Some things I liked some I did not.

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Exploitation is the key word with this flick with many scenes including degrading actions of the women being mistreated by the male guards of the camp. There are more than a few shots of female nudity with female prisoners in the showers, and the obligatory 'cat fight' with women mixing it up in the pressure-cooker of the prison, along with good scenes of women shooting automatic weapons, everything to make Quinton Tarantino tingle with delight.In a Philippine night club a buxom torch singer Blossom (Pam Grier) works the crowd until her accompanist Django (Sid Haig) whips out a machine gun and the two rob the patrons. When patrons shoot back and Police close in Django narrowly escapes with a beautiful hostage Terry (Anitra Ford) whom he abandons because he touts his criminal actions as a support of a political revolution, and because she is considered the plaything of all the dignitaries of the country and below his respect. Terry is arrested by Police as an accomplice of the robbers and because of her high-profile relationship to government officials she is packed off to a women's prison in the countryside and Django learns from his band of criminals that they plan to overthrow the prison and kidnap the women so they can have happy families. Blossom and Django infiltrate the prison and plan an escape that enables Terry to lead the captive women to freedom but at a high cost.One might argue that without director Jack Hill the actress Pam Grier might never have reached stardom. Hill was on a roll in the early 1970s, starting with Isle of the Snake People, and The Incredible Invasion, both in 1971. He followed with The Big Doll House in 1971 and the break-through for Pam Grier, The Big Bird Cage in 1972. The "Blaxploitation" hits Coffy (1973), and Foxy Brown (1974) put Grier on the map as the new representative of the black American urban persona that was taking on the rampant crime of the big city and eliminating them for the safety of the innocents living everywhere.The most intentionally humorous moments in the flick, playing the delicate balance between comedy of manners and adventure, come from Sid Haig who clearly gets it. He plays every scene with a wink and a nod to the camera not unlike what Alan Hale used to do on the TV show Gilligan's Island. This lifts the film up from real bathos as the jokes all center on sex and the relationships between men and women.Anitra Ford is the central character in this film despite the fact that Pam Grier gets top billing. This probably because it was basically Grier's vehicle and with her hot looks and her ethnicity she was the selling point for the flick- every male wanted to see this woman in all her voluptuous glory on the big screen.Anitra Ford is the polar opposite of Grier in physical attributes and acting. To say that Ford underplays her part is an understatement – she is easily the most somnambulistic of actresses, with never any tension in her body or voice. She is ostensibly the sympathetic character in the movie and the one the audience is led to identify with. Ford is NOT an actress and the camera loves her.The Big Bird Cage is definitely one of the purest examples of 70s film genres that pushes the envelope in terms of female nudity. It's no wonder that Tarantino mines the decade for all its banality and kitsch pseudo humor.

Haughty celebrity Terry (a delightfully brash performance by slinky brunette minx Anitra Ford) gets arrested and sent to a brutal women's prison work farm. Gutsy revolutionary Blossom (robustly played with splendidly sassy aplomb by the one and only Pam Grier) decides to engineer a break out from the outside in. Ace B-flick writer/director Jack Hill relates the entertaining story at a constant quick pace, stages the action set pieces with real flair, and maintains a winningly easy'n'breezy tone throughout. Moreover, the eager cast have a field day with the wacky material: Carol Speed as the scrappy Mickie, Teda Bracci as raucous top con Bull Jones, Candice Roman as sex-starved strumpet Carla, Karen McKevic as fearsome and predatory lesbian Karen, Andres Centenera as the strict and sadistic Warden Zappa, and Marissa Delgado as the fragile Rina. The always terrific Sid Haig is in fine lively form as merry bandit Django while legendary Filipino sleaze movie mainstay Vic Diaz almost steals the whole show with his hilarious turn as mincing gay guard Rocco. Better still, this film covers all the pleasingly sleazy grindhouse bases: a group shower scene, torture and degradation of women, a sizable smattering of tasty bare distaff skin, fierce catfights, and an exciting last reel revolt and subsequent escape. However, it's Hill's trademark sly humor that really gives this movie an extra uproarious lift (Django has to pretend to be a flamboyant homosexual in order to get hired as a prison guard and poor Rocco winds up being raped by the ladies during the thrilling climax). Philip Sacdalan's pretty polished cinematography does the trick. The funky score by William Loose and William Castleman hits the get-down groovy spot. An absolute blast.

In one of those jungle prison camps, females are forced into hard labor, working within the "bird cage" of the title, an elaborate sugar mill. Sid Haig and Pam Grier are revolutionaries who rob from societal fat cats, soon finding themselves within the prison labor camp causing a revolt against maniacal warden(Andres Centenera) and his host of homosexual male guards(..including a hilarious turn by Vic Diaz).The center of my attention was the incredibly yummy Anitra Ford, a stunning beauty whose character has a reputation notorious for her sexual involvements with various political leaders..she's deemed a threat whose knowledge is a threat. She seems to have no fear or nervousness about her current situation due to her confidence in getting out of captivity. While Pam Grier is recognized as the star, she often plays second fiddle to Ford because her role doesn't really make a certain impact until getting herself purposely put in Zappa's(Centenera)labor camp, where she forges the girls together in a planned rebellion, tired of their superior's tyrannical ways and slave labor. Teda Bracci is the leader over the girls until Grier challenges for authority / supremacy and secures the role. Candice Roman and the statuesque Karen McKevic supply extra eye candy as other white girls who found their ways into this camp. Carol Speed is the feisty(..she has a mouth that often gets her into heated situations where she runs and squeals when potential harm could come to her)token black girl of the bunch until Grier comes along..her fate when the mill breaks down, in regards to needed repairs, is horrifying. Marissa Delgado is Rina, a nutty prisoner Ford befriends and helps along the way.The mill is essentially a tower with a wooden skeletal frame, gears moving in proactive fashion, the girls keeping it running through blood, sweat, and tears...in the shape of a bird cage, this was designed by Hill's father. You get everything the women-in-prison genre offers in unique ways. There's the shower, cat fights, explosive finale with shootouts and violence, sadistic bonkers warden constantly shouting(barking orders), women yearning for the touch of a man(..poor Vic Diaz gets balled at the end!), attempted escapes, torture towards our heroines, and grim conclusion(..few make it out alive).Haig and Grier are superb together and have marvelous chemistry(..they're mud fight where Haig hits her across the ass with a dead duck is hilarious). Haig's posing as a gay man to gain access inside the labor camp, actually getting hired as a guard because Diaz wants to ravage him, had me in ribbons. The beautiful Phillipine locations compliment the lovely women quite well..and, best of all, the girls are outfitted in short shorts and shirts tied off above their wastes, so that we can lustfully gaze at their impressive figures throughout.

Jack Hill's follow-up (but not a sequel) to his earlier 'The Big Doll House' is a much more confident and enjoyable movie. Hill wrote as well as directed this one and I think that makes a world of difference. The basic model of the earlier film is followed but Hill shrewdly saw that the handful of scenes between Pam Grier and Sid Haig in that movie showed plenty of potential, so this time round he casts them as singing Revolutionary lovers (yeah baby!), an inspired move that really makes this one something special. The foxy Anitra Ford ('Invasion Of The Bee Girls') plays a sassy character who crosses their paths early in the film during a robbery. Super cool Django (Haig) takes a fancy to her but before he can do anything about it she is arrested and sent to a brutal prison. (I should point out that even though this movie, like the others in this short-lived 1970s cycle, was filmed in the Philippines, it is set in some nameless Banana Republic). Before too long Grier also finds herself in the same compound, which is dominated by "the bird cage", a strange contraption the women are forced to work on as punishment. Django cooks up a nutty plan to save her by pretending to be gay to ingratiate himself with one of the camps (very camp) guards Rocco, played by Vic Diaz, who later reunited with Haig and Grier in 'Black Mama White Mama'. This is a fantastic piece of entertainment overall and a guaranteed hoot! Personally I would say it is only rivalled by 'Caged Heat' and 'Chained Heat' as far as women in prison exploitation movies go. Highly recommended fun.