Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 17, 2018

John Frankenheimer's "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German distributors Concorde Video. There are no supplemental features on the disc. In English or German, with optional German subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The Birdman

When in 1962 John Frankenheimer’s film was released in theaters across the United States, Robert Stroud, the real Birdman of Alcatraz, had already spent more than fifty years behind bars. He had never been on an airplane or seen a working TV set. He knew that they existed, but they belonged to a distant world. He was denied access to it for a good reason -- he was a killer who had killed twice, once in a bar in Alaska in 1909, and then again in 1916, while he was already serving a sentence in a federal penitentiary in the state of Washington.

The film is based on the popular novel by Thomas Gaddis, but while its reconstruction of the big events that are described in it is mostly accurate, the positive image of Stroud that it promotes is seriously misleading. The real Stroud was a vicious abuser who caused a lot of trouble while being incarcerated at Leavenworth and his reportedly never-ending antics very quickly created a large group of sworn enemies amongst the guards and the rest of the prisoners. He really was a genuinely dangerous guy to have around and this is the very reason why he was eventually placed in a segregation unit. In the film Burt Lancaster quickly transforms Stroud into a rational loner who comes to terms with his fate but also vows to expose the hypocrisy of the people that are responsible for it. So by the time the final credits roll Shroud actually emerges as something of an oppressed hero who has had the courage to take on a supposedly strikingly inhumane justice system.

The embellishments and Lancaster’s ability to brilliantly sell his character certainly make the film entertaining, but anyone who has taken the time to read Gaddis’ novel, which by the way is also full of fabrications and fancies, and then actually study Stroud’s history should quickly realize that the charismatic man with the birds in the film is a fictional character. Of course this helps tremendously the film’s political message, which is that the only fair justice system is a lenient justice system, but because so much of Stroud’s history was made public it is very difficult not to notice that the many contrasts that are used to deliver it are indeed either seriously exaggerated or completely fabricated.

The crucial transformation occurs in the second act where Stroud discovers an injured bird while having his routine ‘free time’ in the backyard of the penitentiary and then takes it back to his cell. Soon after, he is allowed to have more birds and while looking after them his anger gradually disappears. His new passion causes a string of conflicts with the wardens that come and go while he serves his sentence, but he never gives it up and even does some important medical discoveries while trying to cure a deadly bird disease. Years later, after he is relocated to Alcatraz, he is also the voice of reason during a bloody riot.

Having succeeded in creating insensitive monsters from the wardens and the rest of the state officials that had rejected Stroud's numerous parole requests over the years, the film ends with a classic carefully scripted Hollywood encouragement to think about the big picture and the many other prisoners like Stroud that might have suffered a lot more than they deserved. It is a bit much, really, but hardly surprising.

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.661:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, John Frankenheimer's Birdman of Alcatraz arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Concorde Video.

The release is sourced from the same MGM master that in the United States Olive Films and Twilight Time worked with when they prepared their local releases of the film. However, I decided to do some direct comparisons between this release and Olive Films' release and at least on my system this German release looks marginally softer. The discrepancy varies in different parts of the film, but even during some of the darkest footage -- such as the footage from the nighttime riot at the prison -- there is a pretty noticeable background flatness that isn't as pronounced on the Olive Films release (you can see the type of discrepancy I am trying to highlight if you compare screencapture #16 and the corresponding screencapture from our review of the U.S. release). During various close-ups of Burt Lancaster's face with more natural or artificial lighting the difference can also be spotted, though on a larger screen it is definitely more obvious. The rest of the native limitations that are detailed in the review of the recent U.S. release remain the same. All in all, if you are still trying to decide which release is the best one to pick up for your collection, I would urge you to consider the Olive Films release. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 and German DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. Optional German SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Predictably, the quality of the lossless English track is identical to that of the lossless track from Olive Films' recent release of the film. The sound is nicely rounded and there is a good range of dynamics. It is possible that some extremely minor cosmetic improvements could be made if the audio is fully remastered again, but I believe that its basic qualities will remain the same.

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer Reel - a collection of trailers for other Concorde Video releases.

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I decided to compare this German release of Birdman of Alcatraz with the recent release that Olive Films produced in the United States and I was a bit surprised to discover that while both are sourced from the same MGM master the U.S. release actually looks a bit better. So if you are still trying to decide which release is the best one to pick up for your collection, and you view your films on a larger screen, or even project them, I would urge you to consider the Olive Films release.