Birdman of Alcatraz: A Review

BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ

The Beatles never formally reunited. Despite that, they released Free as a Bird fifteen years after John Lennon's murder. Blending his home demo with new tracks by the surviving Beatles, Free as a Bird became a Grammy-winning hit. Free as a Bird came often to my mind while watching Birdman of Alcatraz. Misnamed, curiously laudatory of its subject, and longer than necessary, the celebration of Birdman of Alcatraz puzzles me. 

Thomas Gaddis (Edmond O'Brien) narrates our story. He is in San Francisco to get a glimpse of Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster). Stroud is leaving Alcatraz after seventeen years there. As Gaddis waits, standing by the dock of the bay, we hear Stroud's story. Stroud is on his way to Leavenworth Prison for murdering a man in Alaska. He is a bit of a noble rebel, smashing a train window to let some air in for his suffering fellow inmates. "Even a convict's got a right to breathe", he tells Leavenworth warden Harvey Shoemaker (Karl Malden). They grow to become bitter rivals. Stroud is very touchy about anyone so much as commenting or even touching his photograph of his mother Elizabeth (Thelma Ritter).

An innocuous comment about Mrs. Stroud has him attack a fellow prisoner, which leads to the first of many solitary confinements. Him not being able to see her because she came on the wrong day ends with Stroud murdering a guard. Elizabeth goes all the way to the White House to plead for her son to be spared the death penalty. Her audience with First Lady Edith Wilson (Adrienne Marden) saves Robert's life. Unfortunately, the technical reading of his sentencing means that he will have to stay in solitary for the rest of his life.

Robert reluctantly settles into his life without anyone. One stormy day while taking recreation, he spots an injured sparrow. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he takes and nurtures the bird back to health. Stroud soon finds himself surrounded by other fine feathered friends but aviary and human. There is prison guard Bull Ransom, who becomes something of a frenemy. There is Feto Gomez (Telly Savalas), his next-door cellmate. Stroud soon becomes an expert on birds with a particular emphasis on septic fever. He begins experimenting with various treatments, much to Shoemaker's displeasure. 

Eventually, he finds a cure. That, along with his writings, brings Stella Johnson (Betty Field) into his life. She offers to sell Stroud's bird cures after he won second place in a bird magazine. From there, a romance blossoms. Elizabeth Stroud is extremely displeased by this, calling Stella "a common adventuress". Mother and son have a falling out, to where Elizabeth openly opposes parole for her Bobby.

Without notice, Stroud is transferred to Alcatraz, the most notorious and strict prison in the United States. Alcatraz will not allow him to keep birds. Shoemaker, now warden of Alcatraz, endures his thorn at his side. He does not despise Stroud. He also does not like him. As time goes on, Stroud reunites with Gomez, discourages Stella from following him to San Francisco and stays out of a prison uprising. Now back at the beginning, Gaddis finally sees Robert Stroud emerge from the Rock.

One can start looking at Birdman of Alcatraz by pointing out that technically the title is incorrect. Stroud kept no birds at Alcatraz, so I wonder if he could be the "Birdman of Alcatraz". I suppose that Birdman of Leavenworth does not have the same romantic feel to it. One should give credit to Guy Trosper's adaptation of Thomas Gaddis' book that this was not changed. Birdman of Alcatraz was very sympathetic to Stroud, portraying him in a light verging on divinity. His murders, his arrogance, his hostility to authority were either downplayed or made almost into virtues. 

This is helped by Burt Lancaster's Oscar-nominated performance. Lancaster was a blend of square-jawed rectitude and soft-spoken as Robert Stroud. His performance was not exactly one-note. For me, Lancaster was forever noble and gentle. Sometimes Lancaster's acting came close to almost silly. At one point, he lets his various birds out of their cages. Posing like a Greek statue, his face almost immoveable, Lancaster and director John Frankenheimer seem dead set on making Stroud almost heroic. I won't say that Burt Lancaster gave a terrible performance in Birdman of Alcatraz. I will say that Lancaster and Frankenheimer were so determined to make Stroud so good that they sapped whatever humanity there was in him. This version of Stroud had almost no flaws. He was portrayed more like either a gentle man or almost a victim of circumstances. When we see him arrive in San Francisco, it is treated almost as if he were Captain Alfred Dreyfus returning from Devil's Island. 

Curiously, I thought that Telly Savalas might have been better as Robert Stroud. Like Lancaster, Savalas earned an Oscar nomination for Birdman of Alcatraz in the Supporting Actor category. It is nowadays hard to overlook how the Greek Savalas was cast as "Feto Gomez". I grant a little leeway since the half-Mexican Anthony Quinn has become the embodiment of the larger-than-life Greek as Zorba the Greek. Unlike Lancaster's more noble and serious Stroud, Savalas' Gomez had greater emotions. He could be cheerful or angry depending on the situation. I cannot say that you miss him when he is not on screen. However, when he is on screen, you do notice and enjoy his presence. 

Birdman of Alcatraz was the sixth and final of Thelma Ritter's failed Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations. She was good as Mother Elizabeth Stroud. She had few scenes, all but two with Lancaster if memory serves right. Ritter made Mrs. Stroud into a loyal and loving mother. It is a bit unclear if her objections to her Bobby marrying were due to jealousy or concern that Stella would bring him trouble. Her final scene where she is supposed to be brokenhearted about now opposing parole for her son fell a bit off the mark for me. Overall, though, Thelma Ritter acquitted herself well in the role.

Also doing good work was Karl Malden as Harvey Shoemaker. He was solid as someone who did initially want to help Stroud, but who ended up one of his bitterest foes due to Stroud's stubbornness and arrogance. Betty Field's Stella was pretty strong as well. She made the transformation from Stella's initial reluctance to be with Stroud to being the loyal spouse believable. Unlike Ritter, Field's final scene with Stroud was moving. 

Birdman of Alcatraz may have laid the metaphor of being free like a bird a bit too think. That is especially true with Elmer Bernstein's score, which was excessively gentle. I get that it was attempting to match the film's mood. It might have been a bit overboard in that department, having like Lancaster's performance the subtlety of a sledgehammer. 

Birdman of Alcatraz is not a bad film. However, I think the almost two-and-a-half-hour runtime is unnecessary. It takes close to two hours to move Stroud to Alcatraz. The prison riot known as the Battle of Alcatraz takes place two hours and ten minutes into the film. Granted, it is part of Stroud's life story (him dying a year after the film's release). However, it almost felt as if this was included to give the film any type of action. Even that was not done well, with the riot coming across as slightly boring.

While watching Birdman of Alcatraz, I had a very curious sense that the film was whitewashing to downright lionizing Robert Stroud. In real life, Robert Stroud was not the gentle, soft figure Burt Lancaster portrayed. He was a dangerous criminal who just happened to learn a lot about birds. Something about making Robert Stroud into this quasi-gentle soul simply did not sit well with me. It came close to being as if someone made a Charles Manson biopic and focused on his songwriting. A little longer than necessary, with a main performance more focused on being noble than delving into the complicated nature of the man, Birdman of Alcatraz was a slight disappointment. 

1890-1963

DECISION: C-