THE BIRDS (1963)
Dir. By Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Jessica Tandy, Rod Taylor
I recently saw this classic again at the New Beverly Cinema, a theater experience which I consider to be one of the best ideas anyone has ever had in LA. It was a second home to me when I first moved here: double features of new and old movies for cheap. Amazing. Anyway I saw The Birds, and I have to admit it was out of sheer boredom. I remember seeing it a long time ago and thinking it was alright, but definitely not my favorite Hitchcock.
Boy. Was I wrong. I think this movie is perfect. Start to finish, it is perfect in dialogue, plot, action, and character. If you took away the bird attacks, the film would be this cute little movie about a quirky rich woman and a boring lawyer, with the classic Hitchcock mother element. In fact, for the first thirty minutes or so, that IS the film. Which is just enough distraction to make you KEEP FORGETTING about the BIRD ATTACKS. It's quite amazing. The suddenness of those bird shots made people actually yell out loud in the theater.
Even more incredible was the laughter from the audience. I would love to travel back in time and watch this with a contemporary audience. I think I would be the only one laughing most times. Not that I think that the dialog in The Birds is how people really spoke back then, just as we don't talk like movie characters of this era. People were just used to that bizarre, old-fashioned moviespeak. I wonder if Hitchcock would be pleased at how hilarious this film has become...?
I keep saying The Birds is genius in the same way as Mr. T's "Be Yourself or Be Somebody Else's Fool" PSA series is genius. If a filmmaker tried to remake either, that person would fail. In each case, what we perceive those decades as now is a glorified and stylized distortion. It would be impossible to get someone act in a true 80s fashion, because no one would accept it. Plus, the new technology in film stock, cameras, sound, and editing would make it nearly impossible to compose the same look.
So, essentially I'm saying that I hope no one remakes The Birds, or Mr. T's PSAs, or anything other classic. Fuck remakes.
