The Birds (1963)
Down below is the trailer of another on of Hitchcock's Thriller movies:
Down below is the trailer of another on of Hitchcock's Thriller movies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPC_Mp0Y9WM
In the trailer, you can see that everything starts off all calm and humble with the actress Tippi Hedren in the store and also visiting the primary school. But the all of a sudden see these birds and you find out that the hundreds birds are going to be attacking the public. The movie contains typical thriller aspects such as suspense, tension and excitement. When you see the title you wouldn't think that the movie will turn out to be a thriller movie, you would think that it would been any ordinary film. Even the poster doesn't reveal a lot about what the movie will contain.
You can only see the main actress Tippi Hedren, with a lot of birds surrounding her, you wouldn't be able to make out exactly what the movie will be about.
The Birds is a movie created in 1963 its a Horror/ Thriller which goes on for about 119 minutes. the film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was written by Daphne Du Maurier (Story) and Evan Hunter (Screenplay). It contains films stars such as Rod Taylor who played Mitch Brenner, Tippi Hedren played Melanie Daniels and Suzanne Pleshette who played a local school teacher Annie Hayworth.
This film contains an external threat which is coming from nature, this being the birds. Usually in Hitchcock's movie there's no where to hide, for example in Bodega Bay, when Melanie goes to visit the local restaurant and the birds begin attacking , when all the people in the restaurant ran out they had nowhere to hide, meaning they were attacked by the birds.
"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action" they say, this is shown in the scene from the movie birds when Melanie Daniels is in the children's playground and she sees the birds, so she runs in to the tell the children. they then have to go and find a way to escape, so the run out of the school and they run to the hotel. But along the way the birds begin to attack, this creates a sense of suspense and confusion towards the audience, because they will be thinking what is causing the birds to behave in such a way.
In this movie you could say that Mitch Brenner is the hero as he does try and make sure that everyone is safe, especially in the house when he boarded up all the windows and doors to protect his family from the birds getting into the house. And the villain of course would be the birds, there is hundreds of birds and there's fewer people making the birds more equipped and ready to attack the people.
Suspense is used extensively within the movie, especially right at the beginning when Melanie is on the boat on her way to Bodega Bay on her way to visit Mitch and then all of a sudden out of nowhere this seagull appears and begins to physically attack Miss Daniels, this leaves the audience startled and confused as to why this happened as birds don't usually do this.
Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the characters within the movie don't know. So for example in the school yard scene, Tippi doesn't know that the birds have gathered behind her, bus us the audience when the turns away from her we see that the is a lot of birds at the back of her that she doesn't know about.
In the Schoolyard scene the underlying score of the innocent child's song is in contrast to the evil in the nature. Tippi Hendren's character is only guilty of being taken for granted. In The Birds scene outside the cafe the high camera angle is like the gaze of pitiless God who cannot be bothered to intervene.
In the movie there isn't really a villain or a hero, the movie is mainly about these birds attacking the humans for no reasonable reason. I guess you could say that Mitch is presented as a hero towards the end, when he helped him and his family escape from the birds and get them to the hospital after Miss Daniels had been attacked.
The film features about 370 effect shots. The final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements. 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.
The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror. At the end we never found out what it was which caused the birds to attack the humans, it was an unsolved mystery.
When the audience left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sounds of screeching and flapping of the birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.It will give them a bit of suspense, and leave them wondering what this film could be about.
The actress Tippi Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots. People thought that Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for blondes, because in most of the films he made the women who were blonde were either killed or harmed.
There is no musical score for the film except for a short electronic music sequence and the children singing in the school. The fact that there was a lack of Non- Diegetic sound it helped the audience to suspend the disbelief of it being unreal and leaving them to become more scared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjaVdJt59U
The Bird matches the Roland Barthes theory that all texts are 'complex' bundles of meaning. The Bird is a Open film, this is because the film did not have an actually proper ending, usually at the end of a film the problem is resolved but not in this case. This making the movie not to be a closed text, seeing as the threat is not yet explained or resolved at the end.
In the trailer, you can see that everything starts off all calm and humble with the actress Tippi Hedren in the store and also visiting the primary school. But the all of a sudden see these birds and you find out that the hundreds birds are going to be attacking the public. The movie contains typical thriller aspects such as suspense, tension and excitement. When you see the title you wouldn't think that the movie will turn out to be a thriller movie, you would think that it would been any ordinary film. Even the poster doesn't reveal a lot about what the movie will contain.
You can only see the main actress Tippi Hedren, with a lot of birds surrounding her, you wouldn't be able to make out exactly what the movie will be about.
The Birds is a movie created in 1963 its a Horror/ Thriller which goes on for about 119 minutes. the film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was written by Daphne Du Maurier (Story) and Evan Hunter (Screenplay). It contains films stars such as Rod Taylor who played Mitch Brenner, Tippi Hedren played Melanie Daniels and Suzanne Pleshette who played a local school teacher Annie Hayworth.
This film contains an external threat which is coming from nature, this being the birds. Usually in Hitchcock's movie there's no where to hide, for example in Bodega Bay, when Melanie goes to visit the local restaurant and the birds begin attacking , when all the people in the restaurant ran out they had nowhere to hide, meaning they were attacked by the birds.
"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action" they say, this is shown in the scene from the movie birds when Melanie Daniels is in the children's playground and she sees the birds, so she runs in to the tell the children. they then have to go and find a way to escape, so the run out of the school and they run to the hotel. But along the way the birds begin to attack, this creates a sense of suspense and confusion towards the audience, because they will be thinking what is causing the birds to behave in such a way.
In this movie you could say that Mitch Brenner is the hero as he does try and make sure that everyone is safe, especially in the house when he boarded up all the windows and doors to protect his family from the birds getting into the house. And the villain of course would be the birds, there is hundreds of birds and there's fewer people making the birds more equipped and ready to attack the people.
Suspense is used extensively within the movie, especially right at the beginning when Melanie is on the boat on her way to Bodega Bay on her way to visit Mitch and then all of a sudden out of nowhere this seagull appears and begins to physically attack Miss Daniels, this leaves the audience startled and confused as to why this happened as birds don't usually do this.
Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the characters within the movie don't know. So for example in the school yard scene, Tippi doesn't know that the birds have gathered behind her, bus us the audience when the turns away from her we see that the is a lot of birds at the back of her that she doesn't know about.
In the Schoolyard scene the underlying score of the innocent child's song is in contrast to the evil in the nature. Tippi Hendren's character is only guilty of being taken for granted. In The Birds scene outside the cafe the high camera angle is like the gaze of pitiless God who cannot be bothered to intervene.
In the movie there isn't really a villain or a hero, the movie is mainly about these birds attacking the humans for no reasonable reason. I guess you could say that Mitch is presented as a hero towards the end, when he helped him and his family escape from the birds and get them to the hospital after Miss Daniels had been attacked.
Did You Know?
The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie too a week to film?
And also the birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they couldn't get away?
Interesting!The film features about 370 effect shots. The final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements. 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.
The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror. At the end we never found out what it was which caused the birds to attack the humans, it was an unsolved mystery.
When the audience left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sounds of screeching and flapping of the birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.It will give them a bit of suspense, and leave them wondering what this film could be about.
The actress Tippi Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots. People thought that Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for blondes, because in most of the films he made the women who were blonde were either killed or harmed.
There is no musical score for the film except for a short electronic music sequence and the children singing in the school. The fact that there was a lack of Non- Diegetic sound it helped the audience to suspend the disbelief of it being unreal and leaving them to become more scared.
Hitchcock's Thoughts
Mankind has abused birds throughout history. Deliberate irony in the cafe scene with the elderly 'bird loving' lady. She is interrupted by an order for three southen fried chickens. In addition one of the other character's initial reaction is to shoot the birds.
Hitchcock said that in "The Birds" the usual 'safety nets' such as (science/ religion) are denied to us. We are on our own.
Hitchcock said thrillers allow audience "to put their toes in the cold water of fear to see what its like"
In this clip you can see how Hitchcock feels:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjaVdJt59U
The Bird matches the Roland Barthes theory that all texts are 'complex' bundles of meaning. The Bird is a Open film, this is because the film did not have an actually proper ending, usually at the end of a film the problem is resolved but not in this case. This making the movie not to be a closed text, seeing as the threat is not yet explained or resolved at the end.
Well done, I enjoyed reading your Blog. It's good to see you starting to analyse.
ReplyDeleteRemember less description and more analysis.
Mr Williamson