Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds - Assignment Example

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds In the thriller film The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock bases his story on a short story previously written by Daphne du Maurier (Mcgilligan 14). The story begins in a pet shop in San Francisco where a young lawyer, Mitch Brenner, is unsuccessfully trying to buy his younger sister, Cathy, a pair of love birds for her 11th birthday. He meets and remembers the wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels, who, apparently, does not recognise him, and he plays a joke on her by treating her as a salesclerk. Attracted to him, she impulsively buys two birds, which she secretly delivers to Mitch’s home in Bodega Bay. On her way back, she is attacked by a seagull, after which she meets Mitch on the mainland pier and he convinces her to go back home with him. The following day, during Cathy’s birthday party, a group of birds attacks her and her friends and, the same evening, finches swarm down the chimney in their hundreds into the Brenner home. There is panic as chicken farmer, Dan Forsyth, is pecked to death by his own birds which then cause a fire at a gas station and threaten children as they leave school. After a school teacher named Annie Hayworth is also killed by birds, panic mounts in the town and residents flee to San Francisco. Mitch decides to board up all his house’s entrances and wait for the attack. The birds are unable to gain entry after pecking on the doors and tearing at shingles. However, tragically, they manage to make a hole in the roof and attack Melanie who went up to the attic to investigate a noise she had heard. Although Mitch managed to save her, he acknowledged that his own home is no longer safe from the birds and also flees to San Francisco amid a moment of silence from the birds into an uncertain future as the film ends (Mcgilligan 21). This paper will identify the film’s theme and discuss how the director used sub-genre and combined genre elements to project that theme. The theme, which is predominantly suspense/horror, is strategically brought out by a strange relationship between humanity and nature. The plot may appear to be banal, but the director manages to depict horror by turning garden birds, not birds of prey, against mankind. Bodega Bay, a small town in California is suddenly and without apparent explanation subjected to violent and widespread attacks by birds. Hitchcock portrays humanity and nature as both warring and separate and, although not explicitly stated, the plot implies that the avian attack is nature’s retribution to the intentionally ignorant and self-righteous humanity (Raubicheck & Srebnick 83). Then, in a more ironically terrifying manner, it seems that the birds have taken up human characteristics. This is depicted in their ability to carry out mindless acts of destruction and violence as well as a seemingly apparent belief that the power imbalance problem can be solved by violence. By projecting human capabilities and tendencies on the birds, the director manages to make them more terrifying to the human audience. The theme of terror is enhanced by the use of suspense such as when the birds amass at school without Lydia (Mitch’s mother) knowledge. Even though the film has no music, the use of natural and unnatural sounds is more effective than a soundtrack in creating the sensation of suspense. For example, the sound of flapping wings and simulated bird sounds as birds amass ready for an attack makes the audience wait in anticipation for the looming attack. On a figurative level, the audience may regard the birds as the exteriorisation and physical embodiment of shattering, disturbing and unleashed forces that are a threat to humanity when relationships become hurtful, unsupportive or insubstantial. For instance, the victims of the avian attacks are conspicuously a vulnerable farmer, a school teacher, defenseless bystanders and schoolchildren (Chandler 27). Further, the director brings out the theme of horror in the form of instability in the natural world and home environment, which he symbolises, at the domestic level, by broken teacups. Essentially, stability is in jeopardy and lives become disordered when people are unable to see the dangers as they gather around them. Here, suspense once again enhances the theme. Then, people cannot protect themselves adequately from violence behind facades, eyeglasses, telephone booths and windows, which are all transparent. Terrifyingly, as if to emphasise on the notion of the vulnerability of transparent protection from violence, the director incorporates frequent insinuations to blindness throughout the film. For example, the farmer whose eyes were pecked out, the broken pieces of glass in the scene where schoolchildren are fleeing and the blind man’s bluff game at the birthday party. The significance of such a strategy is that the voyeuristic lens of the film’s camera, as well as the audience viewing the screen, also seems to be subjected to the assault being filmed (Raubicheck & Srebnick 92). Hitchcock’s choice of traditionally harmless birds as the medium for horror is an outstanding driver of the film’s theme, coupled with the Freudian backdrop that mirrors the bonds of family and love (Pinch & Trocco 34). For example, when Mitch asks to be shown a canary from the first scene of the film, he stretches out his hands, to which Melanie obliges. However, she releases the bird accidentally into the air, which is evidently a foreshadowing of the violent birds to be unleashed in the film later. As the bird is shown flying around the store, Melanie and the salesclerk have their hands extended helplessly towards the ceiling, which is symbolically horrific because they cannot control a bird conventionally known to be harmless. Then in later scenes, as the birds fly down the chimney into the Brenner home, Lydia’s symbols of power are violently shattered. This takes place when the birds break her late husband’s portrait and teacups, leading to her loss of emotional stability. Ironically, as Lydia is horrified by the events, Melanie seizes the chance to exhibit compassion by offering help and decides to stay. To the audience, there is an implicit suggestion that she is aware of the shift in power balance, since Lydia is openly horrified by the birds’ attack. As the attacks intensify, the lashing sound of birds against the outside of the house become nightmarish while the trapped and horrified characters inside the house are portrayed as desperately seeking the comfort of each other. All this is amidst brokenness, blood and fear as they are revealed as simple humans in need of the strength of one another (Pinch & Trocco 47). With dawn approaching, Melanie enters the darkened attic with a flash light in her hand to investigate noises she heard, which again emphasises suspense. As soon as she opens the door, she sees the gaping hole the birds have created in the roof. She gasps as her mouth opens wide, raising her flashlight, illuminating hundreds of birds that blind her erotically and paralyze her with fear. Defensively, she shields her face and eyes to the horror of the audience with upraised hands and arms, a reflection of the first scene in the pet shop, as the birds cut into her flesh. With her arms swinging wildly when she is attacked by the birds in the attic, she also appears to be part of the crazed birds. It is more horrific as she ineffectually reaches for the doorknob to make her escape as the flashlight uselessly waves upon the birds as a weapon (Walker 104). The birds’ overpowering and brutal attack intensifies as she gives up in pain and anguish to the pecking and tearing. Her falling to the floor, which is clearly in surrender, magnifies the horrific victory of the birds as they subdue their victim. Even Mitch’s appearance to pull her out gives more weight to the horror, since he is pulling her out of the attic while she is in a prostrate position. According to Mitch, the injuries sustained by Melanie need medical attention and the family, therefore, must reach San Francisco, which is about 60 miles away. Apparently, the refuge they seek is named after a man synonymously linked with peaceful dynamics of power between nature and humanity: St. Francis of Assisi. Such irony only serves to emphasise horror, because even Lydia states that she is afraid of what lies beyond the house’s walls. Again, the director brings suspense into play to support his theme. In conclusion, The Birds is a horror film that is emphasised by the fact that birds ordinarily known to humans can turn against them so violently (Vagg 69). The director manages to bring out the theme of horror by focusing on the relationship between humanity and nature. Further, in another way, he portrays horror through the possible role and implication of the crisis in the search of genuine human relationships. The character of Melanie and its interaction and development relative to those of others, especially Lydia, are fundamental in the director’s attempt to depict horror in the film. This is especially so in a film that has no music and is set in a relatively small town, as well as the use of birds to bring violence upon humanity. Power imbalance has been exclusively used in the film to imply revenge against human beings and their supposedly ignorant characteristics in the way they handle other creations, especially those assumed to be inherently harmless. Works Cited Chandler, Charlotte. It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock: A Personal Biography. New Jersey: Simon and Schuste, 2005. Print. Mcgilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print. Pinch, Trevor and Trocco, Frank. Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer. New York: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print Raubicheck, Walter and Srebnick, Walter. Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, And Marnie. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2011. Print. Vagg, Stephen. Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood. California: Bear Manor Media, 2010. Print. Walker, Michael. Hitchcock's Motifs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005. Print. Read More