Birdman of Alcatraz

Rating:
Summary: Another Frankenheimer winner
Review: "Birdman of Alcatraz" is another fine movie directed by John Frankenheimer. His next 3 movies were "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May", and "The Train". I have seen the first 2 and gave them 5 stars, and I've got "The Train" on order. 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.

Rating:
Summary: Another Frankenheimer winner
Review: "Birdman of Alcatraz" is another fine movie directed by John Frankenheimer. His next 3 movies were "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May", and "The Train". I have seen the first 2 and gave them 5 stars, and I've got "The Train" on order. 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.

Rating:
Summary: Lancaster's tour de force
Review: A compelling story that presents the anti-death penalty view better than any other film. Burt Lancaster's performance is more compelling every time I see this. The co-stars (Thelma Ritter, Karl Malden, and Telly Savalas) are great, too. This film should be shown in every high school classroom in America. It would provoke much thought and discussion on an issue that continues to be debated to this very day.

Rating:
Summary: Strong Cast
Review: A Strong cast brings the story of Robert Stroud to the screen with style and form.

Lancaster is always on target in films like these..but here its the supporting cast which also shines...Neville Brand as the Guard, Betty Field as the co sponser, Thelma Ritter as the mother..a real nice turn by Telly Savalas..and also Karl Malden...narrated by a pretty good country actor...Edmund O Brien..

Has something to say about the death penalty also

Rating:
Summary: One of most enlightening performances on screen ever made...
Review: After spending more than half of his life in solitary, when a convict (sentenced for having killed 2 people) says: "Life is one of the most precious gift and its the duty of life to live", one wonders if redemption was over or not for him. Though, he never came out of the prison, but redemption in the sense of understanding the meaning of life certainly unfolded to this ornithologist, who became a self-taught authority on curing bird's diseases while serving life-sentence. This movie is an amazing depiction of a true story, about dedication, perseverance and relentless pursuit of "free thinking" from a prisoner-turned-author.

Rating:
Summary: the great classic Birdman of Alcatraz.
Review: Birdman of Alcatraz is a wonderful time piece movie. The black and White filming adds to the dark mood of the plot line. The movie addresses the serious problem of prison reform in the 1960's using a hard hitting liberal right-winged Democratic style. Excellent performances by Burt Lancaster and Telly Savalas. The film is smooth paced and is touchy at times. By the end you acually feel sorry for Robert Strout(who really isn't as "nice" as the movie dipicts him). The movie is truly a classic ,but it is a rememberance that Hollywood has the power to change your perspective on a person or event that happend in reality and make you think that this was the real thing. That is why each time you see based on a true story or based on this person I can garentee that Hollywood will "tinker" with it for its own hidden agenda, which in this case was to call attention to prision reform needed in the 1960's. Take the charactor they based on Robert Strout for example. Note to National Parks employees working at Alcatraz: "In Birdman, there are no birds on Alcatraz!" Ha ha ha. Notice in the movie the birds Strout had weren't at Alcatraz ,but at mid-western prison of Levenworth. This movie was John Frankenheimer's third film he made.

Rating:
Summary: A Critique of Penal System, Great Human Drama
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Good picture, but need to really separate facts from fiction
Review: Finally, after 4 decades, I got to see Birdman of Alcatraz. And a year ago I visited the island for the first time.

This is definitely a high-quality film, with a mixture of fact and artistic license. The rangers at Alcatraz still put emphasis on the dark side of Robert Stroud,and the role played by Burt Lancaster succeeds in offsetting this to a great extent.

Reviewer "silentscott" points out that the rangers have been promoting the idea that the movie says that Stroud had all his birds at Alcatraz, while the fact is that they were at Leavenworth. I got the same impression in my own tour. But actually the movie makes it very clear that the birds were left behind at Leavenworth (fate unstated), and that he had none at Alcatraz. Maybe it's time for the otherwise capable guides on the island to review the film again and see where it does diverge from the truth.

I was a young adult when the movie came out in 1962. Although I didn't get to see it until this past week (July 2004), I still remember the haunting Elmer Bernstein theme song that I would hear on the radio in the early 1960s. I now have that song in my own collection. But I am puzzled that while I watched that movie I did not hear any of the melody that was played on the air. Does anyone have an explanation for that?

Rating:
Summary: He Made an Incredible Contribution to Humanity
Review: I had heard, by name only, of the Bird Man of Alcatraz, but knew nothing else about him, or even who he was, before seeing this film.

Burt Lancaster gives a fantastic performance in this film, right up with Gregory Peck, in To Kill a Mockingbird. Both movies are high drama with intriguing stories.

The Bird Man of Alcatraz is a true story of a man in prison for murder (he killed a man who insulted a prostitute friend of his). With only a third-grade education, he eventually educates himself, while in prison, to become the world's foremost expert on bird diseases. He began by befriending a little baby sparrow he found, raising it, and training it, in his prison cell. Then the other prisoners began getting canaries, adn getting advice from the Bird Man. At a certain point, the birds began to die of a virus. This began the Bird Man's education, trying to find out why. He eventually did scientific research in his cell, and found cures for a number of bird diseases. This was especially helpful to the development of the poultry industry. He wrote two books while in prison, one on the diseases of birds (and cures), and the other on prison, and how prison affects the character of prisoners.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes drama, true stories, emotionally-moving stories, or who is interested in either animals, science, or prison life.

Rating:
Summary: slanco
Review: 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!