Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
MGM DVD (region 4)
Taming a Flamboyant Actor
an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)
Former acrobat Burt Lancaster was known for his flamboyance as an actor, for the sheer physicality of many of his roles and the exuberance he brought to his performances. On the film The Young Savages, Lancaster was anxious to get the shoot over with and on set repeatedly fought with the director John Frankenheimer. By both of their recollection, they did not get along at all well. It was Frankenheimer’s second feature film, after a troubled first feature some years before, and he was adamant that he would get to make the film his way all the way this time. When the film was completed, he and Lancaster parted ways. Still, despite their disagreements, something about Frankenheimer’s approach stayed with the actor. Thus, when a film he was working on, Birdman of Alcatraz, ran into trouble with the film’s original scheduled director, Lancaster thought of Frankenheimer and called him in to take over. The director shut down production, had the script re-written and correspondingly shaped what many felt was the most restrained performance in Lancaster’s career. It was the confirmation of a creative partnership between actor and director that would see them further collaborate on such classics as The Train, Seven Days in May and The Gypsy Moths.
d. John Frankenheimer; pr. Stuart Millar, Guy Trosper; scr. Guy Trosper; book. Thomas E. Gaddis; ph. Burnett Guffey; m. Elmer Bernstein; ed. Edward Mann; cast. Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Telly Savalas, Neville Brand, Edmond O'Brien, Whit Bissell (147 mins)
Birdman of Alcatraz is a classic in American film history and in the evolution of an under-appreciated Hollywood veteran, director John Frankenheimer.
Frankenheimer moved from live television in the 1950s to feature films in the 1960s. After a shaky start, his work from 1962 to 1966 in particular – including All Fall Down, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix and the exceptional Seconds – is now widely held as a unique, even brilliant career foundation that most consider to have dissipated in subsequent works. Although his longevity ultimately weighed against Frankenheimer’s critical standing, central to his period of early successes was the director’s association with actor Burt Lancaster. When Birdman of Alcatraz ran into trouble with original director Charles Crichton, Crichton was dismissed and Lancaster called in Frankenheimer who promptly shut down the production for a total rewrite whilst the actor went to star in Judgment at Nuremberg. When Lancaster returned, the revamped production duly commenced with Frankenheimer shaping what has since been termed the exuberant Lancaster’s most restrained, measured and sensitive performance. On its release the film was hailed by the influential film journal Variety as the finest prison picture made to that date and seen some forty years later remains a remarkable achievement.
Birdman of Alcatraz tells the true story of Robert Stroud. It begins with an imprisoned Stroud (Lancaster) defiant, proud and angry, with a pathological love for his mother (Thelma Ritter). Doing time in Leavenworth prison he kills a guard who prevents him from seeing her one visiting day.
He is sentenced to death but his mother campaigns on his behalf and the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. Due to his behavior he must serve out these years in solitary confinement. One day he nurses a baby sparrow to life and commences a rehabilitative chain of events. Soon the number of birds he cares for grows and he makes cages for them and orders in birdseed. However, the birds soon become sick and start to die off. Stroud reads what books he can and does his own experiments, finding cures for the rare bird diseases and becoming a known figure in the bird community. A woman visits him and they become friends. When prison authorities want to remove his birds, the friends marry and use publicity to prevent this although Stroud’s mother resents the presence of another woman. Stroud writes a textbook about these diseases, making him the world’s foremost expert. The prison authorities, however, consider him unreformed and unrepentant and so transfer him to Alcatraz where he is not allowed to keep birds. Stroud decides to write a book on penology but his warden (Karl Malden) is against it.
Birdman of Alcatraz is a quiet film about a man who transforms the confinement intended to break his spirit into a truly cathartic experience. It charts his transformation from anger and contempt into wisdom and respect as he learns to care for life.
The birds are almost surrogate children and his dedication to them is astounding in the light of the deprivation of any ordinary socialization in his life. He finds that people respond to his better qualities and he in turn to theirs: the film holding Stroud as a truly extraordinary man who rediscovers his humanity and learns to apply his natural intelligence. It charts the reform process as being an evolution from arrogant pride to respectful dignity and explores prison as designed to sever the pride but not to restore the dignity and thus dedicated only to creating broken and defeated men. Caring for birds allows Stroud the chance to develop, focus and refine; to give him a direction and hope away from pride alone. He begins to warm to a guard, apologizing for his own insensitivity and so begins to accord respect; his reformation delicately measured in the transformation of his cell into an aviary. The tragedy is that his intelligence and dignity angers the prison board so much that they would seek to contain and even remove it by transferring him to Alcatraz. Rather than encourage his reforming personality transformation they would quietly deny and seek to suppress it.
The film reserves much of its depiction of monstrousness for Stroud’s mother. Although she fought to commute his death sentence it is clear to Stroud that she defines herself in life by being his only link to the outside world.
She is finally so petty and cruel that she would try to talk him into shunning his new wife in order that mother alone be the dominant force in his life. She even tells reporters that he belongs in prison, just so that she can be his continued link and in her mind keep him safe – she is ultimately the most debilitating and stifling force in his life. Monstrous mothers were very much a feature of director Frankenheimer’s work in this period, with Angela Lansbury portraying the ultimate in horrific motherhood in The Manchurian Candidate released the same year. The real breakthrough for Stroud thus comes when he finally cuts his ties and psychological dependence on his mother, removing the angry oedipal tensions that were behind his opening murder of the prison guard. He finally sees her for who she is and in breaking with her can function as truly his own person, tellingly freed of his rage. The film thus carefully concludes with a measured examination of the nature of rehabilitation, with Stroud presented as a case of a man able to achieve personality redefinition in prison by re-focusing his psyche. His story is a triumph of this resourceful human spirit in a world that would destroy and contain it.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The non-anamorphic widescreen transfer preserves much of the film’s textures. The print used, however, does display some signs of wear. Still, the almost documentary-like physical realism that was a hallmark of Frankenheimer’s style is carried well here. Notable of course is his visual emphasis on the notion of confinement and thus on the interplay of the shadows of the cell bars. Indeed, much of the film stresses how Stroud moves behind bars, with judicious point of view shots conveying his delight in his birds as almost transcending his confinement. He can observe and touch them, finding comfort in such tactility. Frankenheimer’s delight in fragmenting the image is clear in the use of birdcages, endless variations on the notion of confinement within confinement and Stroud’s awareness that what he has attained may be ultimately an illusion of freedom. He thus stresses the gradual transformation of the barren cell into an aviary as the transforming cage functions as a metaphor for Stroud’s reform. The visuals measure the passage of time through small details – the accumulation of birdcages, Stroud’s subtle aging and the growth of new birds (the cycle of birth and death allowing Stroud a connection with life outside solitary). There is some instability to the backgrounds, however, with frame edges at times lightening and darkening in a wavy pattern. Despite the moments of instability it is a clear transfer.
Sound
The Dolby Digital mono sound transfer is true to the film’s intention in several key uses of sound. Of course for a film about solitary confinement it makes much use of silences, the absence of sound being key moments in Stroud’s movement towards contemplation rather than violent defiance. Thus it too holds out for smaller details (the weather, footsteps, natural prison sounds, voices breaking the silence), judiciously using the score to heighten the sense that Stroud is in some ways escaping from silence. To this end the sound of the birdsong is paramount. From silence comes a single bird, its chirping the beginning of freedom and life. Gradually this birdsong dominates, capturing Stroud’s imagination, intellect and desire for life. Just as important is the absence of birdsong and the return to an oppressive silence. Stroud’s dedication restores life and ends the oppressive silence once again – he becomes the master of his limited environment through discipline and intellectual perseverance. Thus, Alcatraz is the enemy of humanity because of its enforced code of silence. In its revelation of how gentle birdsong becomes indicative of a man’s spirit Birdman of Alcatraz is remarkable in its quiet exactitude. There is no major hiss evident. The film offers a careful interplay of silence, the freedom in birdsong and the emotional mediation of a provocative film score to emerge a superb example of subtle craftsmanship in service of a central theme.
Special Features
Unfortunately there are no special features beyond the original theatrical trailer, although this is intriguing for it shows that the film was marketed on the premise that Stroud’s plight was indicative of the greatness of the American character.
