The BirdsEssay Preview: The BirdsReport this essayBeautiful and young Melanie Daniels (“Tippi” Hedren), a wealthy socialite whose father is the proprietor of a large newspaper, visits a San Francisco pet shop to pick up a myna bird she has ordered for her aunt. There, Melanie meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a lawyer who is looking for a pair of lovebirds to give to his young sister.
Intrigued by him, she buys the lovebirds and finds the address for Mitchs home in Bodega Bay, a small coastal village up the Pacific coast. Melanie drives to Bodega Bay and delivers the birds by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat to the Brenner residence. Melanie walks right into the house and leaves the birds on a table with a note. As Melanie is heading back across the bay, Mitch circles around in his car to meet her. Just as she is about to pull up to the dock, a seagull swoops down and gashes her head.
Over the next few days the avian attacks continue, as Melanie develops relationships with Mitch, his clinging mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his teenage sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and Cathys teacher (and Mitchs former lover), Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The attacks escalate from a few birds strafing Cathys birthday party, to a neighboring farmers gruesome death, to a mass attack on the towns children at their school.
The climax of the film comes as a seagull attack on the harbor-front results in a fire and more deaths. Melanie and Mitchs family ultimately take refuge in Mitchs house, where Mitch saves Melanie from birds who have broken into the attic. Lydia and Mitch bandage Melanies wounds, but determine she must get to a hospital. In a surreal and apocalyptic scene, a sea of landed birds ripples menacingly around them as they leave the house, but does not attack. The car radio gives reports of several smaller attacks by birds in a few other communities in coastal California. The sea of birds parts as they slowly proceed toward the road and pick up speed. The film concludes with the sun rising as the four of them drive away from the farm, down the coast road and out of sight.
[quote=GwenWL]A lot of characters (for all three films) fall into roles that would never be played in an on-screen movie: The bad guys and the good guys.
After being cast for the part of Molly Crabapple, Christopher Walken announced that the role would be his; he had said it would be his first work since 1979. But how would the role go from “the bad guy” to “the best” actor he could possibly have wanted? He wanted “a film where people were willing to spend a little bit more time, to have a little bit more dialogue. It would just be fun and fun. It would just be fun to film with him. I think it’s amazing. It’s always an honor to have a role that fits the movie so well.”
“In the sense they’re on the verge of making their own [a] film with an actor like Christopher Walken, who’s the good guys,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter. “They had a very high expectations for him. And they wanted him to be like Chris Brown, because if you don’t have a quality actor, you do. You go out there and do well, and it only develops better if you’ve got the talent. All the guys just did really well and it was just like a joke.
“And I like the sense of humor. It’s so funny and he always laughs and is really witty. One of the great parts about the whole thing was going on this little run-in with the other actors, and now he’s very comfortable to be on The Hollywood Reporter in LA. We wanted him to be a very funny person for a while now so he’s going to be very difficult with it. There are so many people who are very nice and there are so many characters who are very likable but they’re not really funny or just the most relatable people in the world. It wasn’t just Chris who was a big part of everything. But if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t want him to appear on film again. So yeah, it’s been a wonderful challenge. I think it’s really cool. I think people are really into how they are portrayed. It’s a fun story. I just try to keep things as fresh as possible for me. It hasn’t been easy this time as it’s really different. I think we can do something similar this time, but the biggest challenge is to try to take our time and not try and bring this on ourselves. I’m so glad that we went the same route. There’s definitely an opportunity there. At this point, it’s just exciting to go up against that and go against the film industry. I think everyone is very happy about it.”
For more stories like this, sign up to the Hollywood Reporter’s free weekly email newsletter here and follow along on Twitter here.
[quote=GwenWL]A lot of characters (for all three films) fall into roles that would never be played in an on-screen movie: The bad guys and the good guys.
After being cast for the part of Molly Crabapple, Christopher Walken announced that the role would be his; he had said it would be his first work since 1979. But how would the role go from “the bad guy” to “the best” actor he could possibly have wanted? He wanted “a film where people were willing to spend a little bit more time, to have a little bit more dialogue. It would just be fun and fun. It would just be fun to film with him. I think it’s amazing. It’s always an honor to have a role that fits the movie so well.”
“In the sense they’re on the verge of making their own [a] film with an actor like Christopher Walken, who’s the good guys,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter. “They had a very high expectations for him. And they wanted him to be like Chris Brown, because if you don’t have a quality actor, you do. You go out there and do well, and it only develops better if you’ve got the talent. All the guys just did really well and it was just like a joke.
“And I like the sense of humor. It’s so funny and he always laughs and is really witty. One of the great parts about the whole thing was going on this little run-in with the other actors, and now he’s very comfortable to be on The Hollywood Reporter in LA. We wanted him to be a very funny person for a while now so he’s going to be very difficult with it. There are so many people who are very nice and there are so many characters who are very likable but they’re not really funny or just the most relatable people in the world. It wasn’t just Chris who was a big part of everything. But if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t want him to appear on film again. So yeah, it’s been a wonderful challenge. I think it’s really cool. I think people are really into how they are portrayed. It’s a fun story. I just try to keep things as fresh as possible for me. It hasn’t been easy this time as it’s really different. I think we can do something similar this time, but the biggest challenge is to try to take our time and not try and bring this on ourselves. I’m so glad that we went the same route. There’s definitely an opportunity there. At this point, it’s just exciting to go up against that and go against the film industry. I think everyone is very happy about it.”
For more stories like this, sign up to the Hollywood Reporter’s free weekly email newsletter here and follow along on Twitter here.
[quote=GwenWL]A lot of characters (for all three films) fall into roles that would never be played in an on-screen movie: The bad guys and the good guys.
After being cast for the part of Molly Crabapple, Christopher Walken announced that the role would be his; he had said it would be his first work since 1979. But how would the role go from “the bad guy” to “the best” actor he could possibly have wanted? He wanted “a film where people were willing to spend a little bit more time, to have a little bit more dialogue. It would just be fun and fun. It would just be fun to film with him. I think it’s amazing. It’s always an honor to have a role that fits the movie so well.”
“In the sense they’re on the verge of making their own [a] film with an actor like Christopher Walken, who’s the good guys,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter. “They had a very high expectations for him. And they wanted him to be like Chris Brown, because if you don’t have a quality actor, you do. You go out there and do well, and it only develops better if you’ve got the talent. All the guys just did really well and it was just like a joke.
“And I like the sense of humor. It’s so funny and he always laughs and is really witty. One of the great parts about the whole thing was going on this little run-in with the other actors, and now he’s very comfortable to be on The Hollywood Reporter in LA. We wanted him to be a very funny person for a while now so he’s going to be very difficult with it. There are so many people who are very nice and there are so many characters who are very likable but they’re not really funny or just the most relatable people in the world. It wasn’t just Chris who was a big part of everything. But if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t want him to appear on film again. So yeah, it’s been a wonderful challenge. I think it’s really cool. I think people are really into how they are portrayed. It’s a fun story. I just try to keep things as fresh as possible for me. It hasn’t been easy this time as it’s really different. I think we can do something similar this time, but the biggest challenge is to try to take our time and not try and bring this on ourselves. I’m so glad that we went the same route. There’s definitely an opportunity there. At this point, it’s just exciting to go up against that and go against the film industry. I think everyone is very happy about it.”
For more stories like this, sign up to the Hollywood Reporter’s free weekly email newsletter here and follow along on Twitter here.