set out, ultimately, to make an action packed horror film so, rather than look for anything deeper (despite the hints of interesting character development) I will err on the generous side, therefore, 5 stars. Pushing me towards 5 stars are some interesting views into human nature. Some townspeople, such as the local law enforcement officer, make light of the reports of bird attacks. Certainly, it is human nature to try to deny something that is so frightening. There is "end of the world" preaching, and there is scapegoating as some provincial locals think that the outsider, Melanie Daniels, must have had something to do with the frightening events.

The movie "The Birds" Took place in San Fransisco, California and in Bodega Bay, California. In the begining Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner in a pet store wich leads Ms. Daniels to take love birds to Mitch. That is were the bird congregate and were mostly all of the attacks happen. The towns people try to blame Ms. Daniels for all the attacks on the town. The Brenners and Ms. Daniels go to the Brenners house and board it up while most people are trying to shrug off all the attacks and say that they were just flukes. The birds attack the house and try to get in but Mr. Brenner fights them off the best he can. The birds is one of Alfred Hitchcocks best movies in fact it is his first film for Universal Pictures. Overall the movie was pretty good for being a classic it is not my favorite classical movie but it still ranks up there towards the top.

MCHS CNY

The Birds just might be the scariest movie I have ever seen. Bodega Bay is under seige by a strange adversary; and no one ever knows why. Classic Hitchcock tale, a most original concept; not equalled before or since. This is Tippi Hedren's first film, and nothing short of a gripping mystery. Amazingly enough, it was the animators of Walt Disney that made the fireplace sequence possible

The funniest moment of this film for me is seeing the absolutely goofy, oddball, spaced out look on Tippi Hedren's face just before the gull whacks her in the head. What was she smoking?

Overall the most interesting part of the movie is finding out the personal details of the lives of the characters and how they mix. The birds attacking is secondary. The best bird attack is the girl getting pecked in the head while her legs flail about. That is disturbing but well done.

Strangely enough, or maybe not strangely at all, the film has aged. The building of the suspense, the progression from one strange behaviour of one bird to a mass attack from flocks, schools and shoals of birds is still perfect. We are also observing the building up of the hysterical attitudes of human beings in front of this situation, in all the shades and hues we can imagine. The bird-lover who does not want to believe it and turns against the stranger as the one who caused the disturbance. The drunkie who finds in the Bible the perfect explanation of the end of the world brought by birds. The rational policeman who refuses to believe it and tries to find some more criminal explanation. And then ordinary people who lose all sanity and become agressive, paranoiac and even psychotic under the shock when they realize that they cannor do anything against thousands of birds who are the perfect uncatchable army. Then Hitchcock goes a little bit further by showing how one or two people can remain sensible and resist the attack and run away without causing a new attack. But there is no hope, except to run away and hide. Against such a mass of assailants there is no real protection or defense. They can break windows, peck through roofs and doors. They are all-powerful. Hitchcock of course mixes a dose of humour in this drama, particularly in the first half with the meeting of his « Jane » and « his « Tarzan » in a bird shop where Tarzan, sorry Mitch, is looking for two lovebirds. Love indeed will come out of it, but on how many corpses and victims. Humour turns sour and bitter. But the ending is kind of flat : running away on tiptoe in a car after the battle lacks luster and shine, the flight of powerless people who cannot stand tall in front of danger. This is a new way of looking at the world. No fight is proper when you deal with a nearly invisible, innumerable and massive attacker. This is maybe a lesson about our modern world : we are very helpless in front of terrorism when it moves masses of warriors who do not fight according to standard war rules, methods and laws. How can you catch such enemies who are always on the move and are a multitude of unpredictable kamikazes ?

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU