On B List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Bird (1988)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
3/18
3/18:
I had seen many Clint Eastwood's films, sometimes repeatedly, but Bird wasn't one of them until now.
It's impressive. Forest Whitaker is given a leading role for the first time in his career and makes most
of it. He's always been an underrated talent.
Not much is known about Charlie Parker. In fact, there are no more than four written biographies about him,
and I had the unfortunate luck to select Kansas City Lightning, which was authored by Stanley Crouch,
because the book stopped abruptly in 1940 when Charlie Parker was about to start his run of greatness yet there
were still fifteen years left in his life.
I suppose Clint Eastwood had to make do with the scant material on Charlie Parker who wasn't
actually famous nationwide during his time. That's why Bird feels repetitive: Charlie fucks up, shoots
his arm with heroin, stays down, picks himself up after having hit rock bottom, and gets back to playing the
alto sax to show everybody what he's made of. Hence, the movie is too long to watch all of that.
Yet it's a remarkable performance by Forest Whitaker. He is Charlie Parker, but Clint Eastwood doesn't do
enough to explore what made him so great. The constant back-and-forth between the past and the present makes
the plot hard to follow at times.
All in all, although worthwhile solely for Forest Whitaker's performance, Bird is short in substance.