Birdy

This is a strange and fascinating - but that likable - story about a kid who becomes obsessed with birds and then literally goes crazy. Matthew Modine plays the introverted "Birdy." A young Nicholas Cage plays his best friend, "Al."

It's not a particularly pleasant story. In fact, it's downright depressing many times. It also had an unusual ending, one the critics seemed to all pan but I liked. I thought it was neat.

The movie does keep your interest, so it gets decent points for that, and it certainly presents a unique character study.

I haven't seen this film in a long time, but after writing this review, I'd kind of like to view it again.....depressing or not.

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!

If ever I needed convincing that Nicholas Cage is a great actor and human being, it is in this role and the brilliant performance of Birdie himself. If ever good can be portrayed as coming out of bad, it is the deeply moving message and point of making a movie like this. Who needs convincing that war is evil, that life is cruel and that love conquers all its madness? Who can even begin to understand the torment of post-traumatic stress? Those who perpetrate suffering not only to humans but animals alike can never have the empathy that defines us as human. On many levels, the story and how it is told, speaks to the heart and we weep in sympathy for the pain of those who suffer whether from mental illness, bullying or the unspeakable abuses of war. Where have all the great movie makers like Alan Parker gone? There is nothing but fake, shallow and profit orientated products that mirror the fake, shallow and insecure "virtual" relating that goes on today. For that I weep. It has created a hunger deeper than that suffered from starving Biafra.

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

Birdy is a difficult film to describe. It's about the developing friendship between Al (Nick Cage) and Birdy (Matthew Modine), but it's also about a descent into madness, and the lengths to which Al goes for his friend.

The film starts in the late 60's, in a US military mental hospital. Cage has been seriously wounded, and has had reconstructive surgery on his face, but he's been brought in because Birdy is here. He's uncommunicative and appears to recognise no one, spending all day squatting on the floor of his cell squinting up at the window.

The story is mostly told in flashbacks, either Al recounting incidents in their growing friendship as neighbourhood kids or, later, Birdy remembering other incidents. From the start the two are pretty dissimilar - Al is athletic, outgoing and popular while Birdy is quiet and introverted - a typical nerd. The two are, paradoxically, brought together by Birdy's love of birds, and the stupid things they do - making suits out of pigeon feathers to befriend more pigeons, climbing on (and falling off) factories trying to capture more birds.

Al tries to set Birdy on a 'normal' track; they buy a wrecked car and fix it up, and head off to the beach. But Birdy is just too wrapped up in himself for this to work, and it's a wonder he doesn't alienate Al with his strange behaviour.

In the 'present', the doctor is putting more pressure on Al to get Birdy to respond; if he doesn't, then Birdy will be written off and sent to a permanent mental institution. The flashbacks continue, and it becomes clear that Birdy's love of birds has turned into an obsession, and then into the darker realms beyond that.

The final few minutes of the film cover a lot of ground; Al finally realises that Birdy is pretty well off the deep end; they both go off to fight in the war; Al gets his injury, while we see the incident that left Birdy in his present state. Meanwhile the doctor finally decides that time has run out, but Al decides he's not leaving.

The ending of the film is incredibly powerful, and it should be a criminal offence to give it away. Is it 'appropriate' to the rest of the film? I dunno - but I thought it was pretty damn good.

The film stands or falls on the performances of Cage and Modine - and, for me, it stands tall. Cage is excellent in his role, capturing the bravado of his character perfectly; but Modine is simply brilliant. During the flashbacks he portrays his nerdy character completely believably, but it's the way he handles the scenes in the asylum that amazed me. As soon as you know his obsession, it is crystal clear that he's not squatting in his cell, but perching, wishing to fly.

Alan Parker has made some great films; this might just be his best.