comment #1

jeffmcm says ...

Oh, no you didn't. This was and still is a masterpiece. Make fun of Marnie if you want to go there.

comment #2

Craptastic says ...

How can you watch a Hitchcock film and complain about the dialogue? Yes there have been some great scripts written for him but I've never watched them to hear great pieces of verbal human emotion... Its in how he creates the emotion with his visuals and then the dialogue blends with it.

And if you mean its "dated" by the look: What makes his films timeless, for me anyway, is the fact that no matter how someone's dressed or how 'fake' they seem in this day and age in their manner of speaking... The Birds still manages to freak me out and manipulate the hell out of me because of his ability to create a meance of out BIRDS. Something so commonplace...

What's the beef with the child actors? I've seen that film at least 20 times and can't think of how it could be worse than half the shit we've gone through in the past ten years with child actors (Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning excluded).

comment #3

NDH says ...

For my money, 'The Birds' still has the eeriest and most technically complex final shot in cinema history. Call the rest of the film dated and irritating if you want, but that final shot will never be equaled.

comment #4

Nate West says ...

It's still a wonderful picture. And Veronica Cartwright, the principal child actor in it, was terrific. If the movie were remade today, you'd have Jeff Goldblum come on as "the scientist," explaining how a virus caused by global warming had infected the birds and turned them into feral monsters, or some other equally ridiculous explanation. That we are left we no rational explanation of any kind is the film's masterstroke. I've been to the schoolhouse, I've been to Bodega Bay; its geography was cleverly rearranged for maximum effect.

comment #5

George Prager says ...

It's a piece of shit.

comment #6

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Nate West: "If the movie were remade today..."? Surely you've read about the remake that's reportedly been in the works by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes? There are plenty of movie sites that have been reporting on this as far back as '05. Variety's Dave McNary and Diane Garrett mentioned last April that the "Birds" remake is/was supposed to roll by the end of the year.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117962679.html?categoryId=13&cs=1

comment #7

lazarus says ...

jeffmcm, you (and everyone else here) better leave Marnie alone. One of Hitch's most underrated films, and in my opinion his best of the 1960's (and that includes Psycho). I've seen it in the theatre several times, and it gets better with each viewing.

comment #8

D.Z. says ...

The movie does come off dated. I actually wonder if it isn't a metaphor for the civil rights movement, since most of the birds are black, and simply want to live with the white people, but they're perceived as dangerous.

comment #9

PerfectTommy says ...

I watched this film a few weeks ago with my three teenage kids and they enjoyed it and thought it scarey. It is an odd film because it works on the emotions in unexpected ways. My kids made a connection of the Tippi character with Paris Hilton, a blonde celeb just known for being a rich bad girl. The first half of the film is such a strange mix of the quirky and the banal. This odd mix makes the bird attacks surprising even though you know they're coming because they are the whole reason for the film. Back to Hawks (maybe) rule, I think there are three good scenes (the birds gathering at the school yard, the attack outside the restaurant and the final sequence) but is true there are bad scenes surrounding them (including some of Hitchcock's typical bad use of rear projection and obvious studio sets). I can see why people would not have problems with it. And yet, it captures the possibility of unexpected and unexplained disaster entering ordinary lives in such a unique way, that for me, it holds up as a great film.

comment #10

PerfectTommy says ...

And I agree Jeffmcm; Marie sucks.

comment #11

PerfectTommy says ...

Sorry, Marnie. I've known some very nice Maries.

comment #12

Sarcastig says ...

Count me in the Marnie-defending camp. I like the Birds, but Marnie is many times more intriguing, not to mention sexy.

comment #13

gatsby1040 says ...

You've gone to far Wells. The Birds is great.
Fellini's favorite Hitch film. He called it a "lyric poem, organized in stanzas that illuminate and expand upon and recurring theme." It's an audacious (if not entirely successful) attempt to use apocalyptic disaster to explore intensely personal psychological and emotional problems. Its Hitch's last great work. It created the 'disaster' genre. It isn't dated at all!

Marnie has passages of greatness, but also flirts with the half-assed, and falls apart long before the (sadly dated) ending.

comment #14

ZayTonday says ...

Blasphemy. Pure BLASPHEMY.

comment #15

Reedyb says ...

I can't believe Jeff just called Tippi Hedron a "child actor."

The Birds is an exercise in suspense. You remember the thrills, but forget the banalities that lead up to them. So watching it a few times later seems disappointing. Or that's my theory.

I happen to like The Birds better than Marnie. The two major sequences of suspense (birds on the wire and birds get gas) are excellent Hitchcock.

comment #16

lazarus says ...

The Birds may finish better than Marnie, but even its supporters above have acknowledged how clunky the first half is. At least Marnie has an actual storyline and some interesting characters, and even if some of it is dated (the amateur psychoanalysis at the end isn't anything worse than what's in Psycho), this is one of Hitch's most artfully constructed cinematic efforts, the fakeness of the sets and mattes only adding to the atmosphere. The colors and use of space bowl me over, especially when on the big screen.

Regardless of whether you find the "explanation" at the end laughable, the film still raises a lot of interesting questions about human behavior, the sado/masochism of relationships, sexual politics, etc., exploring similar themes found in Vertigo but in a much more complex way. While Vertigo is the better film, I don't know why this is disregarded when it's clearly such a companion piece.

comment #17

PerfectTommy says ...

I appreciate the passion of the "Marnie" supporters. Is there anyone out there willing to defend "Topaz"?

comment #18

George Prager says ...

Pauline Kael writes about Hitchock defenders in her first book. She points ou tthe scene from MARNIE when they go to visit Marnie's mother. Kael couldn't get over how fake looking the street where Marnie's mother lives looked. The defender said something like "It's MEANT to look fake."

comment #19

lazarus says ...

Topaz is great too. Its detractors have a problem with Hitch straying too far away from the suspense genre into a more procedural espionage format, and the lack of big stars that usually populate his films. It may not be very exciting, but it's directed as well as any Hitchcock film, and has some phenomenal sequences, like following Roscoe Lee Browne's movements in the hotel from across the street with a telephoto lens, and of course that brilliant overhead of John "Fidel" Vernon killing his betrayer.

If you REALLY need to beat up on a late-period Hitchcock film, your best bet is Torn Curtain. There are some great moments in that as well, but as a whole the film's not very strong.

And leave Family Plot alone too.

comment #20

MilkMan says ...

Marnie Stern is the hottest Marnie of all time. She shreds.

comment #21

christian says ...

john simon's review of TOPAZ nails what's wrong with the reaching defenses of hitchcock's shoddy 60's work.

i like THE BIRDS for its visceral attack scenes and the final shot is great. but to read the ultimate academic apologia for its failures, pick up that "brilliant" camille paglia's bfi book on the film. your eyes will roll.

MARNIE has some interesting scenes though its premise is odious and male-dominanted. and those fake backdrops are just that without meaning.

comment #22

nemo says ...

Now, now, gruver1, you're not doing anything here but trying to provoke people.

Nobody has mentioned "Frenzy" (1972). Like everything after "Psycho", "Frenzy" is not among Hitchcock's best. But like "Marnie", "The Birds", and "Family Plot", it's pretty damn good.

"Topaz" is one of the very few post-"39 Steps" Hitchcock films I've never seen. I'll have to seek it out. "Torn Curtain" is quite weak. But still Hitchcock's weakest films beat most directors' strongest.

I'd go so far as to claim that "Marnie" is semi-great, in its flawed, creepy, sexist way. Forget about the fake-looking Baltimore street. Look at all the great small things like Marnie's mother in silhouette framed in the door at the top of the stairs, and the way she turns away, clumping down the stairs on her bad leg, framed by a shadow that hangs over her like a guillotine blade.

comment #23

T. S. Idiot says ...

Of Hitchcock's post-1930s films, I don't care for Lifeboat, Under Capricorn, I Confess, Wrong Man, Torn Curtain, Topaz, and Family Plot, but everything else is great or near-great. I used to snicker at Birds and Marnie, but they have grown on me. Both would have been much better had the star been able to act.

comment #24

jeffmcm says ...

I actually like Marnie, I just wanted to throw it to the lions because I absolutely love The Birds.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to decide if DZ's post is (a) him being subtly witty and self-parodying, (b) somebody hijacking his name to make fun of him, or (c) honest retardation. Either way, it's pretty funny.

comment #25

Wrecktum says ...

Marnie rocks. Very edgy for its time. The Birds? Not so much.

comment #26

lazarus says ...

Leave it to jeffmcm to be unable to let D.Z.'s comment go by unaddressed.

Funny, T.S., I was going to mention Under Capricorn as being one of Hitch's other most-underrated films. I guess it's people like you that are responsible for it having a bad rep, along with Topaz, Family Plot, and The Wrong Man. They're all great in their own way.

There's a website that has Under Capricorn available as a public domain download (as well as some of his early British films), and I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to check it out ASAP. Like Topaz, it's Hitch operating far from the normal "thriller" genre, but it's a beautiful film.

comment #27

Glenn Kenny says ...

Re all the 'Birds' and 'Marnie' dissing, I can only quote that cute little Russian blue from 'Cats and Dogs': "I think not, baby puppy."

comment #28

christian says ...

those perverse french critics voted UNDER CAPRICORN hitch's best film in 1958. nuff said.

comment #29

jeffmcm says ...

Sorry, Lazarus. I see stupidity and I'm compelled to point it out.

The Wrong Man is a great movie.

comment #30

Craig Kennedy says ...

I'm not taking the bait on this one. I wouldn't know how to respond to someone who dismisses The Birds as "dated and often irritating" anyway. A rube who doesn't like old movies I could understand, but I had you pegged differently Mr. Wells.

And keep your mitts off Marnie. You can have Under Capricorn though. Not a big fan of Rebecca either, truth be told - though I'd never start a fight over it.

comment #31

Nate West says ...

West to Wells: Yes, now that you needle me about it, surely I have read of plans to remake "The Birds" by Michael Bay. Must have slipped my mind. I also hear there's talk of remaking "Psycho." What a memorable cultural event that shall turn out to be.

comment #32

Craig Kennedy says ...

Do you ever read something you wrote an hour earlier and think to yourself "Jeez, what a smarmy douche"? It may come as no surprise to many of you that that happens to me. A lot.

comment #33

Hal says ...

Anyone who disses Marnie has to get past me. It has some great scenes! The deaf cleaning woman outside the safe, and Diane Baker emerging from the lounge with a flick of her dark, bobbed hair to name just two. And it features Sean Connery at his most meltingly sexiest - his Bond had nothing on this performance.

comment #34

Craig Kennedy says ...

Do you ever read something you wrote two days earlier and....oh nevermind.