Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Directed by John Frankenheimer
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
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What critics compared Birdman of Alcatraz to
Darabont's adaptation of a Stephen King novella is a throwback to the kind of serious, literate drama Hollywood used to make ( Birdman of Alcatraz , say) though the big spiritual resolution takes some swallowing - ditto the colour-blind relationships within the prison and the violent disavowal of any homosexual implications.
Even better than "Birdman of Alcatraz," "The Shawshank Redemption" creates the world of overbearing closure that is prison.
El convite de Darabont puede basarse en la novela corta Rita Hayworth y la Redención de Shawshank ( Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ), del querido King, publicada en su recordada antología Las Cuatro Estaciones ( Different Seasons , 1982), un claro ejemplo de su humanismo descarnado y truculento más cercano al drama que al terror estándar, no obstante el director y guionista lee al asunto, en esencia un retrato seco de la mediocridad y el salvajismo de prisión que deriva en cansancio existencial, un proyecto de fuga y una lenta ejecución del plan de turno, como una especie de popurrí con aire de “grandes éxitos” de ingredientes tomados prestados de una retahíla interminable de películas semejantes de encierro, angustia y necesidad imperiosa de evasión, cúmulo que abarca desde clásicos yanquis como Fuerza Bruta ( Brute Force , 1947), de Jules Dassin, Infierno 17 ( Stalag 17 , 1953), de Billy Wilder, Revuelta en el Bloque 11 ( Riot in Cell Block 11 , 1954), de Don Siegel, La Celda Olvid…
Perhaps Refn is afraid of the cliché: Certainly, from Birdman of Alcatraz onward, the screen has seen its trite share of the hardened-con-as-sensitive-artist prototype.
That should come as no surprise since the movie is helmed by veteran director John Frankenheimer, who's delivered such great films as "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Birdman of Alcatraz."