Avian Plague: Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Alfred Hitchcock's the Birds

0 dear Jocasta why should one look to the Pythian hearth? Why should one look to the birds screaming overhead? " Oedipus! In many ways. Alfred Hitchcock's last truly classic film. 1963's The Birds. is a fitting denouement to the director's most ambitious works. a series that began with Rear Window (r954) and climaxed with the artistic (and commercial) triumph of Psycho (1960). It would not be entirely inaccurate to characterize The Birds as simply a structural and thematic extension of Psycho: it builds suspense effectively. and attempts to probe the darker depths of human psychology in much the same way as its predecessor. But whereas Psycho achieved a nearperfect blend of these two aspects of Hitchcock's work. the director chose to follow up his masterpiece with a film that was-and remains- decidedly problematic for both critics and audiences alike."