Customer Reviews

Birdman of Alcatraz [VHS]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Birdman of Alcatraz" is another fine movie directed by John Frankenheimer. His next 3 movies are "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May", and "The Train". I have seen them all and rate them 5 stars as well - he makes great movies. As is Frankenheimer's style, there is great depth of focus from foreground to background, but his "big head/little head" wide-angle shots are not as pronounced as in "The Manchurian Candidate" or "Seven Days In May".

Burt Lancaster earned an oscar nomination for his role of Robert Stroud, a convicted killer who was sentenced to solitary confinement while awaiting execution. His impending hanging was subsequently commuted, but he did spend over 50 years behind bars, with very little contact with other people and even less with the outside world. The movie presents Stroud in a pretty benevolent light, although in reality he was apparently very strange and disliked by most others.

Originally banned from having nearly any kind of activity as a hobby, Stroud eventually begins to raise sparrows and other birds while imprisoned in Leavenworth prison (he never had any at Alcatraz). Although Stroud only had a few years of grade school education, he teaches himself several languages and many sciences while in prison. As a result of making "home remedies" to treat his birds when they begin to die off, he eventually writes some well-regarded books on bird diseases and their treatment.

The black-and-white movie was released while Stroud was still alive in 1962 but he never saw it. He died of natural causes on November 21, 1963, just one day before president Kennedy was assassinated, and his death went largely unnoticed.

Co-starring Karl Malden as the warden, Neville Brand as a guard, and Telly Savalas (oscar nominated) as a fellow immate, it was well-acted through out. The 149 minute film has French and Spanish subtitles, chapters and a trailer.

You know that someone is a great film star when he or she can convey great charisma and deliver an A+ performance in a very quiet role. Burt Lancaster was one of these stars. He wasn't known for quiet roles but if that was what was called for, he could deliver. Lancaster's character, Robert Stroud, was a real criminal who had to find a way to endure long term penal confinement. Today he might become an outsider artist or be attending college classes in prison. Decades ago, when these things were yet unknown to our prison system, he had to be even more improvisational. Thus, he became an expert on birds and their diseases and treatments after a wounded sparrow came to his attention. This intense portrait of a character couldn't be any more opposite from Lancaster's most well known performance as Elmer Gantry, the barnstorming evangelist with earthy appetites. Lancaster was also a very physical actor who liked to move around in a film but he was able to restrain himself beautifully within the confines of this role. One really has to look to find junk roles done by Lancaster because he was very committed to the art and craft of acting, even at this point in his career when he was the most "bankable." Everyone else involved in this film also does very good work but I don't think the project would have seen the light of day without Lancaster's coming on board.

Burt Lancaster won an Academy Award nomination and could easily have corralled another Oscar statuette to go with the one he secured two years earlier for his excellent effort in "Elmer Gantry" as he portrayed convicted killer Robert Stroud in "Birdman of Alcatraz." This was also a peak period for the film's director, John Frankenheimer, since in a five-year period beginning with this triumph he also scored big with "Seven Days in May," which also starred Lancaster, along with "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seconds."

Stroud is depicted as a mamma's boy gone wrong who will not allow any fellow Leavenworth Penitentiary fellow inmates to look at his mother's picture or mention her name. He is sent to Leavenworth for killing a man in Alaska after the victim had beaten up a prostitute friend of Stroud's. The convict is then sent a hair's breath from the hangman's rope after he kills a prison guard in a rage. The explosion occurs after he has been told he would not be allowed to see his mother, who has journeyed from Alaska to Kansas to visit him.

Thelma Ritter, in a performance for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Academy nomination, battles zealously for her convict son throughout, and when he is sentenced to death she journeys to Washington, D.C. and obtains an appointment with First Lady Edith Wilson. President Wilson commutes Lancaster's sentence to life shortly before the execution is scheduled to occur. The result, however, is that the prisoner will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement as a result of his hair trigger temper and homicidal propensities.

Lancaster verbally spars for the entire picture with his nemesis, prison warden Karl Malden, although they do achieve something of an understanding by film's end. Lancaster ultimately develops a world of his own in taking care of birds. A man of high intellect, he becomes one of the world's leading experts on bird diseases, and eventually is able to supply Malden with advice on his arthritic right arm.

The character arc revealed in the film is Lancaster losing his formidable shoulder chips and intense rage when he develops a fondness for birds that germinates into a full-fledged profession behind bars. He even launches a business with pet shop owner Betty Field, who marries him as well. Lancaster also develops an association with fellow solitary confinement prisoner Telly Savalas, who earned an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Ultimately Lancaster is transferred from Leavenworth to Alcatraz, the island-based high security federal prison near San Francisco. He is reunited with Malden, who is now warden there. While crushed that his move west compels him to give up his birds, Lancaster continues to read and supply advice concerning birds and humans. At one point he serves as peacemaker during the notorious Alcatraz prison riot. He also gets a chance to meet the man who has written a bestselling book on his life, played by Edmond O'Brien, who also serves as the film's narrator.

It is during his Alcatraz period that Lancaster becomes involved in preaching prison reform. When Malden sees the manuscript that Lancaster is writing critiquing the prison system he becomes initially insulted and enraged, then, after reflection, begins to see the validity of points being raised. Malden, tired after years as a warden in the prison system, dies shortly thereafter.

In addition to the earlier mentioned Oscar nominations for "Birdman of Alcatraz," Frankenheimer was also honored in the directing category, as was Burnett Guffey in the Cinematography grouping. Lancaster secured a major international honor by being named Best Foreign Actor for 1962 by the British Film Academy for "Birdman of Alcatraz."

While controversy continues to abide over whether Robert Stroud was realistically depicted in the film and mellowed to the degree demonstrated on screen, it is undeniable that "Birdman of Alcatraz" made excellent points in the dramatic category as well as in the ongoing discussion of how to deal with prisoners in the ongoing pursuit of helping them adapt to life both inside and outside institution walls.

Guy Troper wrote the script and Elmer Bernstein provided the musical score. The film's chief producer was Lancaster partner Harold Hecht.

I really think that this is a great anti death penaly movie - It was also a very interesting movie for its time- Burt Lancaster was often known for playing unsympathetic charaters. Some think that Strouds character was portrayed too soft i.e. that he was much more of a psychopath with not one shred of humaness- But that is drama! If you want a totally factual film make a documentary- movie making is notorius for humaninzing bad people to make the charater have more universal appeal and make it easier to connect to the audience.I really think the film is more about how a man could do something quite extraordanary in prison( i.e.) become such an expert on birds under such horrible conditions. Stroud was also a man who would not give in to anyone, a charateristic that I know personally was very appealing to Burt Lancaster. This movie is really well acted and directed, well worth seeing!

This classic B&W film, one of nearly 80 flicks made by the ever-versatile Lancaster (1913-94), bears the sober and important distinction of NOT being true-to-life, to the real Robert "Birdman" Stroud, who was a vicious and dangerous man who deserved to die in prison. Nevermind. It's an inspirational story that shows the potential for a human being to evolve and maintain his integrity under dreadful circumstances.

Since 1962 when the film was made, our prison system hasn't changed one iota. Rehabilitation is a matter of luck, not public policy, with recidivism rates climbing. Viewed as a social document of the sixties, it parallels the terrible Attica riots, and shows the corruptibility of everyone, a microcosm of life. Stroud's place as a genius in the avian world is the most exciting facet of the movie. He enters prison as a defiant young killer with no manners or humility who develops himself through his self-taught absorption into the biology of the caged bird. Through his love of birds, he comes to love himself and fellow man, and in his characteristically flat tones speaks to one of the birds he sets free, "Take a bite out of the stars for me."

Because of his truly homicidal nature, Robert Stroud himself could never be set free, but was allowed later in life to roam among the meadows of a locked facility until his death. Superb love angle with his wife, whom he insisted on setting free, and the contrast against his own jealous mother, whose motives he finally began to understand. Remember, this is a deep movie about self-understanding.

Also filled with other meaningful characterizations - and hello there, Telly Savalas & Karl Malden, nice to see you both again!

you will like this movie. If you are in any measure a Burt Lancaster fan, you will LOVE this movie. A quiet but powerful and thoughtful comment on the American prison system and its failings. Compassionate and at times funny picture that treates guards and inmates both as real, dimensional people instead of Nazis, saints, or demons (unusual even in a fact-based story).

I think this movie was extremely well directed and acted- Yes Stroud may have been a really lousy guy, a disturbed psychopative killer, but the movie is really more about how Stroud or anyone for the matter could do something with themselves in prison (i.e. become a world authority on birds) under such horrible conditions- I also think it is interesting that Stroud would not give in to anyone an aspect which I personally know was very intriging to Burt Lancaster about Strouds character. As for whether this movie was over dramatized, so what! that is what movies are about , it you want all truth go see a documetary. For movies to have and audience appeal the charater has to be likeable or appealing on some level or its hard to connect- This movie is also a great anti- death penaly movie - this film is well worth seeing and an unusual film for its time!

Stroud never kept any birds on Alcatraz and although Lancaster portrayed him as a misunderstood genius to the point where people were writing letters to petition the "kindly old man's" release.

The truth of it is that Stroud was a homicidal maniac. He killed his first man at 19, killed a fellow inmate and killed a prison guard because his mother had been denied visitation.

When Stroud came to Alcatraz he was put into solitary because he was a risk to both his fellow inmates and the guards. He was not liked by inmates or guards and when his health began to fail, he was put into a solitary room constructed especially for him, on Alcatraz.

During his stay at Alcatraz ,Stroud was known as a agitating individual and constantly caused problems for his keepers. He spent his time writing letters to the Fed. Bureau of Prisons informing them that he was keeping a list of those he planned to kill upon release. He was also known to compose letters that bordered child pornography as well.

This film is pure entertainment and a very good performance by Lancaster. But dont be fooled by "this victim of society" [line].
Stroud was a violent psychopath, nothing more, nothing less.

Birdman of Alcatraz is a perfect example of cinematic storytelling. I vividly remember seeing it in the theater when it came out, and being strongly affected by the story, and by Lancaster's portrayal of Stroud.

Unfortunately the real Stroud was nothing at all like the character depicted in the film. He was, from all accounts, a vicious sociopath, a man who killed when it suited his needs, manipulated people around him, and was able to game the prison system to his own ends.

Still, this is a wonderful film that manages to craft an uplifting story from the life of a man who had little about him to admire. Quite an accomplishment.

Sensitive portrait about a recluse who became in a real authority in what birds behaviors concerns Eventually this activity will lead him to his bliss.

Lancaster made an accuracy role and so Eli Wallach with this original script. Absorbing work from beginning to end.

Once more the artistic gaze of John Frankenheimer allowed him to make such difficult and almost unique picture. One of the best American pictures ever made, that consolidated to this director as one of the finest and creative directors of his generation.