Burt Lancaster

I've just watched The Birdman of Alcatraz which was on BBC-4 this evening. I'd never seen it before though I'd heard of it, and knew a little about the story. I visited Alcatraz 8 years ago on while spending a couple of weeks in San Francisco with my brother-in-law and his family and found it an extraordinarily atmospheric place, impregnated with the almost tangible presence of the long-departed inmates, and suffused with an overwhelming melancholy.

Actually, Alcatraz is an almost incidental presence in the film and only appears about two-thirds of the way through, when Stroud (the prisoner and Birdman) is sent there after having spent over 20 years in another penitentiary which was where he began and developed his relationship with birds. Burt Lancaster's performance dominates the film and I was reminded what an wonderful actor he was, one of the greatest. There's always a feeling of danger when he's on screen - you're never quite sure what he's going to say or do next, and in this film he's in nearly every scene so it's impossible to take your eyes off the screen for a moment. I don't know much about Stroud's life and have no idea how accurate Lancaster's portrayal was, but he plays him as a man who found a way to live within the constraints of prison life and learned to make the most of his circumstances. So it's very much a life-affirming film, typical of the old Hollywood studio style and none the worse for that. It's about two and a half hours long and, although I was feeling a bit tired I found I didn't lose concentration for a moment. Lancaster's enthralling presence held it all together and I can't think at the moment of a present day actor who is capable of the same magnetism. I'll see if I can come up with a name - there must be someone. There have certainly been some great individual performances in recent years but actors like Lancaster, and Kirk Douglas, did it over and over again.