Product Details

• Actors: Tippi Hedren
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 2000
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0009A137U
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674,683 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

In THE BIRDS, Alfred Hitchcock's heart-pounding follow-up to PSYCHO, the director couples a tone of rigorous morality with dark humor to create a thriller that begins as a light comedy and ends as an apocalyptic allegory. Tippi Hedren (Melanie Griffith's mother) carries the picture in her first film role ever, embarking on a career as an icy-cool leading lady. Loosely based on a Daphne du Maurier story and a Santa Monica newspaper account, "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes," THE BIRDS also features groundbreaking special effects that, in 1963, surprised and delighted audiences. Wealthy reformed party girl Melanie Daniels (Hedren) enjoys a brief flirtation with lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet shop and decides to follow him to his Bodega Bay home. Bearing a gift of two lovebirds, Melanie quickly strikes up a romance with Mitch while contending with his possessive mother and boarding at his ex-girlfriend's house. One day, during a birthday party for Mitch's younger sister, a flock of birds attacks the children in what seems to be a random incident. In fact, it signals the beginning of a massive avian assault on the residents of the town--a mysterious assault that no one can explain...and from which no one may come out alive.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BIRDS, April 4, 2007

By 

gobirds2 (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Birds [VHS] (VHS Tape)

THE BIRDS metaphorically plays out the frailties of the human heart as befuddled humans' fears are visually juxtaposed against hoards of birds gone on a destructive rampage. Humans rebel against nature and each other as the birds represent nature in harmony turned against human progenitors who stand to disrupt harmony. Rod Taylor's solid performance, as the steadfast Mitch Brenner who gradually realizes (but cannot fathom why) that things are beyond even his control, is pivotal to the progression of the story. The importance of Taylor's performance has been long overlooked. This film is a masterpiece full of vivid histrionics running the gamut of human emotions.