The Birds Movie And Book Comparison

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier is a fantastic horror story that was brought to cinematic life by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie, although seems completely different from the book, represents the book well. The movie shows that no matter when, to whom, or where, the theme of the book is prevalent. The theme from both book and movie is man vs. nature. The birds begin attacking seemingly out of nowhere, and man has a very low chance to defeat them. Though the ending from both book and movie is quite vague, this allows many theories from fans. Overall, The Birds is a great show of horror and how man will never truly beat nature, it is a great movie and story especially for it’s time.

The Birds is set in Bodega Bay in the 1960’s and follows an underlying

The movie opens with Melanie Daniels trying to pick up some birds from a pet shop. In walks Mitch Brenner, a lawyer in San Francisco. Ms.Daniels tries to flirt with him and ends up pretending to be an employee at the store, from this she learns he wanted to get lovebirds for his sister, Cathy Brenner (Veronica Cartwright). Melanie goes to great lengths to find Mitch and ends up tracking him down in Bodega Bay. The locals eye her suspiciously since she seems very out of place and odd. She drops of the birds but on the way back, a gull attacks her giving her a cut on her head. This is an amazing show of foreshadowing by Hitchcock of what is to come. Later on, we see the bird began to gather, preparing for an attack. They even swoop down and attack innocent kids, even killing their schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) late on in the movie. Tippi and Mitch end up in a diner after the attack on the school trying to convince the locals of the attack. Many -except for one drunk who claims it is the end of

It is a controversial ending, just as the ending to the book. In the book, readers are left not knowing whether the characters survive the next day or what will happen in the future. Here in the movie, the audience is left unknowing if Melanie will survive the attack or what will happen to the Brenners. Many have been upset by such a cliffhanger as an ending, but other critics have praised the open ending. According the an article by The Guardian written by Xan Brooks, Hitchcock did not know how to tie up the ending and opted for an open ending leaving behind the mystery of it all. Of course, leaving an audience with such an ending will drive some to create theories. Perhaps there is a deeper meaning to the whole movie and even the book. An article by Bosley Crowther for the New York Times has gone into deep explanation about these theories. One theory behind the movie and book is that the meaning is of how birds can ruin a peaceful society or that birds will be the end of the world. It is also speculated that the birds were meant to represent the purging of wickedness. This is shown when the birds kill the school teacher, Annie, who is full of jealousy. Or when the birds attack the house where Mrs.Brenner, a possessive and jealous mother, lives. It is unknown if audiences should find a deep meaning in this, but it is a great movie no matter