Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

ianlouisiana Thus read the headline in the "Melody Maker" in England in 1955.I read the front page article on the top deck of the trolley bus going to school and determined to play the rare "Dial" 78 s my best friend had loaned me to wean me away from Louis Armstrong that had been languishing under the All - Stars' double sided "Basin St Blues" for some time. Shortly after that I heard the Massey Hall LP with Dizzy and Bud Powell and moved Bird right alongside Louis in my pantheon of musical gods where he remains over half a century later. I am a great admirer of Mr Clint Eastwood both as a director and an actor and am grateful to him for putting his money where his mouth was and making "Bird". Charlie Parker had the avid mind of the poorly - educated intelligence,he read widely,had eclectic musical tastes,improvised some of the most profoundly moving music of the second half of the 20th century but most of his adult life was ruled by a heroin habit. He stole,lied,cheated and pimped to satisfy it,alienated many who loved him and,of course,ultimately it killed him.The story of his life was never going to be the typical Hollywood biopic,rags to riches but still basically the nice guy/girl of childhood sort of stuff. Bird came from a world alien to most Americans of the 50s,harsh,violent divided along race lines,awash with alcohol and drugs,it would have been surprising indeed if he had passed through it unscathed. "Bird" is disturbing to watch,wonderful to listen to and required viewing for anyone wanting to know about the life of the second most influential jazz musician in history. Stan Kenton alumnus Mr Lennie Neihaus masterminded the soundtrack and isolated the Parker solos from their original background,re - recording them with contemporary musicians,arguably not particularly ethical perhaps,but the muddy 50 year old records still have some joyous saxophone playing mixed with pristine state of the art resources. Mr Eastwood doesn't bowdlerise Bird's life,he presents an uncompromising picture of an improvising genius unable to take control of his own life and unwilling to let others control it for him.

dbdumonteil Clint Eastwood, a figurehead in American cinema is also a jazz lover and connoisseur. It's no wonder that he was thrilled to bits to the idea to shoot a film on one of the jazz legends: Charlie Parker, a prodigious as well as tormented virtuoso. In France, it's this film which definitely made the most stubborn newspapers ditch the following epithets: "fascist", "macho", "racist" which stuck to Eastwood for a long time, especially since the "Dirty Harry" saga. They seemed to have forgotten that Eastwood was and still is a filmmaker whose richness of inspiration is solid. And this legend had its admirers and supporters among some French critics and filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard!If one can see the title and read the synopsis to have an idea of what we're going to watch, one figures that Eastwood prepared a cozy programmed scheme to tell Parker's rueful life and that he chronologically, sedately shot it. But the filmmaker turns the elements and rules of the biopic to his own advantage and to startling results. The very onset is deceptive. One can see Parker when he was a child and then for a short sequence as a teenager. These moments passed, Eastwood doesn't fear to subvert the rules of storytelling and time which are shattered. His film toys with past and present with sometimes (fortunately not often) an absence of points of reference. Hence, the interest of being very attentive during all the work. Maybe Eastwood chose this device to capture Charlie "Bird" Parker's tormented mind in disarray. Sometimes, the director disconcerts a little more by inserting flashes inside the flash-backs. And how somber is the cinematography (I strongly advise Eastwood's aficionados to watch this work all lights turned off for a lot of scenes take place at night and in dimly lighted places). This cinematography with dark colors harks back to the "films Noirs" of the forties and the fifties and was perhaps tapped to suggest that Parker eventually got a raw deal in spite of his genius for jazz music and his fate is sealed. Another option would be to have chosen this type of cinematography to enable to Eastwood to fully savor his passion for jazz which shows through the concerts and virtually any time a piece of jazz is heard.Eastwood lets his talent of director shine and installs as much as possible a stylish, personal style to develop his own vision of the musician and the man Parker. A real virtuoso who tried to catch these short moments of bliss during especially his concerts. But also, a tormented mind, haunted by demons who developed a drug and alcohol addiction. His decay, his trouble with his addictions, his woes (the death of her little girl) are broached and treated with reserve, a dash of sympathy and Eastwood shelves any moralizing attitude. I must also admit that the possible scenes I had expected from the film (wild mood swings maybe caused by drug and alcohol, feuds with the women he knew) are softened from my standpoint.With such an unusual construction which puzzled the audience back in 1988, this film was doomed to failure but it didn't stop it from meeting well-reviewed analyzes and to be showered with praise. The Cannes festival didn't make a mistake by attributing to Forest Whitaker, the prize for the Best actor, another good example of Eastwood's generosity towards his actors to let them hold more or equally meaty parts than his. This generosity will be more conspicuous in the following decade. In France, "Bird" was the first Eastwood film to get a nomination at the Césars in 1989 for the Best Foreign film. Subsequent works: "the Bridges of Madison County" (1995), "Mystic River" (2003) and "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) will also be in contention to get the Prize and the two last ones will (deservedly) hit the jackpot.This maverick biopic adds to Eastwood's canonical filmography as a director and his devotees as well as Parker's fans or any jazz fan shouldn't miss it. It's a novel piece of work in the biography genre and Eastwood won't think twice before thwarting codes of other cinematographic genres in the nineties with the revisionist "Unforgiven" (1992) or the superb "a Perfect World" (1993).

saxman1919 This is an incredible movie and one of the best music biopics ever. I was already a fan of Charlie Parkers music and I think that helps when it comes to appreciating this film. But, Forrest Whitaker's performance is incredible as are all of the others who so accurately portray the real life musicians of the film. If there is one detractor in the movie, it is the fact that there are a lot of flash backs and flash forwards and at times it can be a little hard to follow. I didn't get everything until I saw it the second or third time. Highly recommended. If you liked Coal Miners Daughter, Ray or Walk the Line or if you are a fan of jazz music, you will love Bird.

Dan DeVore A dark and atmospheric biopic on jazz legend Charlie Parker, who with his fast improvisational style formed the sub-genre of bebop. Clint Eastwood directed this movie with a heart and passion that reflects back to his own love of the music which he has carried with him all his life and played a role in all his work. Eastwood himself actually was fortunate to have seen Charlie "Bird" Parker play in when he was alive. The film chronicles his life and has a tight focus on his self destructive behavior and the music itself. Bird explores the highs and lows of his journey. Playing to a sold out house in Paris, playing alongside Dizzy Gillespie, and earning a respect that few other musicians have matched. In contrast we see his heroine addiction, his suffering and depression resulting in several suicide attempts, the death of his daughter, and his wife's loving struggle to help save a man who's ill-fate was inevitable and irreversible.Forest Whitaker plays Bird with a lot of heart and soul. Even though I have no idea if it was an accurate portrayal in capturing the man's nuances, Whitaker's interpretation was superlative. Equally as good was Diane Venora as Bird's wife, who found enough strength for the both of them and tried to hold the family together in an un-winnable battle. There's lots of rain, lots of dark nightclubs, lots of street lamps reflecting the soaked streets, and lots of feeling in this one. Having just watched another biopic, that one on Ray Charles, it's clear to see Eastwood's was the real deal, whereas Ray was merely decent. Grade: A+