The Birds Review: Post-apocalyptic pandemonium
Though many people accuse me of having bad taste because I am a member of Gen-Z, they obviously have never heard that my favorite director is the great Alfred Hitchcock, master of mystery, cinematography, and, of course, suspense. The Birds is one of his most intriguing films, taking place in a post-apocalyptic society where birds have gone insane and are causing a pandemoniac birdemic (not that Birdemic), and I love talking about this film. So, without further ado, I, Brighton Nelson of The Reel Ranker, present to you today's article: The Birds Review: Post-apocalyptic pandemonium.
This movie starts very calmly with a man going to a pet shop and, you guessed it, looking at birds. He hopes to purchase lovebirds for his little sister's birthday. He makes small talk with socialite Melanie, who is instantaneously smitten by him. As such, Melanie tracks Mitch (the man) back to his humble abode at Brenner farm with the lovebirds he ultimately decided not to buy in stow. Mitch stops her in the distance, but as Melanie is about to reach Mitch, a gull strikes her on the head. After this setup, many more strange occurrences occur until the birds go on a full-on rampage, leading to an insane amount of suspense, horror, and action.
This film is brilliant in so many ways. First of all, this movie is an excellent (albeit rather loose) adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1952 short story. Secondly, this film is able to tell a fulfilling love story, even amidst the doom and gloom of the extenuating circumstances. Thirdly, despite the film being decades old, the film is surprisingly progressive, with fantastic female characters that constantly steal scenes. Unlike fake, modern feminism, this film shows true independent women who can stand firm, triumph, and flourish in the face of adversity. Fourthly, the cinematography in this film is outstanding, with slow shots and montage editing building scintillating suspense. This film also uses point-of-view shots by cutting between a character's gaze and where they are looking in fantastic transitions. The only real downside to this film is some outdated green screen backgrounds (like when they drive in the car) and some archaic visual effects. However, for the time, it was brilliant, and I can't be too annoyed at it.
What intrigues me is that this film had a poor reception upon its initial release. I've read many retro reviews of this film, many of which panned the work in ways that, in this day and age, I can't even agree with. It is odd to see the progression of reception of this film over time, a common occurrence for some of my absolute favorite Hitchcock films. As somebody who always loves the ones that were disliked upon release and is typically less positive regarding his more generally acclaimed films, I guess I'm a contrarian in the realm of Hitchcock films.
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 91%
Letter Score: S-
Star Ranking: 5 out of 5
In the end, The Birds is an absolute classic and one of my favorite suspense films of all time. Every element comes together to make for a masterwork of the genre, and the only possible thing I could knock about is outdated filming technology, but that hardly matters to me. I'd recommend this film to everybody in the world (unless you have ornithophobia, that is).
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