Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 8, 2018

John Frankenheimer's "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original theatrical trailer for the film and new audio commentary by film historian and author Kate Bufford. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "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 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, John Frankenheimer's Birdman of Alcatraz arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from the same MGM master that Twilight Time used for their North American release of the film in 2014. Unfortunately, it is an older master with some pretty obvious inconsistencies and limitations. For example, depth levels frequently fluctuate -- but not because the original cinematography demands that they do -- and there are all sorts of different segments that actually look quite flat. On a larger screen it is also easy to see that grain exposure is not optimal. Tiny white speck and even some small blemishes are also present throughout the entire film, though they are scattered and never become distracting. The good news is that no attempts have been made to resharpen or repolish the film, so while there are obvious source limitations it still has a fairly decent organic appearance. The grading is also good (and in fact this release has proper gamma levels). Image stability is very good. All in all, this is a decent organic presentation, but with a proper contemporary restoration the film should and will look quite a bit better in high-definition. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Birdman of Alcatraz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is stable and well-rounded. There is nice depth and a good range of proper dynamics. If you turn up the volume a lot you, are likely going to notice that in the high-frequencies there is some extremely minor instability -- which is probably where a future remix could introduce some cosmetic improvements -- but the overall quality of the lossless track is indeed very good.

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

• Audio Commentary - the commentary was recorded by Kate Bufford, author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life. It contains an abundance of factual information about the real Robert Stroud and Thomas Gaddis' novel that inspired Birdman of Alcatraz, the socio-cultural climate in which the film was conceived and its production history, Burt Lancaster's involvement with it and his career in Hollywood, some of John Frankenheimer and cinematographer Burnett Guffeys' lensing choices, etc.

• Trailer - original trailer for Birdman of Alcatraz. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

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

Birdman of Alcatraz is a very odd film. It features a powerful performance by Burt Lancaster, but it is one of those carefully crafted and manipulative Hollywood projects that is absolutely impossible to take seriously. Some years ago, I actually spent quite a bit of time researching Robert Stroud's story, and the more I did, the clearer it became to me that the man that Lancaster plays in John Frankenheimer's film was a fictional character. The real Birdman of Alcatraz was an arrogant, incredibly viscous and vindictive killer who killed twice and was rightfully kept behind bars until he died in 1963. To be honest, however, Thomas Gaddis's popular novel, which inspired Frankenheimer and Lancaster to make the film, is just as flawed and full of bizarre fabrications. Olive Films' new release of Birdman of Alcatraz is sourced from the same MGM master that previously the folks at Twilight Time used to produce their release of the film in the United States. It is a decent master, but if properly restored the film will look quite a bit better in high-definition.