Customer Reviews
The Best! 
2008-04-02
This movie and "Psycho" are my fave Hitchcock movies. It is hard for me to choose which I like better. I guess "Birds" is my fave color Hitchcock movie and "Psycho" my fave B&W Hitchcock movie. Enjoy them both! Five Stars....
Our Feathered Friends Get Peckish 2008-03-25
I've loved this film since I was a kid and still do. My only complaint is for the physical DVD itself, I wish they would've worked harder to clear up some of the grainy static...i.e. remastered version. Otherwise it's Classic Hitchcock!
Real Cruddy... Actually it's fantastic. I love it! 
2008-02-13
First off, let me give the nerds the afternoon off and pre-spam my review with insensately hostile personal attacks because I have the audacity to have an opinion which differs from those of the herd.
And now on to the review.
The movie is shockingly bad. It starts off with Tippi Hedren being filmed through vaseline every time the camera lovingly ogles her starry-eyed face. She is a spoiled Paris Hilton type who pretends to work in a pet shop so as to get some face time with a total hosehead who goes in there to buy some birds. This hosehead is supposed to be something to yell for, but instead he has about as much charm as a guy in a hemorrhoid commercial. Tippi then decided to chase this hosebag all the way to a small town, find out about where he lives, rent a boat, slowly make her way across the bay... The screenwriter should have been taken out and shot for being criminally boring. The movie has an interminable and completely unnecessary and uninteresting "human interest" premise which involves Tippi basically stalking hemorrhoid man. The two are destined to be destined for each other. But you, the viewer are simply destined to waste two hours of your life watching this claptrap. Moviegoers must collectively insist on not being bored to death. Movies are supposed to be MORE interesting than real life. That's why they are called "entertainment".
Okay, I owe the movie the sincerest apology. It's like I've just suspected: the film is a masterpiece. It's a message picture. The message is, "People are garbage; the birds can't take it anymore. The birds must kill." It's just like David Lynch's The Angriest Dog in the World, only its The Angriest Birds in the Town. I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!
Ok, to recap... the movie takes far too long to get going. And NONE of the characters are even faintly likeable. But once the birds really take a special dislikin'... all hell breaks loose. The scene in which the gas station explodes I dug special. Pure chaos. If I could change my rating I'd now give the movie four stars, subtracting one star for how mind-bendingly boring the first half of the movie is. But the film is basically Peyton Place with birds attacking. Plus the leading "man" has got some kind of Psycho situation going with that battleaxe of a mother of his. He's a real mamma's boy. Calls his mother "Dear." So the birds can't take it any more and they let loose on the town. And rightly so. The movie ends with the crummy people, now throroughly humbled, quietly mincing off while the birds, who've taken over, are basically saying, "Yeah, that's right: take a walk, buster!"
The movie is an early prototype of Jurassic Park, which was obviously based directly on The Birds, though nobody seems to have noticed this. In Jurassic Park there are even repeated references to how the dinosaurs are the ancestors of... you got it: birds. The movie dramatizes some primal expectation that the earth will surge primitive and humans will be bundled off like refugees, like the rabble they secretly know themselves to be. Fan-freaking-tastic!!
Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near? (Tippi) 2008-02-05
We may never know the answer to this question. But this movie is unquestionably a classic.
Like it or not (it is impossible to not like it), this is a standard by which other movies are judged. The script, actors (some of whom are Rod Taylor and Suzanne Pleshette), and execution are always being compared to earlier and later movies.
The story adapted from Daphne du Maurier, does seem to be a little mysterious as to why the birds suddenly appear and as to the ending if that is what it is; however the build up and execution of the conflict with birds, and between women is defiantly worth watching.
A small down is devastated when a bunch of birds terrorize the inhabitants in what seems to be an all out war. The graphics leave a little to be desired but you will be so absorbed that you do not care.
If you have the DVD watch the movie before the goodies (extras.)
Feel the build up and duck at the appropriate time. After all this is an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Also see if you spot his cameo appearance.
THERE SHOULD BE A REMAKE 9 OUT OF 10 
2008-01-28
Despite its age, The Birds really doesn't feel cheesy most of the time, and it was made 45 years ago! The story is about a lady named Melanie who pursues a lawyer named Mitch who she met in San Francisco, and goes to find him in Bodega Bay. There she meets his family and a few other people and for a time its good and without really any problems. That is, until the birds in the town start acting strangely. Then as you probably would assume it gets worse and people start dying from being pecked to death and the birds are finding their way into houses by breaking windows, going down chimneys, and pecking their way through doors. And people begin to realize that the birds were getting smarter and are getting more bold in attacks. I'm not going to reveal anything else, you'll just have to watch this amazing movie. The only problems in this movie are only very small sequences of cheesy acting and there's no music. Though surprisingly you won't really ever notice the music's nonexistant. Some things I'm still impressed about this movie are how well the bird attacks are assembled, you still get a sense of dread, and it's actually still kinda creepy. One thing reason I know that this movie would be perfect for a remake is when I saw the infected crows attack scene from Resident Evil: Extinction, and that was played out perfectly in creepy factor. So I know that a remake of The Birds would be perfect, so what exactly is Hollywood waiting for?
The ultimate pagan movie 2008-07-22
A world where nature is out to destroy man and there is no salvation from any god. A world where jealousy, competition, and lust simmers below the surface. A world where three women compete for the affections of one apollo-like beauty of a man. A world where something as simple as throwing away a match can set off a series of events that leaves an entire town struggling to survive. A world where there seems to be no reason why disaster and destruction occur. Nothing makes sense. Reason is useless. The world is irrational - and damned dangerous! Welcome to Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds."
Early critics were not too kind to this movie. Today, we can see how this movie is one of Hitchcock's darkest views of life and (except for the failure of the ending - but there really was no way to end this movie) one of his most skillfully crafted films. Tippi Hedren is gorgeous as is Rod Taylor. Some of the scenes (such as the playground) will have you chewing your nails in suspense.
A great film!
inferior to Daphne du Maurier's short story 
2008-06-19
This Hitchcock classic simply isn't up to the horror of the original du Maurier short story--an avian world holocaust with the imminent extinction of the human race. Hitchcock's catastrophe is apparently limited to a few miles of North California coast.
Possibly this was done to produce a Hollywood more-or-less happy ending but it was a mistake. That combined with the limited acting skills of some of the actors, makes this a film easy to pass over.
Ron Braithwaite author of Mexican Conquest novels, "Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"
One of Hitchcock's more memorable films 2008-06-09
After seeing The Birds again, including Hitchcock's tongue and cheek "lecture" in the trailer for the film, (1963) as one reviewer has written, it,s the suspense during those moments of silence between those unrelenting onslaughts of violence against their chosen rivals, human beings. The big question that is not answered in the film, is why the birds turn with such fury?
Nature takes its revenge?
Based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier, Melanie Daniels (Tippy Hendren) chases a man she's smitten with to a small town outside San Francisco, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) when, slowly the birds begin to attack with a vengence: "Their coming, their coming!" screams Daniels, in the classic trailer with an expression of utter terror.
What really makes the film is the silence of suspence between attacks. "Suspence" almost became Hitchcock's trademark, and The Birds is one of his best.
It is well known that Hitchcock did not have a high regard for actors - he viewed them as merely pawns to tell his story. Tippy Hendren, it has been written somewhere caught the brunt of old Alfred's arrogance, but stuck with him for another great film, Marnie.
Although not as subtle as some of the old Englishman's films, this is one of the Master's more memorable pictures of the 60's.
CLASSIC HITCHCOCK 2008-05-15
Modern day movies can never compare to the Great Alfred Hitchcock. This legandary film is Amazing. Any Hithcock fan will totally agree with me.
The Birds-WOW! 2008-04-12
When I rented this movie, I expected to see a dated film with awful special effects. What I got was a whirlwind of suspense and mystery.
Tippi is your average upper class wealthy women. She meets a man in a bird shop looking for some lovebirds and is instantly intriuged. When the man can't find the love birds and leaves, she orders them and brings them to his small weekend home by the beach where he, his sister, and his mother live. When Tippi arrives...mysterious things start to happen. Various birds attack the people of this town. The citizens say that it's impossible: How can birds with supposed low intelligence attack every human they see?
This movie is slightly dated, but it doesn't diminish the fact that it is incredibly suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of this movie.
Squab anyone?
