The Birds

9/10. Watched this Tuesday evening on DVD.

I was probably in my early teens when I last watched The Birds, and although I enjoyed it for its thrills, I completely failed to notice what a dense and interesting movie it is.

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) arrives in Bodega Bay -- uninvited, and with a pair of caged lovebirds -- in pursuit of Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a man whose life is full of women who want or need him for one thing or another. Melanie is treated well enough by these women, yet the movie repeatedly uses bird attacks to comment on her interactions with them, until finally the whole thing explodes in the classic final act.

At one point, a hysterical woman turns on Melanie and accuses her of being responsible for the bird attacks. My younger self thought this was an absurd claim. Now I think maybe that hysterical woman had a point. This is as thought-provoking as horror movies get.