Review #237: The Birds (1963)

This review was originally written in October 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #91: The Birds (1963)

So, I really didn't know what to expect with this movie. On the one hand, it's held up by many as one of the horror classics that scared them to death as a child. On the other hand, there's been a lot of those so far this month, and most of them have been extremely unimpressive. On the third hand, this movie is TWO HOURS LONG and I have a hard time believing that it needed to be. On the fourth hand, it wasn't that bad.

The Birds is a film about Melanie, a "modern rich socialite" as IMDB puts it, who runs into a lawyer, Mitch, and the two sort of flirt-prank each other and it ends up with Melanie driving out to Mitch's lake house in a seaside town called Bodega Bay. While there, the local birds suddenly start acting erratically- first by ramming into Melanie while she's out boating, to attacking kids at a party, to eventually storming the entire town and blowing up cars. (I'm not joking about that last part, several cars get blown up and it's entirely the birds' fault.) It's not explained why this occurs, and ultimately the protagonists manage to just carefully sneak away and then the movie ends.

I didn't mean to make the ending sound anti-climactic (I mean it kind of is but whatevs), I just wanted to stress that this movie doesn't really get a resolution (though I don't necessarily think it needed to). My main problem with this film is that it's incredibly long (TWO HOURS, like I said, and the conflict doesn't really begin until about 45 minutes in) and I really don't think all of that was necessary. Half of this film feels like a romantic comedy rather than horror, there's looooooong stretches of its runtime where nothing bird-related happens, and even the action scenes where the birds attack all felt like they went on just a tad too long. I understand that most of the non-horror scenes are setting up the characters and such, but again, it just feels like it all goes on too long. I can't imagine the world being a worse place if this film were trimmed down to, say, ninety minutes.

There's definitely some good stuff in here, though. Most of the action (the scene with the birds coming down the chimney comes to mind) is genuinely terrifying, the effects definitely look like they would have been shocking at the time (looking back with today's sensibilities I can tell that most of the time the actors aren't reacting to anything actually happening, they just shot a scene of flailing around and then some footage of birds whizzing by was superimposed over the scene later, but it's fast-paced enough that you'll be too busy to tell), and I actually like how it's not really addressed how or why this is all happening. There was one scene- when they're in the diner and everyone starts freaking out about the birds, right before the gas station explosion- that is legitimately unsettling, with the tension gradually ramping up and culminating with a hysterical mother accusing Melanie of somehow being the catalyst for all of this. I've seen this type of paranoia-driven disaster scene done a dozen other times in other movies, but this one did it in a unique way that really elevated the film above where it was.

So, I definitely see why everyone praises this film, but at the same time I didn't feel it was quite worth its long runtime. I'd recommend this movie to someone who hasn't seen it, but I don't think I'll be watching it again anytime soon.

Overall Rating: 5/10 Broken Teacups

Birdnanigans: One of the scenes has a bunch of seagulls attacking a children's birthday party, and there are several shots of the birds violently popping balloons as they fly by. This effect was done by taping the seagulls' beaks shut and attaching a pin to the front, to ensure the balloons would pop. Apparently, one of the birds escaped during shooting, which raised a concern because without the tape being removed, the bird would be unable to open its mouth and could starve to death! But luckily, the errant seagull was eventually caught safely.