(Figure 1)
The Birds (1963) by Alfred Hitchcock is said to be his greatest film because it embodies a distilled version of all his themes which we come to expect from Hitchcock. It is possible that it could be viewed Night of the Living Dead (1968) by George A. Romero is the same story just retold. Its unavoidable to deny that if the birds where changed for zombies it would be the classic living dead horror film. Hitchcock embodied the idea of Chaos in the film, a breakdown of the barriers between Human and Animal, physically and psychologically, the destruction of property, the reclamation of the town, trapping our Heroine Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) in a phone booth 'cage' like she herself does to the love birds throughout the film.
(Figure 2)
Dirks remarks that into the sound score "Simulated bird cries and wing-flaps" (Dirks, 2018) have been added, and immerse us solely in this, bird noises were remixed to create more terrifying sounds to make the birds appear more horrific and each situation where an attack takes place would be more exacerbated and tense to experience. It is arguable that Hitchcock is trying to put the audience in an immersive environment of chaos to experience the harassment of which the actors are themselves experiencing, this could be viewed as possibly a subconscious sexual assault, or has been likened to distress us further empathetically.
(Figure 3)
The Birds themselves have been analysed profusely since its release in 1963, they have become the 'MacGuffin' of the film because we as humans strive to place meaning on everything. There are many different theories which can be applied to this making it a treasure trove, in fact "The very act of analyzing this film’s MacGuffin is an allegorical construct" (Ashe, 2012) Brandie Ashe mentions in her concise review of the theories behind the film. It is arguable that the birds themselves as the MacGuffin can be compared to Hitchcock himself. It is widely held that he liked to make the audience think about himself as a Director, like we can see in Rope (1948) where Pamela Hutchinson backs the opinion that Hitchcock made the main characters mirror his own ideas in order to make the audience think about him and his work. It is arguable that if we could now imagine that Hitchcock has embodied himself in the birds as they harass the actors especially Melanie Daniels on screen and assault the subconscious of the audience in the sound score. It was Remarked in 2016 by Patick Shanley that published in Tippi Hedrens' memoirs she writes "On one particular occasion, Hedren claims, Hitchcock came into her dressing room on the set of Marnie and "put his hands on me. It was sexual, it was perverse. The harder I fought him, the more aggressive he became.” (Shanley, 2016). It is possible this act of sexual harassment which he performed on Tippi Hedren off set has been embodied in film to Melanie Daniels in the exact same way.
It is not a long shot to extrapolate that Hitchcock in the prime of his career, a famous, powerful and untouchable man in the 60's would embody a secret such as this and immortalize it in Film.
Bibliography:
Ashe, B. (2012). The Girl, The Birds, and a plethora of meaning.. [online] True Classics. Available at: https://trueclassics.net/2012/10/23/the-girl-the-birds-and-a-plethora-of-meaning/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].
Dirks, T. (2018). The Birds (1963). [online] Filmsite.org. Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/bird.html [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].
Shanley, P. (2016). Tippi Hedren Recounts Alleged Sexual Assault by Alfred Hitchcock in New Memoir. [online] The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tippi-hedren-recounts-alleged-sexual-assault-by-alfred-hitchcock-new-memoir-942371 [Accessed 1 Feb. 2018].
Illustrations:
Figure 1 - The Birds (1963) [film] - Alfred Hitchcock: Hitchcock Productions: Universal Studios
Figure 2 - The Birds (1963) [film] - Alfred Hitchcock: Hitchcock Productions: Universal Studios
Figure 3 - Alfred Hitchcock (1963) - Sunset Boulevard/Corbis
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