The Birds

Michael Snead

English 1

Mr. Armstrong

14 October 2010

The Birds

In this film The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock he portrays the story from which Daphne du Maurier wrote, into an all time high cinematic classic in 1963. The different species of birds join together in a little militia and attack the little town of Bodega Bay California. They swoop down upon the town and create havoc for the innocent civilians. The birds helped blow up the gas station, injure many, and also killed some.

The film begins in San Francisco when Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) meets Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) in a bird shop. Melanie meets Mitch in the bird shop and they tease and flirt with each other. Melanie buys love birds to mess with Mitch because he came in looking for the birds but never got them. So Melanie takes a trip to Mitch’s weekend home in Bodega Bay. She takes a trip over the lake directly to his house. Melanie found out that Mitch had a sister; therefore he changed the name on the card from Mitch to Cathy his little sister. She snuck into Mitch’s house and placed the cage on a foot rest.

As Melanie sneaks out of the house and drives away in the boat, Mitch goes into the house and finds the love birds. He runs outside and sees her driving off in the boat, so he gets in his car and tries to beat her to town. As Melanie pulls into the dock a gull sweeps down and claws her neck. After she stopped Mitch jumps into the boat and helps her out and treats her from her bird attack.

As Melanie gets back from Mitch’s house, she goes to the schoolhouse and while she was there, a whole bunch of crows was sitting on the playground equipment staring at her. She goes inside the classroom and tells the teacher about the birds outside. So the teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) tells her students that Miss Daniels wants to see how their fire drill works. As they walk outside she tells them to run home if they lived close or run to the motel if they didn’t. So they started running down the road and then the birds started attacking them. As the kids where safe, Melanie went to the diner to use the phone. She started scaring the customers at the diner. They got into a whole big conversation about the birds and what was wrong with them.

After the attack on the school, there was another attack. A service station attendant was filling up a car with gas then all of a sudden a bird swoops down and frightens the man. He drops the gas hose on the line and it spreads. A man lights a cigarette and drops the match on the ground. The fire spreads quickly setting the service station on fire. Everybody tries to put the fire out but the birds keep attacking them therefore making it harder for them to put it out. Everybody is huddled in a hallway at the diner trying not to look at the mass destruction outside. Everyone in the diner is very scared.

After Melanie and Mitch leave the diner they go back to his house where they boarded up the windows and waited for the next attack. Everyone was asleep except Miss Daniels, so she went and explored the house. She came to the attic door and went and looked in. a whole bunch of birds started attacking her. It looks so fake. And at the end, they get into the car and drive off.

I recommend this movie to you if you like really bad graphics. All it looks like is birds on strings being moved around the set. And also the blood looks like it is being sponged on