Bird
Bird
R
6.8
·

1988

·

161m

Bird

Summary

Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.

Director

Clint Eastwood

Screenplay

Joel Oliansky

Reviews

r96sk

r96sk

February 2, 2022

5

I personally found <em>'Bird'</em> - 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.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$9,000,000.00

Revenue:

$2,000,000.00

Keywords

jazz
heroin
saxophone
biography
psychiatric hospital
heroin addict
electroconvulsive therapy
death of daughter
bebop
eiffel tower, paris
1950s