The Birds **

 

I noticed when watching The Birds (1963) yesterday that Hitchcock lit Tippi a lot differently than anyone else. While Tandy gave her some heavy, intense stares as Rod's jealous, possessive mother not wanting her boy taken from her and Pleshette was glammed down to be simply a Bodega Bay schoolteacher, neither actress got the "model of beauty" soft light special treatment Hitchcock provided for his leading ladies. And Hitch never let Tippi go without looking a million bucks even after her attic bird attack. Speaking of that attic attack, that bad boy still holds up...those bevy of birds just keep pelting and biting and clawing without refrain.

I figure some Hitchcock fans might not consider the setup that gets Hedren's Melanie to Bodega Bay, among other plot developments--her slight tension with Pleshette's Annie over Rod's Mitch, Mitch and Melanie's flirty friction and ongoing getting-to-know-you, the bird store in San Francisco opening, the hazardous road drive by Melanie as she recklessly speeds down the curvy roads to Bodega Bay, Cartwright's Cathy begging Melanie to stay for a while, Melanie looking to surprise Mitch with the lovebirds by boat, Melanie and Annie discussing Mitch, Melanie opened up to by an emotional Lydia about losing her husband and being all alone, and Melanie's mommy issues exposed in a talk with Mitch--perhaps not as strong or interesting as previous Hitchcock classics. But I remained personally invested all the way through.

And when the birds do attack, there is a diner scene where a mother and her kids overhear Melanie talking about the school kids attacked while an authoritarian on bird species calls that into question. Patrons in the diner go back and forth on birds revolting against man, the doomsday aspects of it, with kindled fear circulating.

The gas station explosion where a bird goes right into a motorist's face, and the pump pools fuel at another smoker's car with a lit match accident causing multiple vehicles to go up setting off the birds to go crazy still remains to me a very harrowing individual crisis. One bird swoops down and the dominoes fall.

Nature unleashes it's fury. Hitchcock makes sure that the birds en masse or flocking in frenzy go from quiet to unyielding, calms and storms without explanation. And for all we know the birds do win. Melanie with bandages on her head and wounds throughout her face and body after the bewildering decision to go into the attic, with Mitch rescuing her before they could savage her as they did Annie, is so traumatized she can't walk. With assistance from Mitch and Lydia, Melanie will have to be taken to her car. The birds, lots and lots just sitting still and watching the family, chillingly claim Bodega Bay, it seems. Hitchcock doesn't just offer a resolution.

Annie's death is also quite chilling. Her battered and bloodied body at the end of her house's steps, Cathy inside with terror and tears, sacrificing herself for the girl, it is quite a reminder of what the birds are capable of. What if the birds just collectively went berserk? Hitchcock leaves the birds as the victors. The bar patron who goes on and on about just wiping out the birds, needing to be told just how many of them exist, Hitchcock shows just how such talk is balderdash. And the supposed loon in the bar going on about the end of time might have been onto something. 

But the mother scared for her kids blaming Melanie for cursing their town with her visit had it all wrong...the birds didn't need her visit to prove how dangerous they could be.