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.

"Bird," produced in 1988, was Clint Eastwood's directorial debut. "Bird" is a gripping drama about the life of Charlie "Bird" Parker, the incredibly talented alto sax player of the bebop jazz genre. The music throughout the movie is simply wonderful. In fact, this is the best feature of the movie, which has interiors that are too dark, dialogue which is unclear, and quick cuts from timeline to timeline which often leave the viewer confused as to what decade it is supposed to be.Clint Eastwood, an avid jazz fan, is also an accomplished jazz pianist. Despite the negatives listed above, he has created a memorable musical sound track of Charlie Parker's genius.Charlie Parker died in March 1955, aged 34. The doctor calling the coroner at the scene of his death described him as a 65-year-old male. Bird was a drug addict, an alcoholic, who had bleeding ulcers, cirrhosis of the liver and a weak heart. At least twice, he had tried suicide by drinking iodine. Several times when picked up for drug usage, he lost his New York State lounge card for playing jazz and had to go to the West Coast to join Dizzy Gillespie, where a lounge card was not required. From our point of view, that was a good thing, for it helped spread bebop throughout California and introduce other audiences other than in NYC, to his fantastical, sensitive and miraculous way of playing.Was it his sensitivity that made him so inept at handling the down times in life? When his little daughter died, he went back on drugs, after having been clean for a number of years, but having also during that time, increased his alcohol intake.Bird died young, on the verge of the rock and roll surge and the waning of bebop. But other great jazz performers managed to survive this time, such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and many another great. It could be though, that Bird died within his time, on the verge of changes in musical taste.The movie features strong performances by Forest Whitaker as Bird, Diane Verona as Bird's wife, Chan, and an excellent performance by Michael Zelniker, as fellow musician and friend, Red Rodney.It won several international awards, and an Oscar for Best Sound for its soundtrack.Whatever Clint's defects in his first directorial job, he has given us a stunning and lasting portrait of Charlie "Bird" Parker, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

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.

Not easy to make a film about jazzmen since it's the music that counts rather than the person. Parker's self destructiveness lends a dark tone to the story lightened by some great scenes in the smoky jazz clubs of the time. The ending in the apartment of Baroness Nica is very moving as also are the closing credits accompanied by "Parker's Mood"

Director Clint Eastwood has always loved jazz. Here he pays tribute to Charlie Parker, the father of the 1940's be-bop movement. Forrest Whittaker is very convincing as the troubled genius. This is more than a movie about jazz, it's a true to life drama of one of the greatest musicians of the 20th Century. Unreservedly 5 Stars.

Clint Eastwood directed movie of the life of Charlie "Bird" Parker. For jazz fans this is a must. Eastwood has captured the essence of Parker and the music is wonderful. The dark scenes lend themselves to this movie. One of Eastwoods best.

Arrived quickly - the film content was not as good as I had hoped but the soundtrack is great.

I loved this film when it first came out and still think it is a brilliant and important film.