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On one level, The Birds raises the question of why God permits evil, but on another, it also suggests that there is something dreadfully awe-inspiring in the sometimes violent, sometimes eerily calm birds. Blake does not say the birds represent God, per se, but he does note that they are "totally Other" and "totally incomprehensible to the human mind," and neither reason nor superstition can explain them away.

Beyond that, Blake notes that there is hope for the human characters in The Birds—as in many of Hitchcock's other films—and it lies in acting "as members of a community, who are both sinners and searchers for love."

Hitchcock was never exactly the most pious of Catholics. His films had their share of risque innuendo, and he sometimes depicted clergymen in mildly irreverent ways, from the minister who provides the punchline for Strangers on a Train to the priest who is abducted in the middle of a service in Family Plot (1976), his last film.

It is said that Hitchcock was once offered an audience with the Pope, during a trip to Rome during the latter part of his career, and he turned it down, lest he be given advice that he dare not refuse. "What would I do," he asked, "if the Holy Father said that in this world, where there is so much sex and violence, I ought to lay off?"

When asked about his beliefs, Hitchcock tended to downplay the significance of his Catholic faith—though he admitted the influence was there. In an interview with Francois Truffaut, he said, "I don't think I can be labeled a Catholic artist, but it may be that one's early upbringing influences a man's life and guides his instinct." And, in a 1973 interview with the student newspaper at St. Ignatius College, he said, "A Catholic attitude was indoctrinated into me. After all I was born a Catholic, I went to a Catholic school and I now have a conscience with lots of trials over belief."

Toward the end of his life, Hitchcock stopped going to church, and as his health declined, he resisted or even refused a priest's offer to come to his home for a private Mass or for the last rites. Even so, after his death, a memorial Mass was held for him at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. "He was a Catholic all his life," writes Blake, "a cranky one to be sure, but a Catholic nonetheless."

, an occasional feature at Christianity Today Movies, highlights directors who adhere to the Christian faith—sometimes strongly, sometimes loosely, and sometimes somewhere in between. This series will include everyone from biblically-minded evangelicals to directors who may only have a "church background" and perhaps a lapsed faith … but their films are clearly informed by their spiritual history.

© Peter T. Chattaway 2006, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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