THE BIRDS is a Californian birder’s psilocybin-induced nightmare: gulls breaking windows, swifts attacking children, crows being mistaken for blackbirds. It is thrilling and thought-provoking.
Set in Bodega Bay, just north of San Francisco, the visual landscape of this film is breathtaking. The vistas of wood and cliffside, captured in subdued Technicolor, provide the ultimate backdrop for this pro-environmental piece.
The auditory experience of the film is also quite powerful, and the sound design, specifically for the birds, is nauseating. It adds a sharp edge to the film’s attack sequences and compensates for the special effects, which are visibly dated, though not distracting.
The most noteworthy aspect of the film, however, is its writing. The plot structure is succinct, yet suspenseful. The dialogue is witty, with several unforgettable lines like: “Do they ever stop migrating?” And, although the pacing drags at several moments, the film is ripe with engaging characters and intriguing symbolic expression, so that it is both entertaining and impossible to forget.
A soaring tale about society and the environment, this Hitchcock classic claws at you, then flies high above expectation. (Sorry, the restraint against bird puns could only last so long.)
So grab your binoculars, and look out for THE BIRDS now on Netflix.
