Simple Terror: The Birds.

The Birds (1963) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The Birds is perhaps the best example of getting the most out of something simple. The title is simple, so is the concept, in the small coastal village of Bodega Bay, for reasons unknown birds declare war on humanity, attacking in mass with purpose.

The Plot
Melanie Daniels (Tippie Hedren) is a wealthy socialite. She meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a bird store, and the sparks fly. Deciding there is something there that she likes, Melanie does a little research, locates where Mitch lives, and buys two love birds for Mitch’s little sister. Then she makes her way up to Bodega Bay, and asks around. Having located Mitch’s house, she rents a boat, and crosses the bay. She sneaks inside; leaving the birds, then makes it back to the boat. She watches as Mitch finds them, but fails to make her escape before he spots her with binoculars.

Mitch races around the bay in his car, as Melanie takes the direct line. He is waiting on her as she reaches the marina, so he is a witness as a gull attacks Melanie, drawing blood.

They continue their contentious courtship as Mitch treats the wound in the local diner. Melanie accepts his invitation to dinner. Then she goes to secure lodgings with Anne Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) who has a room for rent. She had told Mitch she and Anne were old friends, and that is why she was in Bodega Bay. It ends up Anne and Mitch were the old friends.

As the courtship continues Melanie meets his mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy) and baby sister Cathy (a very young Veronica Cartwright). The bird incidents increase, first, a gull that broke its neck on Anne’s door, then an attack on Cathy’s birthday party.

The birds have unwitting allies; human complacency, and our unending capacity for denial. At first, no one believes there is a threat, not even after Lydia finds a neighbor dead in his bedroom, his eyes pecked out, not even after the school is attacked by crows. What will it take to make everyone realize that they are in danger?

There are so many minimalist touches to this movie. Tippie Hedren came on a whim, so she has no spare clothes, and therefore wears the same green dress through out. There is no score; the only music is the children at the school singing in music class. This lends a sharp feel of reality to the movie; life does not have a sound track. But it also means that suspense has to be built in other ways.

And this of course is what Hitchcock does, and does so well. When Melanie is bringing Cathy home from School, she lets Anne know she is there, then goes and sits on a bench outside to smoke and wait. As she sits there, listening to the children sing, smoking, you see crows silently gliding in for a landing on the Jungle Gym behind her. She finally sees one flying, and follows it, fear in her eyes, until it turns her around, and she sees the Murder of Crows behind her, gathered in silence, in a few minutes. Fear blooms into terror. She goes inside and warns Anne, and they get the children out, under the pretense of a fire drill. Tension mounts until at last, the Murder takes flight.

And that is the secret to Hitchcock’s success. He states very clearly, “I am going to scare you. I am just not going to tell you WHEN.

There is not even closure in this movie. No “The End” flashes across the screen. It is just the family and Melanie driving the truck through a sea of birds that are growing increasingly restless.

All the complexity in this movie takes place in the relationships between people. Elegant, simplistic, and damn scary. The Birds

This review is also minimalist. It is Lean-N-Mean, a style coined by Sleeper54 to promote concise writing. 666 words exactly.