Birds

The Birds


The birds is a 1963 horror/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. the writers of the film were Daphne Du Maurier who wrote the story and Evan Hunter who wrote the screen play. The stars of the film were Rob Taylor, Tippi Hendren and Suzanne Plushette. The film is 119 minutes long.

Thriller Conventions 
The external threat in the film is from nature, 'The Birds'. Usually in Hitchcock films there's 'nowhere to hide' for example in birds they were in

Bodega Bay, stuck.  Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing and frequent action,. In the birds it has a lot of fast pacing and frequent action for example in birds the 'eyes pecked out' scene, the other goes to see the farmer and when she goes upstairs his eyes are pecked out by birds she goes running gets in her car and shes speechless. Also, the resourceful hero from the film was the actor was Mitch, who helped out the most he thwarted the plans of the villains who were the birds.
Furthermore, there's a lot of suspense used in the film, for example when Melanie is going into the school she notices all the birds outside and she goes
into the school and tells everyone to run out.
In addition, dramatic irony is also used in the film, for example in the school yard scene Tippi Hendren does not know the birds have been gathering but the audience does, the audience has knowledge denied to the character. Hitchcock Technique (sound) in the schoolyard scene the underlying score of the innocent child's song is in contrast to the evil in the nature. Tippi Henderson's character is only guilty of taking nature for granted. In the birds the MacGuffin is the 'love birds' because because of the birds the story kept going, the audience don't really care about the birds they want to see the actor and actress get together.


Did you know?
The scene where Tippi Hendren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to film, the birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they could not get away. It is believed that Hitchcock had a crush on Tippi and she rejected him so he just told her to go upstairs and open the door, she didn't know that she was going to be ambushed by the birds. it is said to believe that Tippi suffered a lot from that, she was in therapy for years. Also, the film features 370 effects shots. The final shot is composite of 32 separately filmed elements. In conclusion, a number of endings were being
considered for this film. One that was considered
would have showed the Golden Gate Bridge
completely covered by birds.
However the film didn't finish with the usual 'THE END'
title because Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of
unending terror.


When audience left the film's UK premier at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sound of screeching and flapping birds by loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.