Harold and Maude

The soundtrack is by Cat Stevens, and includes two songs which he composed specifically for the movie and which were unavailable for several decades on vinyl or cassette (they were later released on the compact disc Footsteps in the Dark). Could the birds be getting back at mankind for all the abuse, exploiting and hunting they have been through?. She tells Harold at one point about Alfred Dreyfus seeing fantastic birds on Devil's Island and finding out later that they were only seagulls. She says that to her they would always be fantastic birds. The caged lovebirds brought along throughout the movie serve as a subtle justification to the bird attacks. Her backstory is only hinted in the film. One reason could be revenge/uprising. She sees beauty where others see none, believes in the innate goodness of people (but not the State), and practices what she calls her own individual revolution. The ending to this movie is purposefully abrupt in order to allow the audience to make their own guesses as to why these birds attacked.

Maude, on the other hand, is a fictionalizer and a dreamer. He brings the car around front and helps Cathy, Melanie, and Lydia inside, then drives away, parting waves of birds that seem to lie in anticipation of something... Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Harold can only feel significant by dying. Mitch quietly enters the garage and turns on the car radio, which reports that bird attacks have occurred further inland, mentioning the town of Santa Rosa, about thirty miles away. While Harold is part of a society where he can have no importance and no meaning, Maude has survived against totalitarianism. Here, Hitchcock offers one of the most surreal and apocalyptic scenes to appear on film, as a sea of birds move under a cloudy twilight. Hal Ashby, the director of the film, was part of the San Francisco youth culture, and his film posits the doomed youth of the alienated against the vital age of the Holocaust survivors. Realizing that she needs to get to a hospital, he tells the others that they have to leave, and daringly ventures outside to get the car.

The two form an unlikely friendship, then romance. Unable to fight, she collapses onto the floor, nearly dying before Mitch comes and rescues her. Maude is very much his opposite: a senior citizen, energetic, impulsive, and light-hearted. Birds attack her from all sides as she gazes at a gigantic hole in the ceiling. At these he repeatedly sees Maude, a 79 year-old woman who befriends him. She grabs Mitch's flashlight and carefully examines the rooms, then cautiously treads the stairs, opens a door, and goes inside. For amusement, Harold attends funerals of people he doesn't know. Later on, Melanie wakes up with the intuition that something is terribly wrong.

This has evidently been going on for so long that his mother takes no notice, other than when Harold causes a particular mess with his fake blood. The power goes out, and Mitch gets a flashlight from the basement. Harold stages realistic mock-suicides. Finally, a clamor erupts, and Mitch quickly checks and repairs openings while the rest look on, terrified out of their wits. The film first introduces us to Harold, an alienated teenaged boy from a wealthy family who lives in a large mansion with his dominating mother. In this claustrophobic environment, the four spend hours wondering when the next attack will come. The screenplay on which the film was based was written by Colin Higgins, and published as a novel in 1984. Cathy, Melanie, Mitch, and Lydia hole up in their house, boarding up all the windows, doors, and openings, with the exception of a single fireplace that has a fire going around the clock.

The film was a commercial failure when it was released and critics were divided. Melanie comforts Cathy and Mitch brings Annie inside, as the afternoon descends into dusk. The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies and in 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Annie lies dead on her porch, while a terrified Cathy uncontrollably sobs. The film features both dark and light humor, social satire (including anti-war), promotes the notion of living life to its fullest, and has long had a cult following. Melanie sets out in search of Annie and Cathy. Harold and Maude is a 1971 movie, directed by Hal Ashby. At last, the screeching of the birds comes to an end.

Cinematography by: John Alonzo. Finally, Mitch ventures into the storm and brings her back into the pub, where a woman accuses her of being cursed. Borman). A dying man leans against the booth, slowly collapsing and leaving a streak of blood on the glass, which begins to crack as birds endlessly peck and fly at it. Motorcycle Officer: Tom Skerritt (as M. The local fire department soon arrives to fight the fire and end up fighting the birds instead. Edith Phern: Shari Summers. From that vantage point, she bears witness to the horrific spectacle as birds rush at her from all angles.

Candy Gulf: Judy Engles. The cries of bystanders are in vain, and a shattering explosion alerts scores of birds, who attack those who rushed out to help the clerk. Melanie runs to assist, but quickly retreats to a phone booth as she is attacked. Wood. A trail of gasoline makes its way down the road, to where a man is lighting a cigarette. Psychiatrist: G. At a pub where a majority of the children have evacuated, Melanie bears witness to the death of a gas clerk across the street after a seagull attacks him. Priest: Eric Christmas. A flock of crows gather in the playground, and when Melanie evacuates the school, they viciously tear at the children, nearly killing one of them.

Sunshine Doré: Ellen Geer. After fleeing the scene in a hysteria, Lydia begs Melanie to keep watch over Cathy during school the next day. Uncle Victor: Charles Tyner. Lydia drives over to the farmer who sold her the defective chicken feed and discovers a gory corpse with his eyes gouged out. Glaucus: Cyril Cusack. From then on, things go from bad to worse as bird attacks increase, both in scope and in violence. Chasen: Vivian Pickles. Terrified guests rush into the house as birds scratch, peck, and bite at them ravenously and without motive.

Mrs. All of a sudden, a bird swoops down and switches Cathy on the ear, and an attack on the party commences. Harold Chasen: Bud Cort. As time goes on, however, the sound of bird calls grows louder, and a shadowy cloud appears over the festivities. Marjorie Chardin (Maude): Ruth Gordon. A peaceful flock of birds make their way across the clear blue sky as Melanie and Mitch walk along the beach. The next day, Cathy hosts a birthday party.

Opening the door, Melanie discovers a dead crow sprawled on the ground. After dinner, Melanie returns to Annie's house and the two chat about their past, when a thud is heard against the front door. There, his mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy), argues with someone over the phone that the chicken feed she bought was defective—her chickens wouldn't eat a bite—only to learn that the vendor's own fowl, who had been given a different brand, had the same problem. She then returns to Annie's house, rents out a room for the weekend, and heads over to Mitch's house for dinner.

Cleaning up her wounds, Melanie gives Mitch the alibi that Annie was an old friend of hers and she wanted to pay a visit. On the way back, however, a seagull inexplicably swoops down and claws her. Then, she travels out by boat and stealthily enters Mitch's house, placing the present in the living room. When she arrives at the town of Bodega Bay, she seeks out Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), the local teacher, in order to learn the name of Mitch's sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright).

Outside, a flock of pigeons menacingly circle the sky. When Mitch reveals after the incident that he knows her as Melanie Daniels, the daughter of a newspaper magnate, and tells her off for being a spoiled prankster, she decides to pay a visit to his house to get back at him and give his sister the lovebirds that he couldn't obtain. She pretends to be the shopkeeper, showing him various species of birds, until she accidentally lets out a canary. There, she meets Mitch (Taylor), a lawyer that is looking for two lovebirds for his little sister.

A young lady (Hedren) visits a bird shop on a Friday afternoon.
. It may be noted that in Du Maurier's story, the birds attack Britain instead of California. In the film, various kinds of birds attack Bodega Bay, California, a seaside village.

This film is notable in that it has no music score per se (other than brief source music); instead a montage of assorted bird calls and sound effects put together by perennial Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann provides the "incidental music". The screenplay for The Birds was written by Evan Hunter, better known as crime fiction novelist Ed McBain. (Hitchcock also adapted Du Maurier's novel Rebecca into an acclaimed film) about birds mobbing humans. The Birds (1963) is a horror film by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier.