Birdy

I can't believe I took so long to get round to seeing this AMAZING FILM!

It captivated me from the start, beautifully filmed, powerful, sensitive, funny - Incredibly acted by Modine and Cage!

I would like to thank the reviewer that warned about the animal cruelty in 1 scene - I 'think' it was just after the stray dog scene, but I fast forwarded it a littler bit, so didn't seeing anything upsetting.

This film is a must see for any avid movie lover, and yes the ended was AWESOME!

10 out 10, and i'm going on to Amazon to buy a copy.

Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's such a great growing-up buddy flick. Despite the serious subject matter (shell-shocked, catatonic Vietnam vet in mental hospital), the movie manages to be very light-hearted for the most part, without discounting the gravity of the situation that the characters are in. It doesn't seek to use the war as a means of creating the identities of the characters, the war and the "present situation" in the film (most of the film is flashbacks) are more background to the story of two crazy Philly kids growing up together.

The movie is full of laughs that don't occur at the expense of the characters, but rather, bring you closer to them. I personally identified with Matthew Modine's character, and found myself laughing in spite of myself at some of his mishaps and wondering "how did I ever survive being a teenager?"

Modine plays Birdy flawlessly. His character, while strange, is certainly believable and definitely likeable. He's like the visionary mystic friend I never had! Nicholas Cage is equally good as Al, Birdy's more down-to-earth lady's man friend. Their friendship seems unlikely on the outside, but powerful and inevitable by the end of the movie.

I think it's strange that some people didn't like the ending to Birdy. I think it's one of the best movie endings for a buddy film ever. It accurately reflects the tone of Birdy and Al's relationship more than any other ending possibly could. It ties their characters in the present in perfectly with the growing-up characters of the flashback sequences. Perfect!

Alan Parker is a British film-maker that was capable of the worst (the boring "the commitments", the insipid "evita" as well as the best (the sordid "angel heart", the vibrating "Pink floyd: The Wall". This one, "Birdy" will surely rank among his best movies. He revives a myth, a desire that always shone in men: flying but not with a plane or an helicopter, just like Icare with real wings. This is what haunts a teenager's mind whose name is Birdy. This one devotes all his free time by inventing stratagems or ways so as to be able to fly in the sky. he also has an interest in birds' social life with their habits (it's not a fate that his name is Birdy because there's the word "bird" in it). Even if he didn't win his best friend's adherence concerning these odd likings, they succeeded in striking up a strong relationship. Above all, "birdy" is this: a story of a friendship between two teenagers brought up in a Philadelphia' popular area. They're sharing jobs, free time, girls before they were parted by the Vietnam war. Parker films this relationship with its joys, its sorrows in a hearty way and make the two actors friendly. "Birdy" is also a well-regulated movie where Parker knows how to sustain the interest in the past sequences as well as present sequences (Birdy's room hospital). Furthermore, there's not a sequence where one of the two main actors is stealing to the other, the spotlight. But the movie seems easy when it denounces the atrocities of war and its disastrous consequences on young people (Cage's long monologue with Modine in his arms towards the end of the movie). These sorrowful consequences are concrete (Cage's face full of bandages) and abstract (Modine has become dumb and stays immures in his silence). Nevertheless, emotion prevails in the end and you sympathize to the two teenagers' helpless after the war. A beautiful movie and the revelation of two great actors

(I was flipping through the channels one quiet evening at home when I stumbled across this picture, "Birdy.")

To some, the character Birdy (Matthew Modine) has an unnatural and (quite) unhealthy obsession with birds. Well, he spends most of his time with birds, has dreams of flying away from his real-world troubles, and his only friend is a neighborhood tough named Al (Nicolas Cage). So because of his obsession with birds, Birdy has to be crazy, right? So is Al even crazier for befriending him… well, isn't he?

It is these questions and many more that make up the central theme of Alan Parker's superb 1984 drama "Birdy" (adapted from William Wharton's novel), a film about two crazy guys whose friendship is ultimately tested by each other's mental sicknesses. Both of their lives take drastic turns before and after they have done tours in Vietnam, and ultimately wind up in opposite ends of the psyche ward of a state mental hospital, with Al, who's been left virtually unrecognizable by his facial bandages and Birdy, who's stuck in a catatonic state as a result of an accident out on the killing fields.

It is also the feelings of isolation between the two that brings them together, as flashbacks during their stay help to emphasize their emotions. Birdy, feeling like he is the only one that understands his bird "dream," may in actuality be the only "sane" character in the whole film. Al, who is injured from a shell explosion, questions who he is because he's not even sure who it really is underneath the bandages on his face. And it is liberation, whether it be physical or mental, that is expressed greatly by the film's ending, and Birdy's eventual coming to grips with his own current predicament.

Director Parker has always made it a point of capturing human suffering on celluloid, and this has been the main subject in a number of his films, including "Midnight Express" (1978) and "Angel Heart" (1987). Here, his subject matter is fairly lighter than those films, since the audience is spared the really intense mental anguish that accompanied "Express" and the graphic carnage of "Angel."

There's a kind of deep spiritual undercurrent flowing through "Birdy," which is most apparent by the lead character's fascination with his quarry – birds. To him, birds represent freedom, a kind of freedom that can only be obtained by literally taking to the skies, and soaring high above all his problems (fans of Terry Gilliam's political satire "Brazil" should take notice here). This of course leads to the film's profound ending on the mental hospital's rooftop, where Al and Birdy must make a desperate choice – choose freedom, or choose confinement – of the body, or of the psyche.

I won't reveal any more than those close details but you'll have to see what happens for yourself. It really caught me off guard and in a lesser movie might seem tacky, but the way Parker and the actors handle just makes the on-screen action that much more moving. But you can be sure of this: Birdy flies. And "Birdy" does fly into underrated classic movie status because of its performers and director Alan Parker's direction.

10/10

Birdy (Matthew Modine) is the weirdo kid in a working class Philadelphia neighborhood. Al Columbato (Nicolas Cage) becomes his friend. Birdy introduces Al to his love of pigeons. They're both sent to Vietnam. Birdy returns in psychological distress after a month MIA. Al returns after suffering wounds to his face. Birdy's doctor finds Al to help in his treatment.

These are two great performances. Matthew Modine transforms physically and also mentally. Cage is the conduit between the audience and Birdy. He's not necessarily in the easier role at the least. They're both equally amazing. This isn't a movie about big plot developments. It's watching the obsessive Birdy going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.