Birdy (1984)
Genre: Drama / War
Duration: 120 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Alan Parker
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Matthew Modine and John Harkins
IMDb score:
7,2 (26.940)
Releasedate: 14 December 1984
Birdy plot
"A soaring experience unlike anything you've ever seen before."
Birdy, a Vietnam veteran, is deeply scarred by his war experiences. He resides, completely introverted, in a psychiatric institution of the American army. As a child he was obsessed with the idea of flying like a bird and now he believes he is one of his winged friends from his childhood. He squats on the edge of his bed for days, watching the light pour in through the small window. Medication no longer has a hold on Birdy and in desperation the psychologists call on Al Columbato, a childhood friend of Birdy and also a wounded Vietnam veteran. By reminiscing about childhood memories, Al tries to free Birdy from his dream world...
Actors and actresses
Birdy
Sergeant Al Columbato
Doctor Major Weiss
Mr. Columbato
Hannah Rourke
Renaldi
Mrs. Prevost
Birdy's Father
Birdy's Mother
Joe Sagessa
Reviews & comments
Filmkriebel
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- 10326 messages
- 4837 votes
Very nice film that you can watch on two levels. I thought the near-impossible friendship between Birdy and Al worked best. So heartwarming that a brash brat like Al maintains such an almost passionate friendship with a boy who clearly has something loose, and that he always stands up for him. I don't know which one I liked the best of the two characters. Anyone who wants to see an anti-war message behind this is also in the right place (bird in a cage, freedom, got it?) Beautifully played by Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine, and certainly an unjustly unwatched film. And yes, that ending, how can you not love it?
Translated from Dutch · View original
Shadowed
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- 12083 messages
- 7064 votes
Third Parker.
Very interesting director, but I haven't seen enough of him yet to really put him in a corner. Besides, I also think that he always does something different in his films, as long as it is a little bit different. This Birdy is also 1 of the more unusual films within its genre.
Even with a young Cage. These days I think he does better acting in worse movies. There are some well-known traits of him in this, but here he tries to play more subtle and he is clearly less good at that. Then do a nice crazy Cage. This all tastes a bit less to me.
I liked modine even less. Lots of praise for it and its acting, but I thought it was all fake and fake. Nowhere did I really believe it. To me it feels way too much like two guys who are very much playing a type but not really in touch with it. That doesn't sit well with me.
Visually it is reasonable. Only in the last half hour are the brakes released. Everything before that is well decorated and dreamily put together, but you only see the really good pieces in the last part. Modine's dream for example, great scene.
The slowness of the film isn't bad in principle, but the characters are just really boring. As hard as Parker tries to make them interesting, they just aren't that interesting. That hurts the story itself. The story is distinct enough to follow, with a good underlying message that is not difficult to decipher.
Extra points for the last half hour, because everything before that was less interesting. Like I said, I just don't find the characters interesting. The visual punch could sometimes be stepped up a bit in the first 90 minutes, because Birdy can sometimes use that. Just enough from my side.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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