The Birds
| release date | November 30 1962 |
| studio | Universal |
| director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| writer | Evan Hunter |
| starring | Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
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3 Comments
Hitchcock isn’t necessarily the amazing director everyone credits him as. Of the films I’ve seen by him, all of them were boring and never gave the “suspense” that everyone also credits him for. Far better and more original directors have been bashed and hated by critics and never once recognized for what they do. That said, Hitchcock was solid and has some nifty camera angles that do make his films much more unnerving and intense than a good chunk of modern horror.
The movie itself must have been amazing in its time. A lot of R-rated movies today are tamer than this PG-13 rated movie, and nowhere near as intense. The bird animations are laughable, the first hour gives boring a new definition, the acting and dialogue are trite and silly–but it’s hard to call this a bad movie.
The lack of music and the camera style both reek of realism, and that’s a very good thing. The scares and intensity of the last 30 minutes are hard to match if you aren’t laughing at the bird animations. Add a couple weird-out moments and an ending so open it’s effective, and you have a solid movie. I’d go as far as to say it’s superior to The Mist, which is essentially the same movie.
If the remake keeps all the positives and makes it less cheesy I don’t see how any horror fan could dislike it.
amazing.
I don’t understand why people praise this movie. I enjoy Hitchcock’s other films, especially Psycho, but honestly this was Hitchcock at his worst. Boring, over-the-top, and unintentionally hilarious could all be used to describe this. It doesn’t come close to equalling the genius of Psycho, Rear Window, or just about any other Hitchcock film.
The people who do not find this brilliant obviously are not serious horror fans. this a groundbreaking, landmark horror film. awesome.
i hate when crows get together
CLassic
This movie is pretty good, but nothing to write home about. Hitchcock was a forefather of horror, and I would recommend people see this, but it should not be on anybody’s top 25 lists. Hitchcock has far better movies than this, but again, it is not a bad movie, just not his best.
i like this movie, its creppy, just the tthe thought of a murder of crows go after you and kills you by picking out your eyes.
i bought this movie and they had colorised it:P
I adore The Birds. It is without a doubt my favourite film of all time. As a young teenager, I used to watch it every Sunday and know it word for word… It just connected with me on some level – I really can’t explain totally why that is, but it has a lot to do with the heightened soundtrack and open ending.
I have even visited Bodega Bay whilst I was over in America (stayed in San Fran) and had lunch at The Tides restaurant.
I will watch the remake and am hoping they follow the orignal novella more closely.
i know its a classic but it is kinda boaring great ending!
Loved it. Love that it’s not the obvious sort of baddie you would expect in a horror movie and yet it’s still horribly scary.
I’m a die haer fan of Hitchcock so I love this movie, the acting is wonderful, the script is great and the directing…. HELLO it’s Hitchcock he is in my opinion the greatest director of all time.
But about the movie…
Well it has Tippi Hedren (LOVE HER) playing what I concider the role of her life time.
I saw this when I as little and to this day birds on phone lines or power lines make me shake! I love this movie and give it a 10 out of 10
one of hitchcocks finest hours, not his greatest ever, but close, amazing performance from tippi hedren and the effects are actually quite good for its time period, gotta love the hitch though hes the master. check it out.
hitchcock may have been the best horror director of all time. He could establish fear without using any gore throughout an entire movie. This was great
It was one of Hitchcock’s greats. It also is most definitively a classic to say the very least. The only question that I’m left wondering is why did the birds attack and try to kill all the people in Bodega Bay? I’m clueless on that one, but I really did love the bird’s eye view camera angle in the film as well. I thought it couldn’t of been done better!
9/10!
this school scene haunts my dreams,
a timeless movie that delivers BIG TIME!
damn those are some scary ass birds!
amaizng old school movie…how can you deny a Hitchcock movie anything but the best?
wonderful !
A Masterpice By AH Himself Tefficly scary nd suspens is perfect fra 1963 Horror film
Awesome.
Actually pretty scary!
Reccomended!
Well it’s better than “Rear Window” which I found unbearably boring. The Birds is very lame, I found myself laughing at the bad acting, the ridiculous dialogue and the horrendous bird effects. I found all the characters really annoying, a very unlikeable bunch, they deserve to get a load of murderous birds pecking at them! But I actually enjoyed this film in a sick kind of way, I like the way it had no naff music to accompany the overall naffness of the whole film. It was so bad it was good. Hitchcock? Probably the most overrated directors ever, I mean, EVER!
I don’t get why people think a film from 1962 is going to look and sound the same as a film from 2010. Yeah, the effects obviously aren’t hi-def Blu-ray CGI, but they were not only very good for their time, they can still provide the illusion that masses of birds are going loco in California. While I’m not a fan of ambiguous endings, the final shot can be quite chilling.
And yes, some of the acting was cheesy and awkward, and the script was a little rough at the beginning, but the last half of the film is much tighter. As much as I like Rod Taylor, the acting itself really took shape when Jessica Tandy appeared; until that point, I felt the actors were mostly just playing their assigned parts, but she was mother Lydia.
I think it’s worth noting that this film isn’t actually like “The Mist,” or even NotLD or any other film about people trapped by outside forces. If anything, King and others may have been influenced by Hitchcock’s take on Daphne du Maurier’s story, or even the story itself (King is, after all, a writer and not a film maker). There are similarities, but really, how can a story from 1980 influence a story from 1952?
Besides, the birds end up being more of a backdrop for the story about the human characters — a strong man, and three women who want his attention (four, if you count his little sister who looks more like she should be his daughter). Hitchcock was big about allegory and symbolism, and this film is ripe with both if one wants to look for it. The birds don’t really get as much focus until the last hour or so, and by then the characters are firmly established, and the mayhem can sort out who’ll have a change of character.
The main thing to realize about this film is that it was made in a very different time. The smoking, the booze, the lack of seat belts and kid seats — there’s even a horse-drawn carriage. We just don’t see those anymore, unless the movie is set near the Amish! If the viewer keeps that in mind, along with the fact that filming and acting techniques, and special effects, were done differently in 1962, they’ll have an easier time appreciating this film as a tale of suspense told by Hitchcock.
one of the greatest horror movies ever made!!
another classic film
An absolutely fantastic and landmark horror classic, definitely one of Hitchcock’s most impressive flicks. It’s extremely suspenseful and atmospheric, wonderfully filmed, full of beautiful settings, terrific special effects, brilliantly written dialogue and superb acting performances. Nuff said.
The birds is another Hitchcock masterpiece. The bird effects were actually pretty great for the time and the actors do great jobs. I also really liked the setting. Fantastic film
This is such a great movie. The ending was a bit of a letdown but the rest of the movie is just fucking awesome.
All I hear is what a classic movie this is, I remember watching this when I was 12 and thinking it was dumb. I just watched it again yesterday as a 20 year old, and my opinion has not changed. I always liked Hitchcock movies and Psycho is one of my favorites of all time, but The Birds is just overrated in my opinion. I was bored throughout and had to force myself to watch the last 20 minutes.
one of my favourite hitchcock movies, although i dont find it personally scary i can see why it can play on the subconcious of a person…..and why so many people hate birds!!
I love classics, and usually I hate remakes, but seriously this one needs to be remade. The effects are laughable in this movie, even for a top-notch classic.
Still, one impressive movie. The scene with the crows outside the school was my favorite. Just love this movie. It starts off so sweet and innocent, you think it’s going to be just another fun family 60′s flick.
SIKE!