![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The more human side of the film is really sold by the performances, which aren't graced with all that much material, but surprisingly stand out when the plot begin to thicken, with most everyone nailing a sense of sheer emotional distraught and human anguish that, when backed by layered chemistry, sell the many conflicts seen in a terrorized community with a convincing intensity that may have been beyond the time, at least in Hollywood affairs. As for the substance, I won't so much so that it's lacking, as much as I would say that it is, in fact, kind of overblown, being dragged out and histrionic, as well as formulaic, although that isn't to say that there isn't still something limited to the weight of this drama, and yet, with that said, the story concept, even for the time, is not as silly as it could have been, holding a chillingly believable primary conflict, behind interesting themes regarding natural tragedies, and even the depths of humanity in times of terror. As you can imagine, it's a long while before tensions begin to rise, but when they do, the technical value, alone, however dated, thrills, viscerally and as a reinforcement of a sense of consequence to substance. The bird effects have, of course, become rather dated over the years, even with often their being presented in a frantic fashion that is ostensibly intended to give you only so much time to see the seams, yet they hold up just fine, and when their sheer business go accompanied by unique and disturbing sound effects, a sense of pandemonium is sold, and augmented by the staging of the action sequence. The film is kind of underwhelming, but it's not as underwhelming as I feared it might be, being bland in more than a few areas, but effective enough in others to impress just fine, particularly on a technical level. The film wasn't especially refreshing even for its time, no matter, how much it tried, at least at times, when it wasn't getting too lazy, if not overblown with its exposition and conflicts to truly reward. Alas, screenwriter Evan Hunter can't quite overshadow the limitations in depth within this Hollywood thriller, which are all but overpowered by inspiration to storytelling, sure, but don't do a whole lot at all, much less anything all that uniquely. The script is decent, but it holds problems extending beyond the uneven pacing, particularly within its dramatics, as the personal character conflicts feel a touch too Hollywood in their being histrionic, and working to manufacture some depth to a story of limited weight. Running two hours in length, the film is simply too long, and that's perhaps my biggest problem with it, as the film is all too often all too meandering to be all that engaging, and would be more compelling during its lulls in conflict if it was more genuine. Well, the conflict at least seems underdeveloped, compared to the other aspects of this narrative, whose build-up segment runs for way, way too long, until it begins to feel aimless, just as the relatively tighter body gets to be draggy itself. The film is plenty well-developed, with its characters, and its settings, and even its themes, but not with, of all things, it's conflict, for although I can understand the ambiguity behind the birds' mania, and although they attempt explanations way late into the body of the film, it's hard to get all that invested in a conflict so underdeveloped. I joke, but this was Alfred Hitchcock's last huge hit, insinuating that he had time to make huge hits prior, and that would be great if this film was by any means "soaring" (Ha-ha-ha-caw!), being an unreasonably two hours reasonably well-spent, but not especially smoothly. Well, I can understand why no one wanted to try and evoke thoughts of a film this big by naming his or her film "The Birds", and even why no one made a film before this one that was titled "The Birds", because this film actually came out a couple months before "Surfin' Bird", and it doesn't get any older than that. I can torture you all with this nonsense all night, but in all seriousness, there are so many trite things involving birds that I can't believe this seemingly uncreative title wasn't taken, like, a couple hundred times before and after this film. Seriously, I've heard of California going to the birds, but this is ridiculous. "A-well-a, everybody's heard about the bird, b-b-b-bird, bird, bird, bird is the word!" Man, these birds are bad enough, so one can only imagine what chaos would befall society if the bees got in on this killing spree, John Burroughs. ![]()
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