The Birds was made in 1963 and it run for 119 minutes the original story was written by Daphne Du Maurier (picture 1) and the screenplay was written by Evan Hunter (picture 2)
The main stars of The Birds was Rod Taylor as Mitch brenner,Tippi Hendren as Melanie Daniels and Suzanne Pleshette as Annie Hayworth.
The plot of The Birds: A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small northern Californian town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kind suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness.
The difference between The Birds and the two other Alfred Hitchcock films is because now the external threat is from nature and this is something we can definitely not prevent or stop this is a bigger effect because this is bigger than anything a normal human comprehend and as birds are normally admired in certain cases. The film allows you to accept the possibility of an actual attack and this may scar people as it is a thought that is out of our hands.
Thrillers are normally characterised by fast pacing and frequent action and although in The Birds there are parts where it is calm through out the film during the bird attacks it is fast paced and the fluttering of the birds add an not only a agitating but an irritated panicky sound making us aware that something is abnormal such as in the birthday scene or the school scene.
Thrillers are also seen with heroes that swart the efforts of the enemy and although in The Birds the towns people are unsuccessful they do try to protect one another and try to keep the birds out of there houses the person who puts the most effort in is Mitch Brenner as he tries to make people believe that what Melanie is saying is true and his efforts on securing the house from the birds although it only lasted a few seconds,also he is always quick to react allowing us to think that he is a hero because he dominant acting as a leader and knows what to do to lead people to safety.
A thriller has always had a a villain driven plot where they present obstacles for the hero to overcome in the case of The Birds it is a lot harder to identify but the obstacles we can see is to find safety from the birds and how they are to defeat them obviously the birds wouldn't think like this but this is what the towns people need and they are trying to gain control again some of the towns people try to cope with the events by denying that the birds are attacking oblivious to the harm they have already caused linking this to the MacGuffin Melanie's original thoughts were to secure a boyfriend this is what we believe is the original plot but as time within the film moves forward you see that the attacks are stopping the couple from being together although Mitch does look after Melanie and the whole point of the film is about the birds that are attacking humans although they are unsuspecting creatures. The whole point of a MacGuffin or the defining aspect of it is that the main characters are willing to do/ sacrifice almost anything to obtain an acquaintance and in this case Melanie sacrifices herself by telling Mitch not to come into the room to save her and she does this by actually travelling far enough to be with him.
The specific nature of the MacGuffin is to be ambiguous, undefined ,generic ,left to open interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot in this case survival is the MacGuffin as they are trying to live and escape from the attack but the plot was about finding love initially but the MacGuffin isn't be related to the plot also another example is that birds are not in the plot neither was the potential threat and the fact is that its open to interpretation therefore making it unexplainable and playing the MacGuffin card.
MacGuffins are most common in thrillers but are used in other genre of films and can not be used. MacGuffins decline in importance as the motivations of the characters can come through but then it can pick up again when there are scenes of high climax,Alfred Hitchcock defined the MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves,but, as to what that object specifically was he said "the audience don't care".
Thrillers are also seen with heroes that swart the efforts of the enemy and although in The Birds the towns people are unsuccessful they do try to protect one another and try to keep the birds out of there houses the person who puts the most effort in is Mitch Brenner as he tries to make people believe that what Melanie is saying is true and his efforts on securing the house from the birds although it only lasted a few seconds,also he is always quick to react allowing us to think that he is a hero because he dominant acting as a leader and knows what to do to lead people to safety.
A thriller has always had a a villain driven plot where they present obstacles for the hero to overcome in the case of The Birds it is a lot harder to identify but the obstacles we can see is to find safety from the birds and how they are to defeat them obviously the birds wouldn't think like this but this is what the towns people need and they are trying to gain control again some of the towns people try to cope with the events by denying that the birds are attacking oblivious to the harm they have already caused linking this to the MacGuffin Melanie's original thoughts were to secure a boyfriend this is what we believe is the original plot but as time within the film moves forward you see that the attacks are stopping the couple from being together although Mitch does look after Melanie and the whole point of the film is about the birds that are attacking humans although they are unsuspecting creatures. The whole point of a MacGuffin or the defining aspect of it is that the main characters are willing to do/ sacrifice almost anything to obtain an acquaintance and in this case Melanie sacrifices herself by telling Mitch not to come into the room to save her and she does this by actually travelling far enough to be with him.
The specific nature of the MacGuffin is to be ambiguous, undefined ,generic ,left to open interpretation or otherwise completely unimportant to the plot in this case survival is the MacGuffin as they are trying to live and escape from the attack but the plot was about finding love initially but the MacGuffin isn't be related to the plot also another example is that birds are not in the plot neither was the potential threat and the fact is that its open to interpretation therefore making it unexplainable and playing the MacGuffin card.
MacGuffins are most common in thrillers but are used in other genre of films and can not be used. MacGuffins decline in importance as the motivations of the characters can come through but then it can pick up again when there are scenes of high climax,Alfred Hitchcock defined the MacGuffin as the object around which the plot revolves,but, as to what that object specifically was he said "the audience don't care".
Some unrelated Knowledge
In the scene above where Melanie is attacked by the birds in the attic near the end of the film took a week to film, the birds were attached to her clothes so they could not get away and would constantly fly toward her to look like they were attacking her, this was done with the film featuring 370 effect shots and the final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements.Also Tippi Hedren was cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots during the film and told people that Alfred Hitchcock never told her what she was to expect in the scene above and because of this she had a bird phobia.
The End
There were many alternative endings thought for the film one of them apart from the one actually featured was the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds, I think this would be a good ending as it gives us a sense that humans do not dominate the word it is birds are everywhere grouping together becoming united against the human race.
At the end of the film Alfred Hitchcock did not put the customary "The End" because Alfred Hitchcock wanted the viewers to believe and give the impression of unending terror and as if the birds will follow where they go this also links to the alternative ending.
Music
Although there is no soundtrack/ musical score for this film there were sounds created on the mixtrautonium, which is a early electronic musical instrument, of the children singing in the school that also adds dry humour as we know something is definitely wrong but the children are oblivious and are singing a song.
To add further effect when audiences left the films UK premier they were greeted with the sound of screeching and bird wings fluttering commissioned by Alfred Hitchcock himself by putting loud speakers into the trees to scare the viewers further also supporting the fact that there is no "The End".
The End
There were many alternative endings thought for the film one of them apart from the one actually featured was the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds, I think this would be a good ending as it gives us a sense that humans do not dominate the word it is birds are everywhere grouping together becoming united against the human race.
At the end of the film Alfred Hitchcock did not put the customary "The End" because Alfred Hitchcock wanted the viewers to believe and give the impression of unending terror and as if the birds will follow where they go this also links to the alternative ending.
Music
Although there is no soundtrack/ musical score for this film there were sounds created on the mixtrautonium, which is a early electronic musical instrument, of the children singing in the school that also adds dry humour as we know something is definitely wrong but the children are oblivious and are singing a song.
To add further effect when audiences left the films UK premier they were greeted with the sound of screeching and bird wings fluttering commissioned by Alfred Hitchcock himself by putting loud speakers into the trees to scare the viewers further also supporting the fact that there is no "The End".
Alfred Hitchcock's aim in all his thriller is to be true to his words that thrillers are to allow the audience "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what its like".Alfred Hitchcock has succeeded as in any other of his he creates a threat but the most thrilling and horrifying aspect of this film is that in real life birds are everywhere we have just naturally expected them to calm animals that anger us but with this film we can imagine what the birds feel as we scare them the thrilling aspect is actually if birds retaliated we would have no control although we have weapons I don't personally believe that we would win against birds even though it seems fake you cannot doubt the possibility that it may actually happen.
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