Rent Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Classic - Birdman of Alcatraz review by D C

get settled down for a saturday afternoon classic with plenty of what you like to snack on.........

Solitary Life. - Birdman of Alcatraz review by Steve

Progressive biopic of murderer Robert Stroud who was sent down in 1909 and remained in solitary until 1959, and in prison until his death in 1963. While inside he began to keep and study birds and developed remedies for previously untreatable diseases. Given a simple microscope he studied haematology and histology and wrote academic books. To keep his menagerie, he learned about the law.

When Stroud (Burt Lancaster) is first jailed he is wearing stripes and chains. He feeds his birds with insects freely infesting the jail. Under the control of a reforming public servant (Karl Malden) the cells become cleaner and safer and less physically brutal. But the film is clear that prisons are instruments of revenge, and fail because they do not mend the psychological faults of the convicts.

It is vague on Stroud's mentality. He seems a sociopath, resentful of anyone but his mother. He kills a warden. But his sullen malevolence is ameliorated by nurturing birds. At first this is to break the monotony of solitary, but then he lives vicariously through them. There's a nice, ironic shot of the prisoner viewed though the bars of a birdcage. Eventually his obsession releases his talent, or even genius.

Lancaster does well to maintain interest in this troubled introvert who isn't easy to like. The director overcomes the limitation of shooting within a tiny space by dealing mostly in closeups and expressionistic angles. We don't get a realistic idea of what compelled Stroud to kill and then change so remarkably. The film mostly has a reformist agenda and it makes its case with intelligence.