Why you should rent the classics.

I choose to rent “The Birds”, in my everlasting quest to view all Hitchcock movies at least once. Unfortunately the video store was one of those cruddy franchised video store that only stocks “Psycho” and “The Birds”. I was hoping to find rear window, Vertigo and Dial M for Murder, all films I had never seen before. But the video stores have no love for the classics anymore.

I had seen the birds before in Film Society a couple of months ago, and I was surprised at how good it was, old films weren’t meant to be good they were meant to be boring this opened my eyes, I concluded that this movie defiantly deserved repeat viewings.

One of my favourite parts of the film is the story, it is crazy but it seems like it could happen to you there is nothing overly unbelievable. And the story goes a little something like this, A Spoilt socialite, Melanie Daniels played by Tippi Hedren is shopping in a San Francisco pet store (watch for Hitchcock with two poodles) when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of lovebirds for his young sister's birthday, he recognises Melanie but knowing her reputation as a practical joker pretends to mistake her for someone who works there. She decides to get her own back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives and deliverers the birds to Mitch’s house, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds. The rest of the movie includes murdered, mayhem, explosions and true terror. Come on people what more do you want?

And id like to talk about a funny moment in this film, when I saw this in film society there were about 50 people in this cinema and we were at the point in the film where we see a shot of a man with his eyes poked, my friend decides to yell out “Now that’s a sight for sore eyes” the whole room packs up with laugher that day he was a god among men.

So in conclusion this is a very entertaining and suspenseful movie, defiantly a classic that deserves your viewing man, woman or child whoever you may be.