The Birds Literary Elements

Alfred Hitchcock

Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor

Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette

Suspense thriller

English

Academy Aeard Nomination: Best Special Visual Effects

1963

Alfred Hitchcock

Small California fishing village in the late 1950s/early 1960s

The perspective is mostly Melanie Daniels'

Threatening and suspenseful, disturbing, menacing

The humans are the protagonists and the birds the antagonists

The major conflict is between the birds that try to kill the people, and the people as they struggle to survive. There is also conflict between Lydia Brenner and Melanie Daniels, chiefly over Mitch; Lydia is a dominant maternal figure in the mold of Mrs Bates in Psycho and their conflict lies in Lydia's determination to prevent anything developing between Melanie and her son.

The final overpowering of the village by the birds is the film's climax

The small groups of birds that gather in slowly increasing numbers foreshadow the full-blown invasion and takeover that follows

A good example of understatement is when Melanie remarks that the behavior of the birds is unusual

There were innovations in special visual effects and there were over 300 one-off individual shots capturing the birds. The most innovative technique Hitchcock employed was the introduction of abrasive and taut music that was written with the intent of grating on the viewer's nerves

The movie alludes to the original Daphne du Maurier novel in the invasion of the birds in a gothic horror style. It may also allude the threat of nuclear attack.

The lack of explanation of the birds' behavior and their objective is a paradox because it makes the movie far more disturbing than it would have been had there been an explanation.

No specific examples in the movie