The Big Bird Cage

1972

Action / Crime / Drama

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 62% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 62% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.8/10 10 3336 3.3K

prison escape exploitation mercenary chains

Plot summary

Women rebel against slave labor in a filthy jungle prison where they feed sugar cane to a mechanical maw.

Director

Jack Hill Photo
Jack Hill

Top cast

Pam Grier Photo
Pam Grier as Blossom
Sid Haig Photo
Sid Haig as Django
Marissa Delgado Photo
Marissa Delgado as Rina
Candice Roman Photo
Candice Roman as Carla
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
881.99 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 3
1.6 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 35 min
Seeds 14

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Groverdox 6 / 10

An outlier among WIP for a few reasons

There is a curious theme of homosexuality throughout the majority of Women In Prison (WIP) flicks. Usually there'll be a lesbian character in the sadistic warden like in "The Big Doll House" (this one's predecessor) and "Women In Cages", or it's one of the inmates, like the Sybil Danning character in "Chained Heat", who will protect the young ingenue from the prison gangs if she'll just scrub her back in the shower."The Big Bird Cage" is the only one I can remember seeing in which there are no lesbians, but there are gay men. It's notable for a scene where Sid Haig, that dependable b-movie stalwart who had a renaissance with Rob Zombie, pretends to be gay to con his way into the prison camp by flirting with the guards.It's also notable for an inexplicable lack of shower scenes - though there is one point where women cover their naked bodies with chicken fat and streak through the camp in an escape attempt! This provides some of the first full-frontal nudity I have seen in the genre. The filmmakers were apparently slow to realise that shower scenes were the WIP sub-genre's main draw; they're pretty much the only reason anyone watches these movies now.The only other thing I can think of to say about "The Big Bird Cage" is that it barely seems to qualify as "prison" movie; there are no bars on the windows or cells, and no high prison wall. It's set in what is more like a forced labour camp, which kept reminding me of Pol Pot's genocidal "re-education" program.So it's an outlier for a few reasons, but none of them are particularly engaging.
Reviewed by gridoon 5 / 10

Disappointing "sequel"

First of all, I would like to say that I find Leonard Maltin's review of this film rather inaccurate. "Amusing SPOOF of prison films"? Calling "The Big Bird Cage" a spoof is like calling "Die Hard" a spoof of action films because it contains some wisecracks and comic-relief characters. That said, I found this film inferior to its predecessor in pretty much every aspect. It is more exploitative, the direction has no pace, the characters are not as strongly drawn and Roberta Collins is sorely missed (Candice Roman is a pretty blonde, but not as pretty as Roberta). Pam Grier's dominating presence (especially in the scene where she proclaims herself the leader of the prison camp) is not only the best, but one of the few things that this film has going for it. (**)
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