Watch The Birdmen For Free

Thanks for the memories!

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Better Late Then Never

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I don't know if I can trump the rest of you with my age but I first saw this movie on TV in 1975. (some of you probably weren't even born yet). Anyway, it came on TV again a year later, 1976 (hey, I can add). Since then, I've just been waiting and looking. And remember a good 20 of those years "waiting and looking" there was no such thing as an the Internet. I searched through EVERY video rental store I could find (we didn't know what a DVD or CD was back then). In fact when I started looking for this movie there was NO where to look because video machines hadn't been invented yet. So as a 10 year old I got my pencil and loose leaf paper and started writing TV stations to please play the movie. I was in Canada so I wrote to the 2 Stations in Canada and the 3 in America. But nothing. Now here it is AND I discover there are people from all over the world who love this movie too. I feel like a black person returning to Africa. I have found "my people". Of course, it's about time this movie came into it's own. you wouldn't believe the weird looks a 10 year old gets when a bunch of grown ups are discussing their favorite movie stars (Richard Burton, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Charleton Heston) and I slip by with my glass of Kool-Aid and say, "my favorite actor is Rene Auberjonois." You'd have thought I had a banana growing out of my head! (I actually wrote to Rene Auberjonois about this movie because it had so many titles it was making it difficult to look for. He wrote me back a lovely note AND sent me a photo which he wrote the name of the movie and my name on it as well. By then he was on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and most people knew who he was. That renewed my vigor to keep looking) But I think what those who haven't watched the movie and are reading these reviews should notice something important. Almost all of us gave this move a 9 or 10 stars. Personally I WANTED to give it 10 stars but that would mean "perfection" and I just can't hold to believe that there is anything this side of heaven that doesn't have at least ONE FLAW.Which brings us to Doug McClure. HE AIN'T IT! They may make characters to spoof him on "The Simpsons" ("Hi. I'm Troy McClure"). But good old Doug redeemed his entire career of somewhat goofy movies with this one. Way to go Doug! And thanks to the rest of you who have reminded me that we are never alone. Just perhaps a little distant from those we belong to. Love Laura-Lee

This is one of those world war two films that capture every boy's sense of adventure and remains with you into adulthood. It did get a theatrical release in both the USA and o/seas.NBC screened it on TV as has many other networks both in the USA and o/seas.However like many films as they are shown around the world on TV and then on VHS and DVD, the actual running time gets shorten considerably. Once upon a time it was due to commercial breaks but when these shorten versions of the actual film start to turn up on VHS / DVD and now Blu-ray it is very frustrating for the consumer.They are paying top dollar especially in the case of Blu-Ray for an inferior product being the severely edited film. For the first time, Escape Of the Birdmen has been made available on DVD and Blu-ray however it has suffered from the above fate of severe editing or at least poor mastering.The current DVD and Blu-ray release is missing a total of 10mins of crucial footage.The first involves Doug McClure when he consults the engineer "Fitz" played by Tom Skerrit in the library about a book on engineering specifically on flying. the second scene is when the scientist character "Volda" or "Brevick" has a flashback to how his first escape plan from a top secret facility run by the Nazis fails after an attempted rescue by British Commandos.The third scene missing from the DVD / Blu-Ray release is when the blind character called "Davies" an ex British commando has a flashback to the raid on the Nazis top secret facility and how he became blind due to an exchange of gunfire during the failed raid. All three scenes are crucial to the telling of the story and especially the establishment of the relationship by chance between Brevick and Davies.If by some chance you can watch an unedited version of this film based on a true story, you will be pleased.

Reply to your comment of 28 June 2004 Author: Walter Collins ([email protected]) from Shreveport, LA USA on IMDb.com - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066833/#commentRe: The Birdmen (1971) (TV) – I saw the same movie. The same scene that you mentioned, the POW singing a German song, is the scene I remember the most. At the time I went to the library and was able to locate the song in a book about protest songs.Here's some information from the internet Die Gedanken sind Frei the German title translate to Our (My) Thoughts Are Free and here is a YouTube link, if your interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6YQ-knKFw&mode=related&search= And finally here is an English translation of the German lyrics.Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)Die Gedanken sind frei My thoughts freely flower, Die Gedanken sind frei My thoughts give me power. No scholar can map them, No hunter can trap them, No man can deny: Die Gedanken sind frei!I think as I please And this gives me pleasure, My conscience decrees, This right I must treasure; My thoughts will not cater To duke or dictator, No man can deny-- Die Gedanken sind frei!And if tyrants take me And throw me in prison My thoughts will burst free, Like blossoms in season. Foundations will crumble, The structure will tumble, And free men will cry: Die Gedanken sind frei!Neither trouble or pain Will ever touch me again. No good comes of fretting, My hope's in forgetting. Within myself still I can think as I will, But I laugh, do not cry: Die Gedanken sind frei!-- Traditional(Source for translation of song - http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1185.html )

This movie's not bad for a TV movie, but it's interesting to note it's historical basis. Colditz Castle was 'Supermax'; the German repository for Allied 'Escape Experts'. Every prisoner in residence had at least one close-to-successful escape attempt from another facility under his belt.Colditz had the distinction of being the only German POW camp where the guards outnumbered the prisoners. Even so, successful escapes were made.The most daring plan involved the building of the glider in this movie.It was actually built, but never used. They were ready to go a month or two before the end of the war, but all prisoners were ordered through the intelligence network by London to sit tight because the Germans had begun shooting escapees. The Colditz gang decided to follow their orders and save the glider to be used in case the Germans starting murdering prisoners and a quick, sure way was needed to get someone 'over the wire' to alert the oncoming Allied forces.The camp was liberated without incident and the glider was shown around for a few weeks as a morale booster to repatriates of other camps. It was then boosted back up into the attic, but disappeared over the winter of 1945-46; probably destroyed by Russian officers billetted there and used as firewood against the unusually severe winter. For more info read P.R. Reid's "ESCAPE FROM COLDITZ".