Bird

Name: Bird
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Released: September 30, 1988
Duration: 161 min
Rating: 78
Cast: Diane Venora, Forest Whitaker

1988

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Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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7.2

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Bird

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: September 30, 1988 | R

Starring: Diane Venora, Forest Whitaker

Summary: Bird, a film burnished with the magic of that 1946 concert encounter between legend and future legend and honored with an Academy Award for Best Sound in its spellbinding recreation of a man and his music. Like jazz itself, Bird rings with counterpoints and embellishments. Past and future overlap as the film explores Yardbird's soaringBird, a film burnished with the magic of that 1946 concert encounter between legend and future legend and honored with an Academy Award for Best Sound in its spellbinding recreation of a man and his music. Like jazz itself, Bird rings with counterpoints and embellishments. Past and future overlap as the film explores Yardbird's soaring skill and destructive excesses. (Warner Bros.)… Expand

Director: Clint Eastwood

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Music

Rating: R

Runtime: 161 min

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Critic Reviews

100

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

n a remarkable directorial effort, Eastwood shows a great flair for atmosphere and composition and presents a nuanced, complex, humane portrait of Parker's talents, obstacles, virtues and failings. Whitaker gives a towering performance as the tortured musical genius, and Venora is equally impressive as the independent, compassionate Chan. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Clint Eastwood's ambitious 1988 feature about the great Charlie Parker (Forest Whitaker) is the most serious, conscientious, and accomplished jazz biopic ever made, and almost certainly Eastwood's best picture as well. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Bird wisely does not attempt to "explain" Parker's music by connecting experiences with musical discoveries. This is a film of music, not about it, and one of the most extraordinary things about it is that we are really, literally, hearing Parker on the soundtrack. Read full review

Jay Scott

At two hours and 43 minutes, Eastwood's Bird is a hypnotic, darkly photographed, loosely constructed marvel that avoids every cliche of the self-destructive-celebrity biography, a particularly remarkable achievement in that Parker played out every cliche of the self- destructive-celebrity life. [14 Oct 1988, p. C1]

Mike Clark

Clint Eastwood remains a competent, rather than distinctive, film maker, but he obviously respects the material. Bird is essentially factual, and we come to understand why so many other musicians thought shooting heroin might enable them to transfer [Charlie Parker]'s genius to themselves. [26 Sept 1988, p. 4D]

Jay Carr

It's more than a labor of love -- it's a powerful summoning of devoted craft, conveying the pain and complexity of a great musical innovator, avoiding almost totally the usual Hollywood cliches. [14 Oct 1988, p. 53]

Desson Howe

You'll leave Bird's smooth flow of nightclub images, dark motel rooms and recharged Parker tracks with new respect for Eastwood the Director. But you'll also leave none the wiser about Parker the Man. Read full review

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User Reviews

stevekm

Nov 14, 2022

As a movie, this was way too long. While Clint wanted to show everything in detail, and that might work for a book, it did not work here. What I missed was, what lead to his drug use, what set him on this road to self-destruction?

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r96sk

Feb 1, 2022

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 aforementionedI 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.… Expand

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