Bird

Wow, I can't believe the negative reviews for this MASTERPIECE by Clint Eastwood. Being a big fan of Jazz, I've owned this film for many years in more than one incarnation, and have watched it more times than I care to tally.Many reviewers said it's overly dark. Yep. Jazz musicians spend most of their time in dark smoke-filled nightclubs. So does BIRD. This is a great MOOD PIECE. It could also be called FILM NOIR.Many said it doesn't establish why Charlie Parker was one of the greats of Jazz. In one particularly brilliant scene of writing in this film, Parker is talking about himself and the legend of BIRD to Red Rodney, partner in Jazz and fellow heroin addict. He talks about "going inside the melody" of Cherokee, a song he had played many times and was tired of doing. Parker decides to go around the melody with little notes and discovers his style. Thus, a whole new form of music called Be Bop is born. A superb scene.Many reviewers said it dwelt too heavily on the negative aspects of Parker's drug abuse. This is true. However, heroin played a significant part in early Jazz music in this country. Heavily significant. A majority of the best and brightest Jazz stars were plagued by addiction for many years. Read Miles Davis' autobiography. He lists them all. Eastwood recognizes this in a scene where Parker is in Paris and is debating whether to return to the States. A fellow sideman is trying convince him to stay in France where he can make a decent living. SIDEMAN: "You can't make no living playing Jazz in the States." BIRD: "Dizz can. Duke can." SIDEMAN: "Well you ain't Dizz. And you certainly ain't Duke." BIRD: "So I kick." The Sideman laughs uproariously. BIRD: "I can kick." The Sideman laughs harder. The point of this exchange: the only successful Jazzmen are Duke and Dizzy because they may be the only ones not hooked on heroin. Subtle writing. A brilliant exchange that conveys so much about the world of Jazz. For some Jazz musicians, heroin was used in a creative context whether people will admit that or not. And drug and alcohol abuse DID kill Charlie Parker. Artists can be extremely self-destructive human beings.Some said it wasn't accurate. Many film biopics use composite characters for dramatic effect and change some history for storytelling purposes. Films can't possibly contain a person's whole history. It's not possible. But BIRD conveys Parker's fame and troubles with amazing grace and skill.Yes, BIRD is dark and depressing. It is also a brilliantly realized ART FILM. However, the timeline can be very confusing. I screened this for a friend, who was lost in the flashbacks. He did however, enjoy the film.Another thing I love about the script, is that it portrays Charlie Parker as an articulate and eloquent man, as many Jazz musicians were at the time and still are. (Wynton Marsalis comes to mind.) Even in "the midst of my disorientation," Parker remains articulate. One of my favorite lines of dialogue is when Parker is waking up on the floor after passing out in a wealthy patron's house. She explains to him that he has passed out, and Parker retorts from the floor, "Very undignified of me." BEAUTIFUL WRITING.I just had to chime in, because this film is an overlooked TREASURE. Forest Whitaker gives us probably the most amazing death scene I've ever witnessed on film. He should have won the Oscar for his performance. It was shamefully overlooked. Diane Venora is superb as are the rest of the cast. And as for Clint Eastwood; this is without a doubt, HIS BEST FILM. And one of my all time favorite flicks. Thanks Clint, for giving me many hours of enjoyment, and taking me back to a time I wish I had lived through, with this WORK OF ART. YOU are a TRUE JAZZ LOVER.If YOU are A TRUE LOVER OF JAZZ or A TRUE LOVER OF FILM ART, YOU MUST SEE THIS POIGNANT PIECE OF JAZZ HISTORY. THIS IS SUPERLATIVE MOVIEMAKING.

This is the best movie ever made about jazz and one of the best ever made about music. I have been listening to Charlie Parker records since I was 15 and spent many happy but frustrating years trying to play transcriptions of his solos on my precious alto sax. "Bird" is good because it tells an interesting and heart-rending story about a musical genius whose life was a Greco-American tragedy. More importantly it is great because of his music, which does not merely serve as a background score but as a driver of the story, almost like a narrator whose voice is always heard but whose face is never seen. This movie is what I would call a thriller, and the most thrilling scene is the one in which Parker explains to a protégé how he discovered the new music, bebop. I don't know if this interaction actually happened or whether Clint Eastwood invented it, but to me it doesn't matter. When Parker talks (and he was known to be an amazingly articulate man, especially considering his dearth of formal education) about playing between the notes ("and it still fit"), you learn more about modern jazz (and about modern music in general) that you would from reading a hundred books. Parker's brief, awkward, non-verbal encounter with Igor Stravinsky (if Eastwood made that up, he's even more insightful than I had thought) jars the musical brain of anyone who takes this music seriously. Watch and buy this movie to enjoy a not-so-beautiful story about a not-so-beautiful genius. Watch it to hear some great samples of music that will make you feel silly about the hours you have wasted listening to Rock 'n Roll and its tawdry descendants. Watch it to save your mortal soul.

This movie is the best Jazz movie I have ever seen.I almost have seen all the movies about Jazz. Some of them are good some not.So far there are only a hand full of them that are good enough for me to watch them again which is BIRD, MO BETTER BLUES AND FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. All the other movies are so so.And above those three, this movie is the best.The movie is about the legendary saxophonist Charile parker. I am not a huge fan of his since most of his albums are recorded in mono.But anyway,during watching this film, I almost cried watching Forest's acting. It is so real and touching.Clint Eastwood have something that other people doesn't have. That is his warm heart. And that heart sometimes touches audience so deep that we as an audience can feel so deep and we just carry it for days. I also do know that he is a huge Jazz fan as well.There are many good actors involved in this film and they are all good but since Forest was so good that I cannot but think about him after the show for so long. This movie is a must see music film for everyone.160 mintes went so fast that I was surprised!!