The weather is hazy today, a lot of clouds and the birds fly low in flocks, filling the sky with their peeps and fluttering. You look up and watch their dancing figures and ...
As a cinephile, a classic movie comes to mind:
The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock
The opening titles does not give us a hint about what will follow. True to the title, it depicts small and medium-sized birds in the screen flying, while at the same time the names of the actors and cast of the film appear. What, though, gives us a thrill is the music (and the only time there is music in the film): slow, the strings turn up the volume, the piano keys sound heavy: all together they create a menacing atmosphere.
In the first scene, socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hendren) crosses the street with her elegant suit and her flawless hairstyle. She stops, smiles and as she looks up at the sky, she sees flocks of birds flying around in the sky. The next scene takes place inside a pet shop, which has mostly -guess what?- birds. In this environment - with birds, that is, in cages, our rich, spoilt heroine meets lawyer, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), who recognizes her from her earlier court hearing and makes an innocent practical joke of her as a way to "teach her a lesson". Melanie, fascinated by the young lawyer, buys a pair of lovebirds as present for his little sister and sets off to Bodega Bay, where he lives. She meets the sweet teacher of the area, Anne (Mitch's ex) and tries to get closer to Mitch. But during her way to meet him, she gets attacked by a seagull in the forehead.And this is the beginning of a terrifying attack of the birds against the citizens of Bodega Bay.
Hitchcock narrates a simple, short story, inspired loosely by the novel of Daphne DeMaurier, about the conflict between man and nature. But this time nature takes charge and attacks those who molest her. Birds attack to human, with no obvious reason. And the mighty, strong man can do nothing to face her wrath. Nature's executive means, even the smallest one birds, are everywhere and nothing can stop their impetuous attack. They invade through chimneys, break the windows, open holes in the roofs. And as much as we wonder how bad a small bird can do, imagine a swarm or rather many swarms of them attacking.
And yet the scariest image for me was not that of the corpses left behind by the birds after their attacks (and here we have to say that there is a scene with the most plausible image of a corpse with its eyes taken out - remember the movie was shot in 1963, without many special effects). The most frightening is that of the birds that all sat together on top of a jungle gym outside the school, lurking for the roght opportunity to come.
It gives you the chill, that all these birds are waiting for you. And you won't escape them.
But Hitchcock is not a one-tier director. In his films many analyses can be made at different levels. And it is no coincidence that he chose the specific protagonists: the spoiled socialite Melanie, who is forced to be interested in something other than herself and who at the end of the film accepts the -much deserved- punishment and sees the truth clearly.
Or the man of words, lawyer Mitch who takes action to help others, jumping on piers, running to save his fellow human beings. Even Mitch's cold, authoritarian mother, an exceptional Jessica Tandy at the role (reminds us of some of Hitchcock's other mother-son relationships, doesn't it? ) changes throughout the film, expressing her feelings.
And this is what the director wants us to get through. We need to change in order to deal with the situation. We can not see only ourselves or stay in words. We have to do changes before it's too late. By correcting one's defects, one will be able to reverse this situation.
And of course, Hitchcock's sardonic humor lurks to make it easier to get off the pill, even in a disaster movie, as some have called it (though I personally disagree). The drunken customer of coffee who from the very first time he appears on stage informs us with full seriousness that the end of the world has come and he continues to drink.
The businessman who, despite the warnings not to throw his match down on the ground wet with gasoline, burns on his fingers and instinctively throws it down, blowing himself up and his car. But of course, the cameo appearance - as usual - of the director, as in each of his films, here walks out of the pet shop with his two favorite dogs.
Of course, we can not ignore the special effects of this movie. At a time when there were no green screens and computers, Hitchcock manages to create a continuous and growing sense of terror from bird attacks. Most of the birds used in the film were alive, although there were mechanical birds. And surely there are points that seem funny to us today, the scene where Melanie in the phone booth sees a man being injured? is he killed? from birds and fake red blood coming out of his wounds. But remember, it was 1963...
In general, it remains a good classic film. Maybe not the best of Hitchcock, as I personally have a weakness in his first ones, but one of the strongest.
Throughout the film, the heroes wonder why the birds are attacking and seek to find the culprit. The same question arises in our minds: "What happened to the birds and are they attacking people?"
But we probably do not ask the right question: "What have humans done to nature and are they being attacked by birds?" That's probably the answer to why.
And the question that follows: "What can we do to prevent this?"
Thank you for reading!
