Product Description: AS BEAUTIFUL BLONDE MELANIE DANIELS ROLLS INTO BODEGA BAY IN PURSUIT OF ELIGIBLE BACHELOR MITCH BRENNER, SHE IS INEXPLICABLY ATTACKED BY A SEAGULL. SUDDENLY THOUSANDS OF BIRDS ARE FLOCKING INTO TOWN, PREYING ON SCHOOLCHILDREN AND RESIDENTS IN A TERRIFYING SERIES OF ATTACKS. CONTAINS MANY BONUS FEATURES.
Amazon.com essential video: Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes." From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and--despite the sci-fi trappings--one of Hitchcock's most serious films. --Robert Horton
The Birds Still fun to watch even all these years later.
If the birds at the park have ever buzzed you in dissatisfaction at your invading their park, you will surely enjoy this movie.
Unforgettable This is one of those landmark films where if you saw it in the theater when it was released, you never forgot the experience.
What I'll never forget - and this is true, so help me - is that moments after I left the theater, a couple birds swooped over my head. I thought I'd have a heart attack at the age of 18!! I never forgot that. It still creeps me out.
Since then, I've seen the film at least a half dozen times, on TV, VHS and on DVD and always found it fascinating....even 40-some years later. Sure, it doesn't pack the wallop it did when it came out, and it's a bit too talky in spots for today's tastes, but it's still scary
I'd like to see a good Blu-Ray treatment given to this film, since I've never seen a great transfer of this movie.....and that includes this disc, which looks grainy (and why I gave it four stars instead of five.)
Beware! Beware! The package and Amazon state, that this DVD is "Widescreen". Sadly, it is not. It is, however, still a great, classic film. Enjoy!
ONE OF HITCH'S BEST It's amazing how well this classic has held up over the years. Hitchcock's use of silence to build suspense was marvelously innovative, and as usual, the pschological underpinnings of The Master's characters play a large part in adding to the tension of the plot.
This edition boasts good color, and sound, and some fun extra's ( Tippi Hedren's screen test among them ).
Disturbing Made in the mid-Sixties, this film has no backing music and is shot mainly in the town of Bodega Bay, California. Melanie Daniels (Tippy Hedren) is the daughter of the publisher of "one of the larger newspapers in San Francisco" and carries, along with her two surprise lovebirds, a sense of entitlement. Mitch (Rod Taylor) is a self-assured lawyer who lives with his widowed mother and young sister in Bodega Bay.
For some reason these characters are annoying from the get-go. Melanie is precious about her entitlement, and Mitch is a little too smirky and cold. As the horrific action progresses, we see these characters gain humanity. This is the only lift in this film. This film is masterfully filmed. The early scene of Melanie in the boat, in the middle of the bay, is especially memorable.
Hitchcock seemed to select the location, set up the characters, and then let the mechanics roll like a well-oiled machine. As smoothly as Melanie's sports car. But he inserts his trademark sadism in this movie. People are targeted as individuals. It is almost the mass that wins -- the mass of birds gathering along the coast. It is almost the fear of the individual that Hitchcock evokes.
The townspeople are afraid (superstitiously so) of Melanie, the gilded stranger who is so unlike them. Melanie is hinted at being a bit stunted emotionally from not having known her mother. Mitch is hinted at having had affairs he drops because of his controlling mother. The person behind the facade, the things people hide -- these are the things that Hitchcock nags at, pokes his viewers with, and in his vision, these things are ominous.
At the end there is some assurance that "the military will be involved." Only a mass of anonymous men can fight the anonymous birds.
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