Birdman of Alcatraz
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (PG)
D: John Frankenheimer
United Artists / Norma (Stuart Millar & Guy Trosper)
US 🇺🇸 1962
143 mins
Drama/Biopic
W: Guy Trosper [based on the book by Thomas E. Gaddis]
DP: Burnett Guffey
Ed: Edward Mann
Mus: Elmer Bernstein
Burt Lancaster (Robert Stroud), Karl Malden (Harvey Shoemaker), Thelma Ritter (Elizabeth McCartney Stroud), Neville Brand (Bull Ransom), Betty Field (Stella Johnson), Telly Savalas (Feto Gomez)
John Frankenheimer had a very good year in 1962; directing two of the best films of the year with this prison drama, as well as the political thriller ‘The Manchurian Candidate’.
Burt Lancaster stars as the eponymous character in this biopic of Robert Stroud, a notorious murderer serving a life sentence at Leavenworth Prison, where his rebellious behaviour immediately catches the eye of strictly by-the-book warden, Harvey Shoemaker.  After fatally stabbing one of the prison guards, Stroud is subjected to solitary confinement for the remainder of his sentence, and after rescuing a baby sparrow from the exercise yard during a thunderstorm, he adopts the bird as a pet and subsequently over the period of his incarceration becomes an expert on birds, their diseases and the medicines they require, inspiring other prisoners to keep birds themselves and catching the attentions of fellow bird lover Stella Johnson, who he marries so their avian business venture can flourish.
Upon relocation to Alcatraz, Stroud is forbidden from taking his birds, and thus writes an expose on the penal system, which is suppressed by the warden, but Stroud later becomes the subject of Thomas E. Gaddis’ book, on which this film is based.
Like all films based on true events, the film does dramatise certain events and heavily romanticises the eponymous character, but does make a strong case for a man finding purpose in life after all else is lost.
The performances from the entire cast are excellent, with Burt Lancaster, Telly Savalas and Thelma Ritter all receiving deserved Oscar nominations for their work.
It may play fast and loose with the facts, but that doesn’t stop this being one of the best films of 1962, as well as one of the best prison dramas of all time.
8/10
