hyped garbage

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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.

John Frankheimer's "Birdman of Alcatraz" was adapted from the novel of the same name written by Thomas E. Gaddis. The original material was already a fictionalization of the life of Robert Stroud, a convict sentenced for life in solitary confinement in Leavenworth prison due to his rebellious and psychopathic behavior yet, thanks to his predispositions for intelligence, he turns into a self-taught expert on birds and avian pathologies writing many scientific essays and becoming an authority among bird lovers and poultry risers. The film tells the story of this evolution, and one of the most intriguing and captivating premises from any prison movie.So how futile and sterile can all these debates about the accuracy be? Granted the real Stroud wasn't as mild-mannered as Burt Lancaster in the film, although he wasn't the jolliest fellow either, all right, there are some inaccuracies but aren't they all diluted in the richness of a life totally dedicated to birds and living creatures? Isn't it worth enjoying the film for the inspirational lesson of self-made-rehabilitation and conquered dignity? There's so much to appreciate in the story that I fail to see what kind of improvement a 100% accurate movie would have done. And to conclude that parenthesis, I've read the man's biography and the changes are not crucial to the story. The main plot points of his life, so to speak, are all there.And what is remarkable is the slow pacing and the way that slowness conveys most of the excitement. It's the story of a man who's got only time, and at a time where time has become such a luxury, Robert Stroud is almost a wealthy man, because all his intelligence needs is a trigger, a compass to his actions. One of the greatest lines of the film describes the hellish nature of solitary confinement from the certitude of everything that will happen. Since he excitement of life comes from its unpredictability, a man in solitary is a living dead. Stroud's first admirable act will be to get rid of that miserable condition and find something to make his life enjoyable. In a certain way, he reminded me of Andy Dufresne and his passion for rocks, and I guess Dufresne had the stuff to become as respectable a geologist than Stroud a cytologist.Yet unlike Dufresne, Stroud had the time, but not the pressure. So it all started with a little sparrow found from a fallen nest during a stormy night, a bird promised to a certain death if someone didn't feed him. At that time, Stroud had no redeeming qualities, too many Oedipal ties with his mother (Thelma Ritter), misanthropist, constantly questioning the authority of the warden (Karl Malden) and signing his own death warrant by stabbing a guard to death. It's only thanks to the dedication of his mother that he's finally condemned for life sentence. Anyway, the guy is obviously a maniac but even the coldest heart can't just let a poor living creature to her death. Does it contradict his nature as a killer? I guess in a sense, he felt empathy toward the bird as if he was incarnating his own solitude and entrapment, helping the bird would break his routine and save a life, give his life a tiny purpose even for a few days.So, he takes him, stamps on a few insects and give him some parts, the bird grows, then learns to fly, and with the same patience and perseverance, Stroud in a fatherly wisdom encourages the bird to fly, and that's his epiphany. He knows what he's been born for. The rest is history, from one bird, he adopts many other sparrows, canaries, allowing many other inmates to have theirs, including his neighbor Feto (Telly Salavals), he also learns a lesson of courtesy of politeness from the same guard who's been watching him for years without getting one kind word, especially when he's been helping him for building cages and nests. His character evolves and so is his expertise, and his knowledge of the avian world, the movie almost takes a documentary style of directing as we can follow a bird getting from the eggshell and observe the whole process of making the medicine that could finally cure the septicemia that stroke his birds raising. The most surprising thing is that he never gets any money or recognition for his efforts and it's only when he's forced to live his birds and stop his medicine trade that he uses his mother and a supporter for his cause to give him publicity, and allow the legend to be born.The film gets more and more dramatic and while it sometimes serves the narrative, I, for once, appreciate the exchange between Stroud and Shoemaker about the difference of conception of what the judicial system on the true meaning of rehabilitation, and although a bit preachy, the part are well-written and hit a sensitive chord. But I don't understand why they feel the need to insert that battle of Alcatraz that adds nothing whatsoever to the plot, and distracts us from the core of the film. It had the same frustrating effect than watching the final part of "Cast Away" after the mesmerizing middle act where Tom Hanks conquered Nature. Stroud, like Chuck Nolan, was a fascinating character enough not to need any supplementary excuse for thrills.If the "Birdman of Alcatraz" stuck with birds, it would've been perfect, the film is still a remarkable inspiration for everyone to transcend adversity and to sometimes find the true path for their lives, when they think they're in dead-end.

In 1912, the notorious and violent prisoner Robert Franklin Stroud (Burt Lancaster) is transferred to the Leavenworth Prison convicted for murdering a man. When a guard cancels the visit of his mother Elizabeth Stroud (Thelma Ritter) due to a violation of the internal rules, he stabs and kills the guard and goes to trial three times. He is sentenced to be executed by the gallows, but his mother appeals to President Woodrow Wilson that commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. However, the warden Harvey Shoemaker (Karl Malden) decides to keep Stroud in the solitary for the rest of his life.One day, Stroud finds a sparrow that has fallen from the nest on the yard and he raises the bird until it is strong enough to fly. Stroud finds a motivation for his life raising and caring birds and becomes an expert in birds. He marries Stella Johnson (Betty Field) and together they run a business, providing medicine developed by Stroud. But a few years after, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz and has to leave his birds behind. "Birdman of Alcatraz" is an impressive film based on a true story of a prisoner that finds a purpose of life raising and caring birds and becoming a recognized ornithologist by himself. Burt Lancaster has a top-notch performance in the role of Robert Franklin Stroud and the footages with birds are impressive. However, it seems that Stroud did not have the glamour of the character performed by Burt Lancaster and was actually a psychopath. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "O Homem de Alcatraz" ("The Man of Alcatraz")

When I first saw this film I thought that Lancaster had done a very good job. Unfortunately, I then read up on the man the movie had practically immortalized and realized I'd been had. Again. I lost a lot of respect for Lancaster after that. Apparently the only way a story can turn out the way Hollywood wants is to simply manufacture it. Of all the historical films that I've seen whose events I am familiar with, the only one that I can honestly say was accurate was The Longest Day. As for the other reviewers who somehow find deep meaning in what, for all intents and purposes, seems to be some sort of religious or propagandistic morality play, well, I didn't discern any deep thinking floating around the cell block.