Birdy

1984 "A soaring experience unlike anything you've ever seen before."
7.2| 2h0m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 14 December 1984 Released
Producted By: TriStar Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://alanparker.com/film/birdy/
Info

Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam War. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

Genre

Drama

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Director

Alan Parker

Production Companies

TriStar Pictures

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Birdy Audience Reviews

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
guywhoacts This is a wonderful character study of two friends throughout life.Al (Nicolas Cage) and Birdy (Matthew Modine) put in some great performances, to be expected by this point from Cage. Birdy wants to transcend his human experience and learn to fly. Cage humors his aspirations and wants to help his friend.Later on, the friends go through something neither can fully comprehend. (Vietnam War) The ramifications of the war weigh heavy on their heads.It's a tale about friendship, and what it means to be there for someone. Highly recommend.
itamarscomix Birdy is one of my favorite films from the 80's, one that slipped mostly unnoticed as far as award recognition goes. Though it has a lot of the 80's feel in it (especially in Peter Gabriel's wonderful soundtrack), it aged far less than many films of its time, and while it plays around with various clichés, it refuses to go all the way with any of them, and so manages to be fresh and surprising even now.A lot of that originality may be missed when referring to Birdy as a war film, or a story about PTSD. The film follows two friends and Vietnam vets before and after the wars, through intersecting flashbacks - a familiar tool in war films. But this time the flashbacks are as important as the scenes taking place in the present; the war experience, surprisingly, is only one example - maybe the ultimate one - of society bringing down people that live on its fringes, which is what Birdy is all about. It's a buddy film, a psychological drama, a social critique, a film about friendship and madness and non-conformism, and maybe a coming-of-age story (or a not-coming of age story), but war plays a much smaller part than might seem at first, and wisely, 'Nam flashbacks (which we've seen so many of in so many films) are few and saved till the very end.Special attention should go to the two lead actors - Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine, both in the very early stages of their careers and both supplying one of the definitive performances of their careers (in Modine's case probably the peak of his career). They create real, full, flawed characters, aided by Alan Parker's sensitive directorial work and by poetic, beautiful cinematography. The film deals with some difficult and very dark questions, but it manages to keep the audience interested and even entertained without compromising its message. The 80's feel does pop-up every now and then, and some of the flashbacks to the 50's and early 60's rely too heavily on well-tried clichés of period films (most jarringly, the use of La Bamba and other hits of the time period in certain scenes, clashing with the beautiful score). But all those little flaws don't make Birdy anything less than a classic.
tieman64 Arguably Alan Parker's best film, "Birdy" stars Mathew Modine and Nicholas Cage as a pair of friends who are shipped off to Vietnam and then come home disfigured and traumatised.Told in flashbacks, the film focuses on Modine's character, nicknamed Birdy, an introverted, polite, sensitive and endearing kid who becomes obsessed with birds to such an extent that he eventually believes himself to be one.Many audiences are baffled by Modine's character, viewing him as a madman or nut-case, but the film's point, made clearer in the William Wharton novel upon which the film is based, is that Modine's retreat into a kind of metaphorical bird cage is a result of a ghastly "adult" world which the sensitive kid rejects. Through various symbolic episodes, Wharton and Parker sketch the world as a horrible place at worst, illogical at best. Birdy is so dumbfounded by the inanities of human society (and biology) that he turns his nose up to a beautiful girl's breasts. They're just mammary glands, he shrugs.Birdy's desire for flight, for escaping a kind of cruel corporeality, are cut short by the Vietnam war. He's shipped off, sees untold horrors, and then returns to America believing himself to be a bird. He's then locked away in a mental hospital. In other words, the war accelerated Birdy's desire for escape. Vietnam's horrors pushed him over the edge, pushed him into a kind of comfortable fantasy land where he no longer has to confront a humanity he deplores.With Birdy drifting further and further away from humanity, his best friend Al, played by Nicholas Cage, struggles to nurse him back to health. It is only when Al breaks down and confesses his own hatred of the world, that Birdy realises that he is not alone and returns from his self imposed avian exile. The film's point: you're not alone, the world violates everyone, everyone suffers, so step out of the box, release your ignis fatuus and hold somebody's hand. Yes, I'm making this stuff sound cheesier than the actual film is.The film is mostly worth watching for Modine and Cage, both of whom turn in a couple of excellent performances. Modine is all internal, invisible pain, while Cage is extroverted, scars on his flesh and tongue. The film is itself a tragi-comedy, a difficult mood to capture. But Parker's does well. He tapes into the nervous energy of youth, the pleasant glow of young friendship, and wisely tones things down when the film ventures into darker territory.8/10 – Parker specialises in overrated, obvious and overcooked dramas. This film is a bit different, though, thanks largely to Modine, Cage and Wharton. Worth one viewing.
Omur Kayiran Respect Parker,you have given the camera the wings of life,like the birds did it to Birdy. This art-smelling classic is certainly a milestone of using the technology. I am sure that the Lumiere Brothers would be proud of it if they were alive.Because of the great scenario,better said of the great novel,which is definitely written by a sick polygraph,the skycam view turns in to a sky traffic jam.Every scene is distinctive like Brecht has ordered in his Anti-Hollywood epic theory,and this scenes are hosting a lot of smart created funny dialogues.Even the brainless knife story at the begin where Al and Birdy started there friendship like animals and also the final scene which feels like Parker has run out of time and will make his last joke,are unforgettable moments. Francis Fords nephew Cage 'The Italian Stallion' and the Full Metal Joker Birdy 'The selfish parrot' acted in many scenes as they had a sexual relationship behind the camera,but I am sure that these scenes are the results of Parkers words on the set 'I want more emotion you newcomers !!!'. This fly motion picture deserves a page in the history of cinema and in the history of birds.