The Big Bird Cage

United States, Philippines

1972

96 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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PROD Cirio H. Santiago, Jane Schaffer

CAST Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Candice Roman, Teda Bracci, Carol Speed, Sid Haig

ED Jere Huggins, James Mitchell

MUSIC William Allen Castleman, William Loose

Terry, a social-climbing young woman accidently gets caught up in the activities of two revolutionaries, Blossom and Django, and finds herself in a concentration camp for women. In the center of the camp is a towering wooden machine (“The Big Bird Cage”) in which the women risk their lives processing sugar as the evil warden looks on. The prisoners are subjected to sadistic cruelty from the guards and fellow prisoners, and all attempts at escape are delt with…permanently. Terry’s only hope for escape lies in Blossom and her revolutionary allies. —IMDb

Director

Jack Hill

Jack Hill grew up around movies – his father was a designer for Disney Studios and Warner Brothers. He went to the University of California to study film, where he was a classmate of Francis Ford Coppola – they worked together on student productions and later both apprenticed with Roger Corman, working on The Terror (1963). While Coppola went on to Oscardom, Jack continued with B-flicks. He didn’t make a lot of films, and while all were low budget they all (except The Jezebels (1975)) made money, and his early ‘blaxploitaton’ films Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974) were hits. Soon after The Jezebels (1975) he stopped making movies so he and his wife Elke could pursue meditation and he could write novels. Today his films are hailed as cult classics, thanks primarily to Quentin Tarantino, who saw Hill’s work as it made its way to video. With retrospectives and a re-release of The Jezebels (1975), his career seems to be reviving. —IMDb… read more

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Greg S.

27Jan13

There's a sense of economy that's not found in most exploitation films that actually makes Tarantino's comparison between Hill and Hawks kind of apt. Most exploitation films hinge on one or two wtf moments, but Hill has the ability to draw even the most absurd moments/characters together, build a sequence and use locations that you wouldn't expect from a woman in prison film. Surprisingly skillful work.

Christopher Smith

16Jun12

Jack Hill's sleazy exploitation cult classic lives up to its reputation with everything about it - ham-fisted action, low-budget but still overblown set-pieces, gratuitous nudity, juvenile humor - going gleefully over the top. Vintage 70s Corman, a must for cult movie fans.

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