On B List of Movie Reviews

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Bird (1988)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 3/18

Bird
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 stops abruptly in 1940 when Charlie Parker was about to start his run of greatness yet had fifteen years left in his life.

Having said that, I suppose Clint Eastwood had to make do with the scant material about 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 once again to show 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 makes him so great. There needs to be more of that. The constant back-and-forth between past and present makes the plot hard to follow at times.

All in all, Bird is a good start to become interested in Charlie Parker's music.