The Birds 4K 1963

After an adventurous experiment called "Psycho", Alfred Hitchcock took a break for three years, and then returned with a film, which was attended by a much larger budget and numerous special effects. True, Hitchcock remained true to himself, once again making fun of the viewer for the umpteenth time: for the entire first hour we have to contemplate an almost romantic comedy / melodrama, where Melanie (Tippy Hedren) and Mitch (Rod Taylor) elegantly and naturally flirt with each other. However, the few scenes with birds make it clear that this is just a saying, and the main action will follow a little later.

The first planned attack of birds on humans is likely to divide the audience into those who will happily watch the picture before the final credits; and those who, before reaching the end, turn off the DVD player. The decisive factor here will be the desire or unwillingness to believe in the abnormal, impossible (or possible?) Behavior of birds. The director is in no hurry to explain anything. We see only the consequences, but they will tell us absolutely nothing about why the birds began to attack people, what motivates them, what caused such a strange phenomenon? Hitchcock prefers that viewers have the same dose of information as the main characters of the film. If they don't have the slightest idea of ​​what happened, so why then do you need to tell and chew everything to the viewer?

Hitchcock slowly, unhurriedly, slowly but surely builds up the atmosphere of an impending nightmare. The director does not immediately bring down whole flocks of birds on the heroes of the picture, preferring single attacks, but the further events develop, the more difficult it becomes for the characters to fight off the whole hordes of birds.

The method that Hitchcock chose to intimidate the audience is quite remarkable. If in the overwhelming majority of thrillers / horror films the element of surprise is based on a sharp change of plan and a powerful musical chord, here the director completely abandoned musical accompaniment, leaving only the incessant noise of birds, which puts pressure on the psyche much better than any music.

Even in the very ending, when the main characters leave at dawn, the filmmakers are in no hurry to stop the skillfully created atmosphere of horror: the film lacks such a standard thing as the title "end". Thus, Hitchcock makes it clear that the nightmare is not over yet. What awaits these people: salvation or a multitude of birds against the background of dawn hint at the birth of a new Earth, on which birds will rule? ..