Birdman of Alcatraz

source: Birdman of Alcatraz

If performed on stage, BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ would surely be a one-man show...with Burt Lancaster giving a monumental performance. As it is, John Frankenheimer's film is way too long, way too slick and way too calculated to make degenerate Robert Stroud into some sort of saint...a hot-headed saint, but a saint nonetheless. Even during a prison uprising, this Stroud is seen as, at most, an innocent bystander. Frankenheimer's direction is inert... It's studio bound and without a hint of the style the director brought to his previous efforts. It's two-plus hours of Lancaster acting, acting, acting. And when he isn't, we get Thelma Ritter, Karl Malden and Telly Savalas (trying mightily in a really bizarre role). On the plus side, the titles are terrific as is the score by Elmer Bernstein. Frankenheimer would get back on solid ground later in 1962 with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

What a beautiful film portrayal. Though this movie is slow-paced it is worth the effort to get involved viewing it. Lancaster and Malden are perfect antagonists on screen. The tenderness and gentleness shown to the birds by the inmates in the prison contrasts not only the harsh prison environment accompanied by the violent existence of everyday life but also the inner characters' of the prisoners' themselves whose tough exteriors mask the gentle love that surfaces when the birds are introduced into Robert Stroud's cell. Telly Savalas is in his element when this coarse and tough brute is elevated to tender emotions he thought did not exist in himself anymore after spending most of his life behind prison walls. This film has had a direct impact on my life as Robert Stroud's book on Bird diseases and their treatments have cured my own flock from ailments from time to time and I am so grateful for his brilliant common sense approach to disease and medicine. This is a brilliant film that I thoroughly enjoy each time I watch it. John Frankenheimer - where are you when we need you?

When I first saw this film I thought that Lancaster had done a very good job. Unfortunately, I then read up on the man the movie had practically immortalized and realized I'd been had. Again. I lost a lot of respect for Lancaster after that. Apparently the only way a story can turn out the way Hollywood wants is to simply manufacture it. Of all the historical films that I've seen whose events I am familiar with, the only one that I can honestly say was accurate was The Longest Day. As for the other reviewers who somehow find deep meaning in what, for all intents and purposes, seems to be some sort of religious or propagandistic morality play, well, I didn't discern any deep thinking floating around the cell block.

Burt Lancaster received his third Oscar nomination for portraying the real life character of Robert Stroud who when this film was released was still in federal penal custody at what we'd now call a halfway house. The film is based on Robert Gaddis's book about Stroud and his incarceration and it was written to attract publicity to Stroud's effort to become a free man before he died. Edmond O'Brien is Gaddis and he's seen briefly at the beginning and end of the film and he narrates the story. Knowing all this what you are seeing in Birdman of Alcatraz is Stroud as he would like to have seen himself if in fact he ever saw the film. In real life Stroud was not all that noble a creature. Remember the man did commit a murder to get there and murdered a prison guard while in Leavenworth. Which leads us to the heart of the story. Even states that don't have capital punishment, make an exception if one kills a corrections officer while incarcerated. It has to be so because what else is to do with them if they're that incorrigible. Corrections Officers go among the prison population without any weapons and they're outnumbered by quite a bit. So when Lancaster kills Crahan Denton the guard, it was the only outcome for him. Stroud had a determined mother played by Thelma Ritter who wangles an appointment with Edith Bolling Wilson, the First Lady while President Wilson is still suffering the effects of a stroke. Edith to all intents and purposes was the acting President of the United States and Thelma appealed to her woman to woman. President Wilson commuted Lancaster's sentence to life in prison. Warden Karl Malden however has the say in just how Lancaster will serve his life sentence. It's to be in solitary confinement. But while there he develops an interest in birds after picking up an injured sparrow. Pretty soon he's got himself a regular aviary. And a man with a third grade education became an expert on bird diseases, developed medicines and wrote a book on the subject. He even marries through a technicality a widow played by Betty Field. When he does marry her, he loses the support of Thelma Ritter however who ceases to advocate for a further commutation of the sentence. Lancaster's performance is one of his best. The role calls for him to be on screen 95% of the time and he ages from an angry and homicidal convict to a grand old man of the prison. It's I'm sure how Robert Stroud saw himself. Others paint a less flattering picture of Stroud. The most common thing said by those who didn't like him was that he was an instigator of trouble, but always backed away when it started. His critics would have you believe he probably started the prison riot that we see him ending at Alcatraz. My two favorites among the supporting cast are Neville Brand who plays the prison guard in solitary who befriends Stroud and Telly Savalas as his fellow con in solitary. These are some of the best work that either of those guys ever did on screen. It probably didn't help Lancaster's Oscar bid that he had won for Best Actor two years earlier for Elmer Gantry. He lost to Gregory Peck for Best Actor in 1962. John Frankenheimer's direction is flawless and while it's not the real Robert Stroud, it's a great cinematic achievement.

BURT LANCASTER seldom had a role that he connected with more than his portrait of an embittered man who must spend his life in prison after murdering a prison guard. His muted performance of this stoic man is under close scrutiny by the camera as he gradually redeems himself through a chance encounter with a fallen sparrow. Everyone in the cast is superb--Karl Malden as a hard-nosed warden, Telly Savalas as a fellow prisoner, Betty Field as the widow who becomes close to Stroud through a mutual interest, and particularly Thelma Ritter as an over possessive mother. The refusal of a prison guard to permit Lancaster to see his mother is the catalyst that sends Stroud into solitary when the guard is fatally stabbed. The scene where Stroud breaks down and actually apologizes to a prison guard (Neville Brand) is one of the most powerful moments in the film with Brand speaking up to the defiant prisoner who treats the guards with contempt. All of the scenes showing Stroud taking care of his birds are startlingly realistic. Through brilliant black and white photography and a compelling script--and under the superior direction of John Frankenheimer--the film will move you to tears on more than one occasion and provides a vast range of emotions for the viewer. Burt Lancaster's finest achievement as an actor. Interesting to note that only Burt Lancaster and Thelma Ritter were nominated for Oscars. Karl Malden and Neville Brand also deserved Oscar nominations--as did the film.

If you feel a deep interest in John Frankenheimer and set up a DVD collection, you need three indispensable works from this versatile filmmaker dating from his decade glory: the sixties. They are "the Mandchurian Candidate" (1962) the template for the political film based on suspicion and conspiracy. "Seconds" (1966), the film in which Frankenheimer's obsessions and camera work reached an incredible peak. It could also be the granddaddy of the meandering "Abre Los Ojos" (1997) made by Alejandro Amenabar. And at last this "Birdman of Alcatraz". It was the film that put its creator on the map back in the sixties and it's arguably the first treasure in his filmography. Robert Stroud is a very impulsive man and this serious drawback led him to commit several murders. After having been sentenced to life imprisonment and jailed in harsh conditions, he rescues a small sparrow from the storm and raises it until he can fly. From this watershed event, his life is going to take another grand dimension. A boundless passion for ornithology makes him famous all over the world. But during his prison sentence, he's transfered to the Alcatraz prison and this change stops him from going on in his research and his knowledge related to birds. The adaptation of a book relating the life of the real Robert Stroud was a project close to Frankenheimer's heart and while discovering this very long film (about two hours and a half), one recognizes his hallmark in the directing with mind-boggling angles and striking camera movements. The director also plays a lot with the lighting and the scenery of the prison and notably Stroud's cell. Some shots showcase Burt Lancaster behind the bars with their shadows reflected on his face. A neat metaphor to make the audience understand that he can't escape from the scenery that surrounds him but also from the ruthless laws of justice. The scenario also spans what made Frankenheimer a kingpin in American cinema. His set of themes revolve around the alienation of the individual in the modern world, his inability to adapt to it and the rules, constraints of society which dwarf him. At the outset, Stroud is an outcast and can't conform to the rules and laws which govern the USA. But the discovery of this wounded sparrow will make him reconcile with life. His thirst for knowledge, his willful persona for developing and deepening his knowledge in ornithology are so potent that one virtually forgets the restrained, cramped space he lives in. His cell is fraught with birds singing, cages galore test tubes for his experiences and learning books. Frankenheimer achieves the feat to make this paradox endure and so to move the audience: to film a nearly fulfilled life in a tiny space and to turn a nearly bestial human being in a respectable man. That's the victory of the individual on a repressive system. So unlike the two Frankenheimer pieces of work I quoted in my first paragraph which spread ed an unchanging pessimistic whiff, especially "Seconds", "Birdman of Alcatraz" is bestowed with an upbeat, optimistic feel. And I won't come back on Burt Lancaster's imposing, subdued performance which has so much been rightly lauded. One word about Robert Stroud's mother: she may be a distant cousin of Raymond Shaw's in "the Mandchurian Candidate" for she is against the marriage of her son. Whenever this film is evoked, the controversy about the real Robert Stroud comes back. They always tell he wasn't this brainy, sensitive man described in Frankenheimer's film but it doesn't stop you from watching one of the most momentous films in the filmmaker's canon and probably his most harrowing one. NB: the real Robert Stroud was never allowed to watch the film.

In the words of an Alcatraz inmate "Burt Lancaster owes us an apology." This movie falsely tells the story of convicted homicidal murderer Robert Stroud. I read about and dud a thesis on Stroud. For one the movie tries to portray Stroud as a mild mannered misunderstood man. In fact he was a perverted psychopathic killer. Stroud was dangerous. He was kept in isolation because he was too violent. Keeping and feeding birds doesn't redeem an unrepentant murderer.

John Frankenheimers 1962 film about a convicted double murderer who turns his half-life into something meaningful by becoming an expert on the diseases of birds. Although this is not a completely accurate tale of Robert Stroud who became known as The Birdman of Alcatraz the performance of Burt Lancaster makes it a classic film of the human-interest story genre. Genuine WWII hero turned actor Neville Brand likewise turns in a strong performance as a stern yet sympathetic guard at the Leavenworth Penitentiary. Karl Malden is cast as the by the book bureaucratic prison official who's life continues to cross paths with the incarcerated Stroud. Veteran character actress Thelma Ritter is Strouds over protective mother who will do anything for her loving son realizing that where he is is probably the best place for him. The film strangely shows the mental capabilities of a person and how much someone can achieve when one wishes to. The Stroud character has only an elementary school education at the films beginning yet applies himself to obtain knowledge equal to that of a college educated individual. Although the story takes place in a prison this is not just a prison picture but more of a story of one man conquering his own ignorance by reaching into himself and casting out the demons that put him in the situation that he must live with. There are perhaps many such people in this countries prisons who have done similar as the main character in this movie.

Anyone who knows anything about the real life of Robert Stroud will agree that this film bears no resemblance whatsoever to Stroud's real life. Stroud was a murderous pedophile and there is some evidence he was a cannibal. This film grossly exaggerates this man's life and so-called accomplishments! Read his letters! Read his record! To glorify this monster is typical of Hollywood. To treat a film about this demon as a work of art is in itself horrible, particularly since no attempt is made to show the real Robert Stroud or his true life. Every time it is shown there should be a disclaimer describing that the film is--except for his name--a complete work of fiction.