Hitchcock's "The Birds" WHY Did They Attack?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by gener8tr, Aug 10, 2009.

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  1. rockclassics

    rockclassics Senior Member

    Location:
    Mainline Florida
    I hate to even suggest this, because sure as I do some Hollywood writer will do it. But, what if the birds were resting at the end of the movie as the car drives off? I mean Hitchcock - even though it was not his intent - ended the movie allowing for the perfect chance for a sequel. The birds are all gathered and waiting.....for what?
     
  2. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Are they crows?

    I was kidding. MacGuffin has always sounded like the name of a type of bird.
     
  3. It doesn't matter why. It's the MacGuffin of the film--Hitchcock uses this to introduce the chaos that surrounds Bodega Bay.

    They represent chaos.

    There is some ideas that they were striking back against humanity but it really doesn't matter--it's the chaos of the world being unleashed on an orderly society.
     
  4. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Bird sounds created by: Mr. Bernard Herrmann
     
  5. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Bird visuals created by Ub Iwerks, the original creator/artist of Mickey Mouse.
     
  6. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    I always liked the little reference to this movie in the Billy Crystal/Debra Winger pic FORGET PARIS, in that scene where she gets the bird stuck on her head with that rodent trap paper..."One minute you're you, the next minute you're Tippi Headron!"
     
  7. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    I Googled crows in Tokyo and found some articles. They are huge here. This line from the Washington Post article is very true, "They sometimes dive-bomb Tokyoites from the rear, with an unnerving whoosh that has been known to cause people to crash their bicycles or fall down stairwells." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/AR2009072502170.html

    I haven't been attacked, but have been in parks when they fly by. It is unnerving. The picture doesn't do them justice.

    I find ripped garbage bads all over the place as this article states.

    http://www.crows.net/japnlogs.html

    Now known to strip internet cables.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1083581.ece


    If Hitchcock used these crows in "The Birds" everyone would have been dead by the second reel.
     
  8. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    My local BIG LOTS was selling these and I didn't get one, then went back the next day, and they were all sold out. Dang it!
     

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  9. The original ending that was planned was as they drive into San Francisco the Golden Gate is covered with birds. It was too expensive as a process shot and also thought to be too much of an overkill.

    Keep in mind that this was in preproduction as a remake at various points over the past two years and they had a cheesy sequel.
     
  10. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    On the other hand, it might have been kinda awesome.

    People have suggested various interpretations but I always found the ending rather anticlimactic... it feels as if they didn't know how to get out of it.
     
  11. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley...

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    It's quite obviously due to a virus secretly planted by Mr Hitchcock and pooches before leaving the Bird Shop. This aggressive micro-organism specifically effects the temperament of normally docile bird species. Hence the Lovebirds were "carriers" and had by now already passed the virus on to Melanie.

    When she crosses to Bodega Bay by boat, the initial seagull attack was a genuine accident - but the gull had by then contracted the virus from her - to ultimately spread to the other birds. The attacks are short lived due to the virus only having a short gestation/lifespan. Thus the birds return to normal after a few days.

    Meanwhile Hitchcock is able to secretly film the whole sequence of events for his movie using several concealed cameras - therefore without having to rely on using expensive CGI or any other special effects - everything is real.

    This theory is later proven by both Jupiter Jones and Pete Crenshaw in their book "The Three Investigators and the curious case of The Birds"... ;)
     
  12. imarcq

    imarcq Men are from Mars, I'm from Bromley...

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Ps: The well known anti-viral Birdiflu was not available in the USA until 1970's!
     
  13. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    The birds had attacked before Melanie got into town.
     
  14. dougotte

    dougotte Petty, Annoying Dilettante

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    They had? I thought the boat scene with the gull was the first attack?

    Doug
     
  15. dougotte

    dougotte Petty, Annoying Dilettante

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Is that poster modern? The noun/verb tense disagreement seems like modern fractured English.

    Doug
     
  16. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    In the bar the fisherman dude{Charles McGraw} had said they had attacked his boat while fishing a few weeks or days before.{at least I'm pretty sure as I remember}
     
  17. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Wow - that's for real! I thought it'd be some fan-made fake and you were joking about the Big Lots thing, but I was wrong - it's legit. That's crazy! :laugh:
     
  18. jmrife

    jmrife Wife. Kids. Grandkids. Dog. Music.

    Location:
    Wheat Ridge, CO
    Truth to tell, IMO it was not one of Hitchcock's better films. In fact, it might be in the bottom two.
     
  19. zappa

    zappa New Member

    Location:
    St Pete, Florida
    because if they didn't, there would have just been a movie about people walking around with them just harmlessly flying about overhead. not too scary.
     
  20. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    :eek: Really? I love "The Birds" - it's among my absolute favorite Hitchcock flicks.

    What's the other film in the bottom two?
     
  21. kevintomb

    kevintomb Forum Resident

    Crazy things like this REALLY DO happen on occasion and it was a great way to make a suspenseful movie...no explanation can be made, they are animals.
     
  22. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Yeah, the good guys are ill defined, the bad guys (mother in law + birds in league) are ill defined, the ice acting of the female lead is perplexing. This movie is almost at the bottom of my Hitchcock Heap. It's like he lost interest in it half way through. I wanted to ask him about the movie when I talked to him in his office but was too shy. Too late now..
     
  23. Skip Reynolds

    Skip Reynolds Legend In His Own Mind

    Location:
    Moscow, Idaho

    That's what I always thought. Hitchcock just dropped the cow and moved on.


    .
     
  24. P2CH

    P2CH Well-Known Member

    Cleverly written title in terms of referencing the movie The Birds.
     
  25. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    According to Nature on 27 October 2008, the behavior of the birds in the film may have been based on a real incident caused by poisoning with domoic acid. This chemical is produced when plankton are exposed to urea, a chemical which can leak out of septic tanks and is naturally present in human urine. Contamination can pass up the food chain, resulting in neurotoxic effects to predatory animals.

    From Wikipedia
    On 18 August 1961, residents in the town of Capitola, California, awoke to find sooty shearwaters slamming into their rooftops, and their streets covered with dead birds. News reports suggested domoic acid poisoning (amnesic shellfish poisoning) as the cause. According to a local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Alfred Hitchcock requested news copy in 1961 to use as "research material for his latest thriller
     
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