Review of Birds, The

Introduction

Hitchcock’s coldest, but most self-sustained film is a psycho-analytic shocker where inner fears are rendered in a hailstorm of psychopathic birds: Tippi Hedren is the cosmopolitan San Fran bird-shop madame who runs into Rod Taylor’s bulbous smoothie and decides to stalk him all the way to the seaside picket-fence paradise of Bodega Bay. But there’s a punishment for her illicit desire (and it’s not just Jessica Tandy’s looming matriarch) but a seemingly relentless storm of bird attacks. So, in between random acts of savage bird-violence, Hedren attempts to elucidate her desire in the face of the oncoming onslaught and naturally (this is Hitchcock after all) fails miserably.

Video

The picture is strong: good colours and contrast given the age; but the lack of widescreen severely compromises the film’s compositions (they got it in Region 1, why don’t we?!?) To make matters worse, the documentary uses footage of the film to illustrate the comments by the interviewees, and guess what, it’s in widescreen. The cheek of it.

Audio

Only mono, and little more was to be expected. Still, I can’t help but want to hear those shrieking birds in surround sound, pecking at my ears while I watch school children be mercilessly attacked… well I can dream can`t I?

Features

You are a spoiled bunch: an excellent 80 minute documentary detailing the production and the film’s famous set-pieces. If it does seem to gloss over Hitchcock’s invariably perverse relationship with his leading lady, this is amply illustrated in some truly astonishing screen tests which let us closer than ever to Hitchcock’s filmmaking process. If the photo galleries are typically uninspired, there’s two deleted scenes (with script pages and storyboard sketches) and the hilarious trailer presented by Mr. Hitchcock himself. Best of all though are the Universal newsreels which give a snapshot of the film’s initial marketing process, including Hedren playing rather nervously with some over-zealous ravens. Priceless, and one of the few occasions where it would be a cheek for us to ask for more.

Conclusion

A screwball comedy set-up evolves into a moody domestic drama and finally ends up as a mind-f***ing monster movie of a most twisted and compassionless kind. Ignoring for a moment the dated special effects (particularly the overuse of studio sodium lighting as a replacement for locations) and its initial box office failure, this is simply Hitchcock’s last masterpiece. Hitchcock takes the B-movie conventions of De Maurier’s short story and uses it to construct a study in an unmotivated expression of the sexual repression and suppressed fears of the film’s characters. It’s perverse in itself: a high-budget studio monster-horror which is essentially a character chamber-piece with apocalyptic overtones; but Hitchcock, in typically grandiose style, cranks the thing beyond fever-pitch.

Typically though, the set-pieces are truly stunning: with the post-school massacre being a particularly amazing piece of cinematic violence rendered with appalling immediacy and a true sense of horror. Hedren’s final ravaging by the birds remains as shocking a display of chaotic assault as it did on its release and the ambiguous dread of the nihilistic ending is an unforgettable bone-chiller. This remains however a heavily metaphorical horror about uncaged birds and imprisoned humans and their wandering, self-obsessed complacence. That is, until the birdies come down from the sky and decide that enough is enough. A truly great movie, but if you can, get the Region 1 version: more extras and widescreen. Yet again we’re let down in Region 2, but it takes more than that to dampen the brilliance of this truly nightmarish film.