• 167.990 movies
  • 10.906 shows
  • 31.287 seasons
  • 626.385 actors
  • 9.160.709 votes
Avatar
 
banner banner

Birdy (1984)

Drama | 120 minutes
3,52 402 votes

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 (25.588)

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...

logo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimage
Full Cast & Crew

Actors and actresses

Sergeant Al Columbato

Doctor Major Weiss

Mr. Columbato

Hannah Rourke

Mrs. Prevost

Birdy's Father

Birdy's Mother

Joe Sagessa

All Media

Trailer & other videos

Reviews & comments


Guest

  • messages
  • votes

Let op: In verband met copyright is het op MovieMeter.nl niet toegestaan om de inhoud van externe websites over te nemen, ook niet met bronvermelding. Je mag natuurlijk wel een link naar een externe pagina plaatsen, samen met je eigen beschrijving of eventueel de eerste alinea van de tekst. Je krijgt deze waarschuwing omdat het er op lijkt dat je een lange tekst hebt geplakt in je bericht.

* denotes required fields.

Pay attention! You cannot change your username afterwards.

* denotes required fields.

avatar van Filmkriebel

Filmkriebel

  • 9375 messages
  • 4334 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?

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Shadowed

Shadowed

  • 9905 messages
  • 5930 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.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original