Why was there no ending?
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partnerfrance — 12 years ago(April 03, 2013 09:35 AM)
Bear in mind that the short story it was based on had no "real" ending, either. In the short story, the bird attacks were worldwide, not localized in one community. At the end of the short story, nothing particular happens the family that the story focuses on is just waiting for doom. At least in the Hitchcock film, you are left with the impression that maybe just maybe the birds have decided that if the humans move out and leave them alone, they will stop attacking.
Bear in mind also that this is not a science fiction film this is not War of the Worlds, where there is some "resolution" of the situation, albeit from an unlikely source. -
lordofwar96 — 12 years ago(April 04, 2013 12:00 PM)
"There was an ending. As you can see, the birds stopped attacking. Why? Well, that's for you to ponder on. That was Hitchcock's intention."
Yup. We don't find out why they suddenly attacked, and we don't know why they suddenly stopped, that's for us to ponder. Great ending to a great movie. -
joe_538 — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 09:36 AM)
Bear in mind also that this is not a science fiction film
It's on the borderline, if they gave a reason for the attacks it could very well be sci-fi, as it is it's more of a fantasy movie. Though, I don't see why the genre should make a difference, story structure should still matter.
Jaws gave the audience an ending, would the movie be as good if the shark just swam away at one point? What if there was no closure to Psycho? If we never understood the motivations or learned about Norman and his mother, would the movie be as good? The Birds is a good but flawed movie. -
henrikvinther — 11 years ago(January 21, 2015 07:20 AM)
What if there was no closure to Psycho? If we never understood the motivations or learned about Norman and his mother, would the movie be as good? The Birds is a good but flawed movie.
Personally I think The Birds is a much better movie than Psycho, and it certainly has a much better ending than Psycho. And yes, Psycho would probably have benefited from not having that closure. What Psycho does is basicly ruining the whole movie by spoon feeding it's own interpretation of it's main character to the audience, leaving nothing to be analysed.
What The Birds does is, refusing to explain anything and letting the viewer himself guess what the course of the attack was and what would happen afterwards and also what the attacks could represent, which I believe has a lot to do with the relationships between the characters.
that'll be the day -
PenTheater — 10 years ago(December 13, 2015 03:39 PM)
Good point about Psycho, but I think Psycho was a little more complex for most audiences to analyze at the end by themselves, So Hitch felt he had to add the closure, that was arguably not handled well.
The Birds, like the short story is about WHAT was happening and how to deal with it, and the terror of not knowing WHY, so not knowing WHAT to do. THAT is the story, so it doesn't need an ending.
The book reminded me of the fear of fear itself of the people of Britain not knowing IF a bomb was going to drop on them next during WWII.
The story is How would YOU deal with an uncontrollable and unknowable force?
Ephemeron. -
tylerwilson815 — 12 years ago(April 12, 2013 12:19 PM)
it had the worst ending in the history of all ending. they show of made the ending way different. i did not even get why the birds came in the first place. they should of showed why the birds came and then they should of attacked the birds. but really any change to the ending would improve it because the ending sucked
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joe_538 — 12 years ago(December 03, 2013 09:19 AM)
The short story suggests it was the weather that drove the birds mad, this doesn't seem to be the case in the movie.
The only thing I liked about The Birds II was that someone actually bothered to try and fight the birds. I don't agree with what Mrs. Bundy said about humans not standing a chance in a war with birds due to their numbers. It used to take a flock of passenger pigeons three days to fly over a city, but where are they now?
What bothers me is that everyone in Bodega Bay is depicted solely as victims, with nobody trying to turn the situation. (Mitch does attempt to throw stones at some crows on the roof, but Melanie stops him) Incurable pacifists sit around and wait to die.
I don't mind open endings if they're headed in some kind of direction, but this was wide open. After the buildup, suspense, and coming to care about the characters, it was a letdown. -
jtyroler — 12 years ago(April 25, 2013 06:41 PM)
For some reason, I remember Melanie's car being on the highway at the end of the movie. Although it's common for movies to wrap everything neatly at the end, life isn't like that. You don't know if the birds are waiting for their next attack or they're tired of all the attacking and go back to acting like birds.
I would have liked for the ornithologist to try explaining why she was hunkered down in the restaurant after the attacks that she claimed couldn't happen. -
nage-3 — 12 years ago(October 07, 2013 02:10 PM)
I think the whole movie was basically made only to make you think how something so usual as birds may be threatening, in a way to give a totally new meaning in birds flocking together, and to make a revolution in cinema by picturing that for the first time. I sure it had to be very impressive back in those days, and obviously people where not bothered to pay attention to the meaningless plot. On the contrary - the short story on which the movie is based makes much more sense as it has several references to the Cold War or even the eventual Atomic War after WWII.
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ricky_may1 — 12 years ago(May 17, 2013 11:46 AM)
there was no ending because Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending danger, and wanted to let the viewer decide what happens: do they get away? do they run into more bird attacks? will they get Melanie to a hospital? Most of all, will the birds ever cease to attack?
the way it ends is quite perfect to me. -
kenny-164 — 12 years ago(June 03, 2013 09:38 AM)
This imo was a perfect example of an open ending that works and is suitable to the film that precedes it. The film is all about uncertainty upsetting everyday life. The uncertain ending leaves the viewer with an ending that confirms and does not counter that uncertainty.
it is not a story about "some birds attacked people in some town, and here's why, and here's how the story ended (presumably with the birds no longer attacking for whatever reason)."
I think people who complain about the ending also did not get what the film was about in general. -
marhefka — 12 years ago(October 14, 2013 07:45 AM)
A disadvantage of watching a film downloaded to your computer is that one knows how much time is left. I kept trying to figure out how the film would end and came up with several scenarios. But, based on the time left, I knew there was not enough time for more bird attacks, for Jessica Tandy to die, or other endings. Finally, I predicted the ending scene would be set in a San Francisco hospital room with Rod Taylor holding Tippi's hand and Jessica Tandy giving her tacit approval. When there was only 90 seconds left, I knew this was impossible.
The actual ending was not far off my hospital prediction. Obviously, Rod and Tippi were going to get together. As a bonus, they would have his mother's complete approval. -
zuzupetal_99 — 12 years ago(June 30, 2013 01:44 AM)
The ending was so anti-climactic - I didn't care for it much. The whole movie is building up suspense and fright and everything, and then at the end, basically nothing happens, it's just over. I guess I didn't get the sense that the birds were just done attacking, because it was weird that they were still just perched everywhere, as if waiting to attack again, even though Mitch & company managed to get away. I would've loved the alternate scene where Hitch wanted to cover the golden gate bridge with birds - that to me would've been the perfect ending.
I also expected someone else to die in Mitch's house - for some reason, I kept thinking something was going to happen to his creepy mother
"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl