Yay I've gone bronze and no tanning bed in sight!!
Thanks to everyone for your ratings and comments...
Yay I've gone bronze and no tanning bed in sight!!
Thanks to everyone for your ratings and comments.
I always try to return all ratings and if I promise an E and don't get back to you feel free to give me a poke.
Sue
Member since:30.05.2009
Reviews:410
Members who trust:91
I'm starting this review with a quote from the Master himself, Alfred Hitchcock:
"When a new Hitchcock film appears, the public and critics sit back at the start and say to themselves, 'Let's see him scare me.' My job is to get them up on the edge of their seats, and to keep them there. It gets more difficult all the time because one must find new ways to surprise an audience. Any time a viewer of one of my films can say to himself, 'I knew that was coming,' I've lost him."
THE BIRDS
After his groundbreaking 1960 shocker 'Psyco', Alfred Hitchcock re-emerged three years later with 'The Birds' - a story of a California coastal town filled with an onslaught of seemingly unexplained, attacks by ordinary birds. 'The Birds' was based on the story of the same name written by Daphne Du Maurier - this was Hitchcock's third major film based on the author's works (after Jamaica Inn (1939) and Rebecca (1940). In the original story the birds were attacking in the English countryside, not in the Calafornian town used in the film.
This film shows Hitchcock at his best as 'Master of Suspense' and covers a five day period from Friday to Tuesday.
The film starts with a white background, as silhouettes of dark bird-shapes rush through and destroy the credits as they appear. These birds are accompanied by screeching, flapping wings and birds cries.- Hitchcock
has grabbed your attention from the beginning and you start moving to the front of your seat!!
Tippi Hedren (Melanie Griffith's mother) made her debut in this film playing a San Francisco heiress.
We first meet this character - Melanie - on her way into Davidson's Pet Shop, she passes an exiting customer (Alfred Hitchcock in his customary cameo role) being pulled along by a pair of terriers (Hitchcock's own dogs Geoffrey and Stanley)
A chance meeting with solicitor Mitch Brenner (portrayed by Rod Taylor) in this shop, where he pretends not to know her (the part she is playing is a 60's Paris Hilton type character) leaves her eager play a trick on him. She orders two lovebirds and sets out to deliver them to the coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his young sister and mother (Jessica Tandy). Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.
The way that Hitchcock keeps the viewer engrossed with playful little hints even though the first real attack doesn't come until around the film's halfway point is wonderful and makes the tension and terror becomes almost intolerable, but ecstatic too.
Suddenly, what we have been waiting for happens At the Bodega Bay school, while a birthday party is being held in the playground, hundreds of birds suddenly and bizarrely attack the children. This though is only the beginning, that night Melanie, Mitch and his mother and sister are besieged by hundreds of sparrows flying down the chimney at their home.
Could there be any more birds left to cause havoc on this little town? How will Mitch, Melanie and the rest of the town people cope?
The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror
Over forty years after The Birds was released it remains one of the most chilling and disturbing movies ever made.
Are the birds an external symptom of the pain caused by broken relationships?
Is this Hitchcock's cautionary story about what happens when you keep animals in cages? I
Is it what happens when you cage your emotions?
These are all left unanswered, Hitchcock leaves those decisions for us to make.
CAST AND CREW
"Cast" Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner Susanne Pleshette as Annie Hayworth Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner Veronica Cartwright as Cathy Brenner
"Crew" Alfred Hitchcock - Director Evan Hunter - Screenplay Robert Burks - Photography Daphne Du Maurier - Original Story Bernard Herrmann - Sound Consultant Ray Berwick. _ Animal Trainer
AWARDS
Golden Globes (1964): Most Promising Newcomer - Female (Tippi Hedren) American Film Institute Ranked 7th in the list of AFI: 100 Most Thrilling Movies Ever Edgar Allan Poe Awards (1964): Nominated for Best Motion Picture (Evan Hunter) Academy Awards - Oscars (1964): Nominated for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects (Ub Iwerks) American Film Institute Nominated for the AFI: 100 Greatest American Movies list
DVD
I have been disappointed in the past with some older fims that have been transferred to DVD, but with The Birds the picture quality is fabulous with good colour quality and l clear sound.
Format: PAL Language English Subtitles: German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Classification: 15 Studio: Universal Pictures UK DVD Release Date: 17 Oct 2005 Run Time: 115 minutes ASIN: B00005N6RU
"Special Features"
All About The Birds - about how the piece came to be made, from the short story by Daphne Du Maurier to the production.
Deleted Scene - not really a deleted scene, but a collection of script pages and production stills from a scene between Mitch and Melanie that originally took place outside of the farmhouse after Lydia left for the neighbouring farm.
The Original Ending - shows the script pages and storyboard for the original ending where the town is desecrated by the birds.
Storyboard Sequence
Tippi Hendren's Screen Test
"The Birds" Is Coming - Universal Newsreel (trailer/preview)
NOTE
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the film, in 2008 a "The Birds" BarbieŽ Doll was released dressed in a re-creation of the stylish green skirt-suit worn by the film's ill-fated heroine in It has a perfectly painted expression and accompanying black birds - I wouldn't think that there have been many films of this ilk that have commissioned a BarbieŽ Doll !!
CONCLUSION
For viewers who are willing to set aside the idea that this film is old-fashioned; or for viewers tired of horror films being merely blood and gore; this classic Alfred Hitchcock's film really fits the bill for terror and suspense.
"And remember, the next scream you hear could be your own!"
Pictures of The Birds (DVD)
The Birds (DVD)
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Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Nothing equals The Birds for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends ... more
in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces. As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels ('Tippi' Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelo...
Wealthy reformed party girl Melanie Daniels enjoys a brief flirtation with lawyer Mitch ... more
Brenner in a San Francisco pet shop and decides to follow him to his Bodega Bay home. Bearing a gift of two lovebirds Melanie quickly strikes up a romance with Mit...
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