The Big Bird Cage
by Jack Hill
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anitra Ford, Candice Roman, Carol Speed, Pam Grier, Teda BracciDirector: Jack Hill
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-02-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Concorde
Movie Reviews of The Big Bird Cage
Movie Review: Pam, Sid, and Anitra...............Now that's a 3-some!,
Summary: 4 Stars
Toning things down a bit from Big Doll House, Hill returned to his old stomping grounds the following year to make The Big Bird Cage, essentially a spoof of the WIP genre. If you don't take it too seriously and can handle a few sudden 180-degree mood swings, it's one of the most entertaining and certainly best-made women's prison movies of the 1970's. Somewhere on a dictatorially reigned tropical island, American actress Terry (Anita Ford) is taken hostage by revolutionary Django (Sid Haig), when he pulls of a heist on a bar with his girlfriend Blossom (Pam Grier) and other fellow revolutionaries. While on the run from the police, Django leaves Terry back, who is mistaken for his female accomplice and brought to a jungle prison camp for women...
Anitra Ford is the token heroine, but Pam Grier makes an even stronger impression as a singing, machine-gun carrying revolutionary. Once again Pam rules with an iron-clad fist as soon as she arrives at the jungle prison, taking charge of the other prisoners (with a classic line of dialogue I can't repeat here) and engineering the inevitable prison break. Sid Haig is a fellow revolutionary this time around. He hits Pam with a real dead duck, and a mud fight ensues. Carol Speed (Abby) makes an appearance, the guards are all gay this time around (though again it's impossible to take offense at this broad, almost slapstick humor), and there are beautiful locations, some used later in Apocalypse Now. The cruel warden casually kicks a dog (off-screen) while ranting, "No fighting! No fornication! Work, work! Punishment, punishment!" For 1972, there's a surprising amount of full-frontal nudity (priceless dialogue: "My God! She's all covered with chicken fat!") An interesting tidbit is that the prison's sugar mill was designed by Hill's father, a man of considerable talent who also designed the Disneyland castle!
Pam Grier star quality is evident from the start, even if these admittedly sleazy productions never got the attention or respect of the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (Two-Disc Collector's Edition). Credit is due to Roger Corman for giving her a start in movies. Interestingly, in both movies, women rape men - a feminist statement or simply an additional exploitation gimmick? You decide. For the various prices, its are worthy additions to the "guilty pleasures" section of your video collection. As Jack Hill says in one of his commentaries, "PC is a bummer."
Summary of The Big Bird Cage
Pam Grier and Sid Haig stole the show in Jack Hill's Filipino-women-in-prison hit The Big Doll House, and they pretty much power this superior action-packed semi-sequel as a South American Bonnie-and-Clyde team. The revolutionaries with mercenary hearts decide to liberate the inmates of a jungle women's prison at the urging of their lonely army of single men. All the conventions are there--scantily clad women, a deranged warden (so evil he kicks a puppy in his first scene!), catfights, the occasional kinky punishment, and of course all those showers. But Hill softens the usual sadistic formula with tongue-in-cheek humor (Haig infiltrates the all-gay prison-guard squad by shamelessly flirting with the captain) and a zippy pace. Though not quite as empowering as Caged Heat, The Big Bird Cage remains one of the most energized and entertaining women-in-prison films ever made. --Sean AxmakerAction & Adventure DVD Video
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