Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Absolutely amazing

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Well acted film from a cast of excellent character actors who only add to Burt Lancaster's fine performance. If you give a man an inch he will often take a mile. Indeed a man who commits murder only to find a purpose of being curious and eventual caring for birds; shows how fulfillment can bring out the best in a human being. Enjoyable film with the directors close ups giving much flavor to the performances.

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ is a biographical drama about the life of a federal prison inmate.Robert Stroud is imprisoned as a young man for committing a murder in Alaska. He is a rebellious prisoner who is in a frequent conflict with a rigid prison system and its staff. Soon, he stars an open conflict with a strict warden of Leavenworth Prison. Stroud is sentenced to death, due to a fatal incident in prison, but his mother runs a successful campaign and he is commuted to life in prison. To break the monotony, Stroud adopts an orphaned baby sparrow as a pet. Soon, the birds have become the most important part of his everyday life. When they fall ill, he conducts experiments and comes up with a cure. The killer and conflicted character becomes a genius...It's very easy to draw the line between the real and the fictional part of the story. This is, perhaps, the most obvious weakness of this film. However, this is a very striking portrait of a prisoner, which stimulates the emotions. A kind of manipulation of the true facts led to the results, after which the birds have completely changed the character of a wicked prisoner. There is too much coincidence, I think that one part of the true event, which would likely have a powerful effect on the audience, is set aside. A rehabilitation of a semi-literate prisoner, taking into account the fact that this prisoner fell rescued from certain death, is simply amazing.The love between the main character and his pets is fascinating, at the same time his relationship with other people is vague and inarticulate. People have taken his liberty, dignity and later his love and intimacy. Scenery is realistic and characterization is very good.Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud is a vital, conscientious and temperate character. A prisoner, who has found a way out of his despair and loneliness. This is, perhaps, his best performance. Karl Malden as Harvey Shoemaker is a frustrated antagonist, which is driven by his own passion. The passions sometimes blind a man.Their support are Thelma Ritter (Elizabeth McCartney Stroud) as a persistent and passionate Robert's mother, Betty Field (Stella Johnson) as a bit desperate wife, who can not tolerate tightness of a brilliant mind and Neville Brand (Bull Ransom) as the voice of reason and compassion in this film.Well, we have saw the bright side of this story, some might know the other side.

This 1962 biopic from United Artists claims to tell the story of Robert Stroud. However, it is mostly fictionalised and refuses to depict the real Robert Stroud. The end product is merely a drama which addresses issues associated with the prison system which are still very much relevant today. In 1912, Robert Stroud is transferred to Leavenworth prison in Kansas to serve out a sentence for murder. During his first few years there, Stroud kills a prison guard who refuses to let him see his mother. Now facing the death sentence, Stroud's doting mother appeals to the President to have the conviction quashed. The President obliges, but Stroud must spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. As the years pass, Stroud finds a baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Now taking an interest in ornithology(the study of birds), Stroud soon acquires a menagerie of finches and sparrows which changes his life. He even finds a cure for a deadly virus among the birds and writes a book on how to treat them, gaining the nickname "Birdman".In reality, Robert Stroud was a psychopath, not the mild mannered individual who is shown in the film. There are instances of Stroud threatening to kidnap and murder the children of some of the prison guards. Although Hollywood could not glorify an individual with such tendencies, especially in 1962, hence why this movie has been watered down. However, the ever brilliant Burt Lancaster transforms Stroud into a likable character. The robust script gives the character some truly memorable lines("a man ain't whipped until he quits")and it is Burt's unsurpassed professionalism which makes the character succeed. Karl Malden is also superb as the governor, Harvey Shoemaker. Malden would always inject passion into the characters he played and it shows here. It was also great to see an early role for Telly Savalas(with hair!)as convict Feto Gomez. The Greek gets a substantial amount of screen time and executes his role with the awe striking charisma that I have come to expect from him. Neville Brand, Hugh Marlowe and Thelma Ritter also shine in supporting roles.John Frankenheimer's direction holds the movie firmly together by making each character real. The film depicts it's characters as human beings and not just prisoners/guards. The highlight of the film is the heated discussion between Stroud and Shoemaker regarding the progression of the penal system. Shoemaker believes he has succeeded in transforming the prison into a more human environment. Stroud knows that this new system is no different from the old one. The prisoners have the ideals of the prison staff pressed onto them thus when they are released they have been robbed of their individuality which acts as a catalyst in encouraging them to re-offend. A scathing comment on the justice system handled in a mature way by Frankenheimer. There's also a particularly moving scene after the riot in which a young convict dies as Stroud begs him to reconsider what it means to be alive.Birdman is a rather long slog, but it's easy on the eye. On top of this the sturdy script and rich characterisations make it an engaging watch. 8/10.

I would have bet some poetic license was taken with this depiction of Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, and a host of other reviewers state that case pretty well. What I kept wondering as the film progressed was how he came to be known by his nickname since all of his bird study took place at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. I guess it doesn't matter much as Alcatraz sounds a lot catchier than Leavenworth.Well Burt Lancaster was given a large one man job here and he pulled it off pretty well. His presence dominates most of the picture and even when he's not on screen you can feel it. It seems to me that Lancaster had to have a certain kind of patience to film a host of scenes that required all manner of birds to behave in just the right way. A 'making of' film about this movie would probably be as interesting as the picture itself.Oddly, there were two different scenes that didn't involve birds that captured my interest the most. The first was when guard Bull Ransom (Neville Brand) challenged Stroud for not treating him like a human being, not even talking to him. In a strange way the dynamic of the picture turned the usual treatment of prisoners of the era on it's head. Then, towards the end of the film, Stroud basically uses the same tactic to let Warden Shoemaker (Karl Malden) know that his approach to inmates robs them of their individuality by treating them all the same way. I thought that was a clever observation for director Frankenheimer to make.So as a stand alone movie, this one rates pretty highly with me. In fact, when I finished watching, I immediately checked the awards competition for 1962 to see what edged this story out for the major Academy nominations. Not that I saw it as a contender for Best Picture, but between Lancaster, Savalas, and Ritter, I thought one of them might have pulled it off for their respective category. I guess it's fair enough that each was nominated; they all did an outstanding job. Savalas in particular had that crazed menace thing going for him making you wonder if he was going to flip out at any minute.Best quote of the movie and strangely apropos for it's subject matter occurs when Stroud goes on a drunken binge in his cell and releases all the birds to show his displeasure - "Fly my avian friends. I give you the illusion of freedom."