Foreshadowing In The Birds Essay

In Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds he uses the unreal intelligence of the birds to have the humans in the film be treated like animals. Having nature fight back for its place in the food chain. This all starts with the birds attacking Melanie in the boat in the beginning of the movie. In the scene the camera is in a high angle when the bird attacks, then the camera cuts to a close up of the drop of blood falling from her head. The way that the shot is framed with a close up of the drop of blood on her hand helps foreshadow the doom that is getting ready to come upon her and the rest of the town. This only being the first occurrence they find it not necessary to investigate any more, but is not until later during the school house scene that the

The camera cuts back and forth between a medium shot of Melanie and the jungle jym. As the camera cuts back and forth between the two, more and more birds are landing on the jungle jym. This is another great example of foreshadowing the events that are getting ready to happen. After Melanie is done putting on her makeup she looks behind her and in a close-up the camera gets a great reaction of her realizing what is getting ready to happen. The birds also to have have realized something the loads of defenseless children inside the school house. The camera follows Melanie as she runs inside to tell Cathy about what is happening and that she needs to get the kids out. After the kids are only feet away from the school house the birds attack. Now with the kids running down the road the camera follows them as they are being attacked, mainly stays in a close up of the kids to show the pure terror within them. This scene really show the pure unreal intelligence of the birds, but it is not the only

Through out the end of the movie most people are indoors with windows boarded up defining for their life. As in the scene with the Brenner they are caged inside their house trying to defend themselves from the attacking birds. It starts out with a long shot of the house as the camera starts to slowly track forward toward the house. Then the camera cuts to a close up of Mitch Benner putting the boards up on the wall as he patched the holes of the makeshift cage. They then retreat to inside the house where after the birds attack all power and communication is lost. With all ways to communicate gone they have no way to signal of help, they are now sitting ducks (or birds) in cage no way out. Another example of this is when Melanie goes upstairs, as she travels up the stair the camera keeps her in a low angle shot looking down on her to show the dominance in the scene goes to the birds. As she enters the room the camera gets a POV shot of Melanie as she looks up at the hole to see that the birds have gotten in. Then cutting back to a close up of Melanie as she is trapped inside the room alomost sucomign to her doom of being torn apart by the birds in the room. The birds almost have super human like abilities in this scene with the ability to break right through the roof of a