Birdman of Alcatraz

This is a classic prison film, one of the best, although the title is s a bit of a misnomer, in that Robert Strouid did all his world famous ornithological work before he was sent to Alcatraz. Burt Lancaster gives one of his best performances as the thug turned man of learning in this long but wholly engrossing film. Karl Malden gives his usual top support , and all the other players are superb. Wonderful cinematography and brooding monochrome direction from John Frankenheimer. A great film.

Interesting, thought-provoking film. No action-packed thriller this, but a steady, thoughtful film about a troubled man's inner world. Lancaster is brilliant, and in fact the acting generally is first class. And the film has a lovely luminous, grainy b&w texture. And a perceptive, careful, patient script takes you smoothly into the Birdman's world. It's a message movie, for sure, about treatment of prisoners, but it works at not being self-indulgent, and I think to an extent it's successful in this respect and does well to present a reasonably balanced representation of the arguments, but I'm not convinced of what I think is the central argument of the film. I don't know anything about the real life circumstances that I understand this film is based on, and I emphasise I am not discussing the reality, but only the film as it stands as a piece of cinema. Ultimately, the film seemed to be arguing the central character's argument, a demand for dignity, but Lancaster's character in the film was never ill-treated and his demands seemed to amount largely to his being allowed to live a normal life in spite of being in prison, but prison is supposed to be punishment. The root definiton of 'rehabilitation' might well be a restoration to dignity (I think it was put something like that in the film) but I found the character's demand for dignity self-absorbed and hollow in view of his callousness. He was not in prison to learn how to be a better person, he was in prison to be punished for murder (and I would say the murder we saw the character commit in the story showed him to be a very dangerous man). Yes, over time he came to appreciate the gift of life, all well and good, but I don't recall him also making a speech about the root definition of 'justice'. Certainly prisoners must not be mistreated, and must be accorded basic human dignity, absolutely no argument there, and I'm sure it's no easy life, but the thing is that this character's demands in this particular film actually seemed to be about his being able to do whatever he wanted, which is another matter entirely. So, I wasn't persuaded, but it's an interesting film which goes to some effort to present a reasonably balanced picture. Definitely worth watching. And the quality of the script and acting etc are very enjoyable. I'd watch it again sometime.

Excellent film. Simple, but brilliant storyline. Burt Lancaster is sublime. Would give it 10 stars if I had the chance.

A beautiful film about a criminal in Alcatraz whom devotes his time to a sick bird that he comes across in the prison. He begins to build a life for it in the prison, after time he gets involved with more and more birds until one awful day the birds are sick and he rushes to find a cure.

A film about true redemption, absolutely fantastic.

The dialogue was superb. Such powerfull words used throughout - excellent stuff.