"Her classic story The Birds opens with this: On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was winter. Short, chilly and to the point. It could almost be a weather report. It works so well at the outset of the gripping tale that follows, in which every species of bird attacks humankind, because it's flat, declarative and realistic."
"The film version of The Birds, overloaded with a love match between Hollywood pretty people (Rod Taylor as Mitch, Tippi Hedren as Melanie) to go with the bird attacks, bears almost no resemblance to Du Maurier's story. The setting is California's sunny Bodega Bay instead of cold and overcast Cornwall, England, and the number of characters has been expanded. The only real similarity between the story and the movie lies in their endings."
A flat, weather-report opening establishes a matter-of-fact tone that makes extraordinary bird attacks believable and suspenseful. The restrained, reportage-like voice prioritizes plausibility over melodrama, increasing reader acceptance of uncanny events. A cinematic adaptation relocates the action to sunny California, expands the cast, and introduces a romantic subplot, altering mood and emphasis. Both versions conclude ambiguously: the film shows protagonists leaving amid roosting birds while future danger remains plausible, and the other closes on a quiet domestic moment that leaves characters' fates unsettle d and intensifies dread.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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