I look at my friend’s ratings for this movie, and most people gave it five stars. Why? This Hitchcock film is sub-par at best, in my opinion. Yet, at the same time, there is something about it that I just . . . like.

The Birds has its strong points. The whole reason as to why this little town is besieged by scourge of birds is unexplained, which works for the film. There are some genuinely frightful moments, the one that comes to my mind the most is when the two women evacuate the school with all the children and begin to run down the hill, and then a swarm of crows comes up and down upon them. Truly chilling. The acting was good, and I appreciate the use of a backstory for this film. When I first went into this, I just wanted to see birds fuck up some shit but good, but then Hitchcock smacked me in the face for being stupid because, well, that would have made for a terrible movie.

However, there are some things that bug me about The Birds. For instance, I understand that it was part of the acting style of the time, but whenever people were attacked by birds they remained so utterly calm it just took me out of the film. If I got attacked by birds I would be screaming my head off and cursing like a sailor, but I’m not everybody. Regardless, I find it hard to believe that so many people can remain that calm. And then there’s that know-it-all (about birds) old woman in the diner, and Hitchcock seems to have a tendency directing scripts that contain old women like this, who usually piss me off with their know-it-all attitude. I really wanted to see this lady get pecked apart by birds, but apparently no one else did.

I understand what The Birds did for its time, and for that I appreciate it. It’s certainly not the first “killer insects/mammals/reptiles films” to come out, but it certainly set the precedent for what those films could be like. Like I said above, I just have a few kinks with this picture which keep me from fully loving it. Maybe another viewing will help solve this problem.