Review of Bird (1988) by Emma B — 19 Apr 2009

I can see why this garnered so much accolades back then. Forest Whitaker takes on the role of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker well along with fantastic co-acting of Diane Venora's Chan Parker.

Director Eastwood's take on the movie portrays deeply the famous Bird's inner life based on accounts from his comrade-in-arms, Mr John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, Mrs. Chan Parker as well as the juxtaposition of Bird's original recordings into the movie.

Being a 160 min (at least from my DVD version) long documentary, at times it gets very intense in trying to understand the whole series, especially starting from a very short childhood flashback before the use of several flashbacks to back-to-present loops that gets very confusing.

Fan service has been fantastic with the juxtaposition of several of Bird's quotes (although in the incorrect settings) for the development of the character of Bird. The exclusion of Minton's Playhouse and Massey Hall days were a disappointment though understandably those are some of the least documented areas of Bird's life and to include everything would have to stretch the whole show till about 3 hours.

If one is more thoroughly anal, they would have noticed that Bird died in Baroness Nica's care when she went to fetch some water although it is quite clear, he sent a few days there and that the Baroness's suite was not clearly a house-in-the-street that one could just stumble into. Still the Dorsey brothers sketch was a good plus to have added into instead of just panning to Whitaker and marking down his expression.

A tormented soul, though yet full of love for his family, his craft was brilliantly represented and this movie, although portraying Bird's excessive living, tries to postulate the factors on why he needs to numb himself, aptly supplemented to Bird's several advices to Red Rodney not to get high.

Truly heart-wrenching and should not be missed for fans of director Eastwood's movies and/or jazz fans and/or film buffs.