The tippi point: why did "The Birds" GO bats?

When I was a kid, I could not figure out the ending of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, but I still thought it was a cool movie. I couldn’t figure out anything about what was going on in the movie at all.

Throughout the film, characters try to puzzle out why this is happening. Over the decades there have been many theories. The fact that nothing was spelled out and made easy may have been the whole beguiling point.

There was never a reason, and the movie really does not conclusively make it seem that all will ever be well. In the original novella, the birds continue their aggression and its more clear that they are not finished destroying, but the movie leaves it more open and is much more disturbing that way.

That is what separates Hitchcock’s The Birds from the same subject matter in the hands of another filmmaker, say the amusingly outlandish William Castle. The Birds is a true classic, continuously watched and discussed all these years later.

FUN FACT: Dal McKennon, who played the diner cook, was the voice of TV Gumby and Archie. He can be heard as Ben Franklin at The American Adventure in Epcot.

Hitchcock very well may have been drawn to the story's vague nature for that reason. There is a tendency for a lot of filmmakers and studios to overthink and overrule anything that requires too much audience introspection or imagination that is not provided by the film itself (“But what if ‘they’ don’t get it?’”).

One recent example is the fairly recent Paddington reboot, a very cute but literal. adaptation In the books, he can speak and no one questions it. That is part of the marvelous fantasy and charm. In the movie, there had to be a convoluted explanation created outside the book to explain away his ability to talk. It felt forced, as if it was added to prevent the slightest amount of confusion, yet a small child would simply say, "He can, just because."

It's often said that young audiences demand more “interaction,” but the term is overused, misinterpreted and administered in the form of gadgetry and gimmickry, which has never proven to last. When entertainment engages imagination, THAT is interaction.