The Birds – 1963
This was one of those movies that I have not seen in a long time, but I remember enjoying it. Not only did it have an interesting story, but it also had a bit of action, a thin but palatable romance, and some pretty unique special effects. Never before have I seen so many blue-screened birds seamlessly composited together on the screen at the same time. Of course, there were are few times when the blue-screening effects looked a little obvious, but most of the time, the birds were flying around so fast that the eye didn’t have time to focus on those minor flaws.
The plot was about the coastal town of Bodega Bay that is plagued by great flocks of birds that begin attacking and killing humans. Just as a side note, I love that the movie never explains why. Hitchcock used a combination of live animals, puppets, and animatronic birds to create the illusion of killer swarms of seagulls, crows, and sparrows. There isn’t an academy award for animal handlers or trainers, but I think that maybe they should be included in the special effects category.
In the scene where they attack children at a birthday party, there were several examples of animatronic birds as they were attached to the kids’ necks and shoulders. You could see the wings flapping mechanically, or beaks pecking repetitively. But then, through the use of a couple of quick cuts, live birds replaced the puppets before being batted away by adults. The transitions were smooth and well-done. But it had to be more than that because there were shots of gulls swooping in and landing on the children.
Hitchcock was an incredible director. One of the things he did in this film reminded me of one of the most highly praised scenes of his career, the shower scene from his 1960 movie, Psycho. He flashed a confused series of images in quick succession, implying a lot of motion. It is a very jarring and chaotic technique that doesn’t actually put the actor in the middle of a maelstrom, though they very much seem to be. So Tippy Hedren is alone in a room and is attacked by dozens of birds. There is actually very little movement in the individual images that flash across the screen. Her head turns here. Her ankle is bitten there, a scratch appears on her cheek here, her hand is bitten there. But watch the individual images. Some of them are almost still shots. It was so innovative! So masterfully done!
But birds attacking people were not the only effects in the film. There was a dead man with his eyes pecked out, a really great action sequence in which a mass of seagulls attack the townsfolk, a gasoline fire, and a man being burned to death. And then there was the film’s final chilling scene in which the birds have trapped our protagonists in a house. They have to make their way to a car through hundreds of birds that could resume their attack at any time. Just getting that many live birds to cover the ground, the roof, and every other available surface must have been a challenge in itself. But it all looked real enough. I say, well done, Mr. Hitchcock! Thanks for giving us something we had never seen before!