Sequence of Sound in The Birds

There are many aspects of a movie that relate the feeling and emotion to the viewer. Music, or lack there of, is one of the more prominent. In the film The Birds, different bird sounds and silence are used to illustrate the action, suspense, and anxiety of the scenes. This rare technique allows the viewer to be drawn into the intensity of the birds and their attacks. The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, uses a …

…creates a more suspenseful and tense scene then if it had been scored. Seldomly do we see a film as such, that does not have a musical score. The Birds is a triumphant display of how a musical soundtrack can be replaced by alternative sound and silence and arouse such strong feelings of suspense and anticipation. The sequence in which the bird clamor and silence is grouped accents the tension and anxiety of the movie.