Critical Analysis Of A Critique Of The Birds By Alfred Hitchcock

The Birds Critique

Question to consider: How successful was is the director at creating suspense?

The first film that I viewed for this class is The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. The opening scene of the birds squawking and flying gave me some insight of what this film’s feeling might be which is dark and ominous. The chirps in the background creates the sounds of what may happen throughout the film. Melanie Daniels, the main female character, seems a bit odd but does a very excellent job at acting mysterious. Throughout the movie, she never really explains what she does. For example, when she orders the lovebirds, it is obviously for the man, Mitchell Brenner, but she goes through so many steps to get the lovebirds delivered to him. She stops at his apartment, and does not give the explanation to the door man. He provides her with evidence that he is a Bodega Bay, and so she drives there. When she arrives in Bodega Bay, she asks the post man a variety of personal questions about Brenner’s family, his home, and how to get to his place. When she was asking these questions, it made me feel uncomfortable. She really wanted to know, and came off as invasive and eerie. When all of this was happening, I was sure that she was going to be causing issues that could’ve been disturbing. However, as we all

For example, as Daniels is boating back from the Brenner home, I did not expect the bird to scratch her on the head. It was unexpected, and some other directors might have chose to show the bird in the distance or slowly come in on Daniels, but he decided to show just a small part of the bird attacking her. He showed the damage that a small cut could do to a head, even if it was not a full on attack. I thought it was interested how he decided to portray the first bird attack incident. He did not make it to disturbing to watch, but it comes off as strange and I was left wondering, “What will happen