Birdy

Cast: Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage, and John Harkins

Director: Alan Parker    

120 minutes (15) 1984

Powerhouse / Indicator 
Blu-ray region B

Rating: 8/10

Review by Peter Schilling

Compared to Robert Altman’s fantastical satire, Brewster McCloud (1968), this off-beat buddy-movie might, in today’s busy market-place, be called a bromance. Telling its story of friendship, before and after the Vietnam War, it also carries vague echoes of Michael Cimino’s multi-Oscar winning The Deer Hunter (1978). But such similarities are a fuzzy mirage, merely overlapping tracks in American cinema’s vast cultural background, not strong generic links, thematic references, or narrative connections. Based upon the first novel by William Wharton, Birdy forges its own unique pathway through the combined histories of masculinity and madness, trippy dreams with flights of fancy, and perilously obsessive compulsions.    

Romantic extrovert Al (Nicolas Cage) seems an unlikely friend for weird introvert Birdy (Matthew Modine), and yet they become the best of mates in a working-class area of Philadelphia. From the start, it’s a bit disconcerting to see how evocative recreations of 1960s rundown Americana are directed so perfectly by British visionary Alan Parker. His work is often under-rated as a contemporary artistic oeuvre, but Parker’s ability to blend grim realism with poetic values generates a rare Hollywood fusion of visual powerhouse and traumatic intensity of human dramas, despite the contrast between theatrical styles and magical realism that are deployed here, so astutely.

After being MIA in the war, Birdy ends up in psych-ward rehab where Doctor Weiss (John Harkins) administers fair treatment because the socially withdrawn Birdy hardly knows the difference between a fall and flight. With his head bandaged following reconstructive surgery, army sergeant Al feels that he looks like the Invisible Man. Birdy’s flashbacks are numerous, exploring and illuminating all of the highs and lows of their neighbourly relationship. 

There’s Birdy having fun while flapping his arms on a rollercoaster, aptly called Flyer. Birdy argues heatedly with Al’s father, while Al just cowers from his dad’s bad temper. One man-powered flight scene uses a glider that splashes down in a pond. The singular dream sequence of flying uses a modified Steadicam rig to capture some bird’s-eye-views of suburban streets. In hospital scenes, Karen Young (Handgun, 1983) delivers an excellent performance as compassionate nurse Hannah.

Animal dramas includes an extraordinary a rogue mouser’s hunting attack upon Birdy’s pet canary, in a scene that plays like a live-action version of cartoon series Tweety and Sylvester. The canary’s escape from isolation, in the social cocoon of Birdy’s bedroom aviary, is also a stunningly composed metaphor for warfare that has clearly damaged both of the main characters here. Peter Gabriel’s memorable score inventively recycles themes from his fourth solo album (‘Security’, 1982), especially classics like San Jacinto, and the drumming sequence from The Rhythm Of The Heat, while Ritchie Valens’ always popular La Bamba brightens up this movie’s comedy pratfalls.

Lively shenanigans, with something of a understated performance from live-wire Cage, and the uncanny portrayal a fragile soul by Modine, ensure that Birdy is an imaginatively presented treat, as both character study and searingly unforgettable anti-war message-movie. 

Extras include:

• Limited edition 48-page booklet includes writing by Alan Parker
• Director’s commentary track
• Abstraction Of War: Matthew Modine interview (25 mins.)
• Bird Watching: Keith Gordon - star of John Carpenter’s Christine - talks about novelist Wharton, and brilliantly critiques Birdy (16 mins.)
• WW2 romantic drama, No Hard Feelings (1976), a short TV film by Parker
• Image galleries