All that aside, the bottom line is that this is a Hitchcock movie, and Hitch, even at his very worst, runs rings around many directors today. Scene after memorable scene of the birds gathering, or attacking, or even just… sitting, make this worth it. Bernard Hermann’s music-less score of bird sound effects was written out and conducted just like an orchestral composition. To me, this is Hitchcock’s most suspenseful movie overall, since even the original audience knew birds were going to attack, but when? And how badly, in the end? The attacks are drawn out so slowly, it’s maddening, and in a good way, if that makes sense. There are individual scenes in other movies that are more suspenseful than any here, but not as a whole.