Bird

9/30/19882h 41m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ "There are no second acts in American lives." ~

Overview:

Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.

Director:

Clint Eastwood

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$9,000,000.00

Revenue:

$2,000,000.00

Key words:

jazz
heroin
saxophone
biography
psychiatric hospital
heroin addict
electroconvulsive therapy
death of daughter
bebop
eiffel tower, paris
1950s

Cast

Forest Whitaker

~ as ~

Charlie 'Bird' Parker

Diane Venora

~ as ~

Chan Parker

Michael Zelniker

~ as ~

Red Rodney

Samuel E. Wright

~ as ~

Dizzy Gillespie

Keith David

~ as ~

Buster Franklin

Michael McGuire

~ as ~

Brewster

James Handy

~ as ~

Esteves

Damon Whitaker

~ as ~

Young Bird

Morgan Nagler

~ as ~

Kim

Arlen Dean Snyder

~ as ~

Dr. Heath

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

r96sk
Written 3 year(s) ago
5
I personally found 'Bird' - directed by Clint Eastwood - to be an absolute slog to sit through.

It's an interesting story no doubt, but it's told in the most mundane and boring way possible. I didn't know anything about Charlie Parker beforehand, which is what kept that aforementioned interest there. I'm no jazz fan either, but I am always happy to listen to it when it comes up though.

Despite that, I just couldn't get into the film itself. It just felt like it was 160 minutes (!) worth of the following on repeat: performance, drunk and/or depressed, performance, drunk and/or depressed etc. I didn't feel like I was learning anything about Parker and his life. I literally gave an internal cheer when the credits finally rolled around.

I do enjoy Forest Whitaker as an actor and he is probably the reason I'm not rating this lower. As for the rest, I don't even recall any of them - though I'm putting that down to what I've already noted, as opposed to the cast themselves who I'm sure tried their upmost.

Way too long, in short. As I said it's an intriguing person to make a film about, an around 100 minute production would've been perfect in my opinion. A shame, all in all.