"The Birds" review
Maybe I'm doing a 50 films instead of 50 books. If so, this's at least #2.
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963, Wikipedia, IMDB) isn't all that good. There's no musical score to it, which I hear is a classic Hitchcock thing to do, but as modern viewers are used to it, the movie is very clearly lacking it. The story of the characters isn't interesting, and the cause for the birds' attack isn't stated though there are implications of it (Mitch: "Doesn't this make you feel awful... having all these poor little innocent creatures caged up like this?" "Into your gilded cage, Melanie Daniels." "The judge should have put you behind bars." Melanie: "Is that why you want to see everyone behind bars?").
The bird sounds it turns out, are entirely artificial (no wonder they sound more like a cat fight). The "green screen" -type effects are obvious to a modern viewer, but in the context of the time are amazing - apparently "Hitch" was obsessed with doing as much as possible in a studio. I'm pretty sure that actual animals were harmed in the making of this film - they threw birds at Hedren for a week to get the attack scene, they trained birds to dive bomb adults, tie birds to children's backs, put meat on the camera lens, and tape and wire beaks shut so they wouldn't hurt the actors - despite the presence of the ASPCA on the set, and a bird rescue operation being started on the site. They had thousands of birds, and even had to raise a flock (murder) of crows just for the movie. The excessive smoking is strange to me, but I'm sure normal for then.
One especially cute moment was when Melanie was driving up to Bodega Bay with the lovebirds on the floor of the passenger seat, and as the car went around a turn in one direction the (presumably stuffed) birds lean to one side, and then the car turned the other way and the birds leaned the other way.
The film isn't that great on its own. See it if you like the history of film. I like the "making of" video better.
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963, Wikipedia, IMDB) isn't all that good. There's no musical score to it, which I hear is a classic Hitchcock thing to do, but as modern viewers are used to it, the movie is very clearly lacking it. The story of the characters isn't interesting, and the cause for the birds' attack isn't stated though there are implications of it (Mitch: "Doesn't this make you feel awful... having all these poor little innocent creatures caged up like this?" "Into your gilded cage, Melanie Daniels." "The judge should have put you behind bars." Melanie: "Is that why you want to see everyone behind bars?").
The bird sounds it turns out, are entirely artificial (no wonder they sound more like a cat fight). The "green screen" -type effects are obvious to a modern viewer, but in the context of the time are amazing - apparently "Hitch" was obsessed with doing as much as possible in a studio. I'm pretty sure that actual animals were harmed in the making of this film - they threw birds at Hedren for a week to get the attack scene, they trained birds to dive bomb adults, tie birds to children's backs, put meat on the camera lens, and tape and wire beaks shut so they wouldn't hurt the actors - despite the presence of the ASPCA on the set, and a bird rescue operation being started on the site. They had thousands of birds, and even had to raise a flock (murder) of crows just for the movie. The excessive smoking is strange to me, but I'm sure normal for then.
One especially cute moment was when Melanie was driving up to Bodega Bay with the lovebirds on the floor of the passenger seat, and as the car went around a turn in one direction the (presumably stuffed) birds lean to one side, and then the car turned the other way and the birds leaned the other way.
The film isn't that great on its own. See it if you like the history of film. I like the "making of" video better.