Iconic Movie Stills

Empire Online runs a lovely gallery of some of cinema's mot iconic movie stills. From "Ben Hur" to "Alien" to "American Beauty," these are some potent, gorgeous, sometimes grotesque cinematic images -- images that have either been stamped on our brain forever, or we need to remember.

Above is one of my favorites, Tippi Hedren suffering blood-thirsty, sociopathic birds in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

Empire writes:

"Tippi Hedren went through hell to get the perfect shots that Alfred Hitchcock wanted in his tale of nature gone mad. She had birds actually tied to her clothing on nylon threads over a week-long period, and was actually pecked in the face hard enough to draw blood at least once. On the bright side, we got a convincing sense of terror and attack that made the film even more unsettling."

Check out the entire gallery here.