Birdy is a 1984 American drama film based on William Wharton's 1978 novel. Directed by Alan Parker, it stars Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. Set in 1960s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the film focuses on the friendship between two teenage boys, Birdy (Modine) and Al Columbato (Cage). The story is presented in flashbacks, with a frame narrative depicting their traumatic experiences serving in the Vietnam War.

Parker initially turned down an opportunity to direct, believing that the complex book could not be successfully adapted for a feature film. The project resurfaced in 1982 when A&M Films, a subsidiary of A&M Records, acquired the film rights and commissioned Sandy Kroopf and Jack Behr to write the screenplay. Upon reading the script, Parker returned as director, and the film continued development at Tri-Star Pictures. Principal photography began in May 1984 and concluded in August of that year. Filming took place on locations in Philadelphia and Santa Clara, California. The film is notable for being the first to be partially shot with the Skycam, a computer-controlled camera system created by Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown. The score was composed by Peter Gabriel.

Birdy opened in limited release on December 12, 1984. It underperformed at the North American box office, grossing only $1.4 million against a budget of $12 million. The film received mostly positive reviews, and has an approval rating of 83% at Rotten Tomatoes. Birdy was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the Top Ten Films of 1984, and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

In a 1960s working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a teenage boy nicknamed "Birdy" befriends his next-door neighbor Al Columbato, who relates to Birdy’s fascination with birds and their ability to fly. The two begin pursuing Birdy's hobby of catching pigeons and caging them in a large, wooden aviary that he has built outside his parents' home.

One night, the teenagers climb on top of a refinery building, where Birdy hangs on the ledge to catch the pigeons roosting on it. Birdy loses his grip and falls several stories, but he lands on a pile of sand. Slightly dazed, he tells Al that during the fall, he flew. After Birdy is hospitalized for minor injuries, his parents dismantle the aviary.

Birdy concedes to Al's wishes of pursuing another venture. After they purchase and restore a 1953 Ford automobile, Al's father registers the vehicle. Al drives Birdy to an Atlantic City boardwalk, but they are arrested the next day after Mr. Columbato reports the car stolen. After bailing the boys out of jail, Mr. Columbato sells the vehicle. Birdy later confronts him, claiming that the car was not his to sell. Mr. Columbato offers Birdy a sum of money, which Birdy refuses on principle.

Birdy builds a new aviary in his bedroom and purchases two canaries. He names the female Perta and the male Alfonso (after his friend). Upon returning to school, Birdy encounters a classmate, Doris Robinson, and Al encourages him to ask her out on a date. At the prom, Birdy dances unenthusiastically with Doris, leaving her confused and humiliated. Afterwards, Doris drives him to a secluded spot, where Birdy lightly rejects her sexual advances. Birdy returns home to his bedroom and lies down naked in the aviary. In a semi-conscious state, he expresses that he wants to die and be born again as a bird. He then imagines himself flying like a bird around his room, throughout the house and outside in the neighborhood.

Upon graduation, Al enlists and Birdy is drafted into the United States Army. During the Vietnam War, Birdy is placed in a mental hospital after being missing in action for a month. A flashback reveals that he was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash. Al is hospitalized in the same facility. His face is heavily bandaged for injuries that he sustained from an exploding bomb. Major Weiss, a military doctor, informs Al that, although Birdy's injuries are relatively minor, Birdy has not spoken since he was found. Al speaks to Birdy at length, but Al grows increasingly frustrated by his lack of response. He is then elated when Birdy smiles at a joke he makes. Weiss dismisses the response as dissociative behavior.

Al suspects Birdy of feigning insanity to hide from the world, and he expresses to Birdy that he too wishes to hide due to his own injuries. Birdy unexpectedly responds by telling Al that he is "full of shit". Al alerts Weiss to Birdy's response, but when the doctor arrives, Birdy remains silent. Not seeing any progress, Weiss orders Al to leave, but Al pushes the doctor aside. After Weiss flees, two orderlies are sent in to subdue Al, who fights them and takes Birdy to the roof of the hospital. Birdy rushes to the ledge, raises his arms and jumps off the side of the roof as if he were about to fly. Thinking Birdy has plunged to severe injury, Al runs over to the ledge but finds Birdy on another level of the roof, perfectly fine. Birdy looks up at Al and says, "What?"

Cast

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Development

Following publication of William Wharton's 1978 novel Birdy, Alan Parker received galley proofs of the book from his agent, who advised him that the novel was going to be optioned. Upon reading the novel, Parker discussed it with his colleague, producer Alan Marshall, before turning down the opportunity to direct a film adaptation. He explained, "So much of the story happened inside the boy's head, and the poetry of the book was literary. To make it cinematic - I didn't know if I could make the jump." Kroopf and Behr made various changes from the novel, opting to focus primarily on the friendship between Birdy and Al Columbato. They also decided to set the story during the Vietnam War, as opposed to the novel, which is set during World War II. "We were in high school in the mid-1960s," Behr explained, "so growing up then was our experience." He then discussed the adaptation with executives at Tri-Star Pictures. After the studio agreed to produce the film, Parker traveled to Los Angeles, where he met with Kroopf and Behr to work on the script. but Parker decided to cast him as Birdy, believing that the actor possessed an "introverted honest quality" that best suited the character. The cast and crew then moved to Philadelphia City Hall, where Wilson Goode, the city's first African American mayor, visited the set and gave the production his blessing. During post-production, Parker had been incorporating the percussive rhythms from Gabriel's solo albums into the film.

Recording sessions took place at the Ashcombe House in Somerset, England, from October to December 1984. Gabriel used tapes of previously recorded material from the past four years, which he and music producer Daniel Lanois remixed for select scenes in the film. The track "Birdy's Flight" is based upon the instrumental outro of "Not One of Us," also from Gabriel's third album. "The Heat", "Under Lock and Key" and "Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain" borrowed musical elements from "The Rhythm of the Heat," "Wallflower," and "San Jacinto," all songs on Gabriel's fourth album, which had been composed on a Fairlight CMI IIx, a music workstation with an embedded digital sampling synthesizer.

In an interview with Spin in 1986, Gabriel said, “Birdy was about the struggle of the spirit... It was about the interplay between the traumatized Birdy, the wounded victim, and his best friend, who’s ostensibly the tough one. But in the end, it’s Birdy who’s strong and his friend who’s cracking. When I saw the rough cut of the film, I knew I had to do it. It haunted me.”

Recalling in 2010 his experience of working with Gabriel, Alan Parker told Prog magazine, "We got on so well, he’s such a sweet man. It was such a refreshing change from working with megalomaniacs like Roger Waters. Peter’s record company were very difficult to begin with, and so I phoned them to ask if they’d mind if Peter took a little time to do this, and they said as long as it didn’t take more than a couple of months because Peter was already a year late or something. He had strong views and I would never be able to persuade him to do something he didn’t feel comfortable with, but we didn’t have any confrontation as such."

Release

Tri-Star Pictures had planned to release the film using a platform technique which involved opening it in select cities before releasing it nationwide. The studio was confident that the limited theatrical run would generate strong-word-of-mouth interest and awards consideration for the film. Birdy opened in limited release on December 21, 1984, in New York City, Los Angeles and Toronto. The film's failure to garner any award nominations during the limited run resulted in Tri-Star cancelling a wide release scheduled for late January 1985. In response, A&M Films prompted the studio to refocus the film's marketing campaign. Birdy underperformed at the North American box office, grossing only $1,455,045 in the United States and Canada, and on DVD on February 15, 2000, by Columbia TriStar Home Video. The DVD presents the film in optional fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen versions on both sides of the disc. Special features include the film's theatrical trailer, as well as trailers for other films starring Cage and directed by Parker, information on the cast and crew, and a booklet featuring production notes.

Birdy was first released on the Blu-ray format in the United States on June 25, 2019. It was given a manufacture on demand release, with no extras other than the theatrical trailer. A region-free, limited-edition version was released in the United Kingdom by Powerhouse Films on October 28, 2019. Parker oversaw the film's 2K digital restoration. Special features include a 48-page booklet, the theatrical trailer, interviews with the cast and crew, an audio commentary by Parker and Justin Johnson of the British Film Institute, and Parker's 1976 television film No Hard Feelings.

Reception

Critical response

Birdy received mostly positive reviews from mainstream film critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes sampled 44 reviews, and gave the film a score of 84%, with an average score of 7.3 out of 10. The consensus summarizes: "Aided by strong work from Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage, Birdy finds director Alan Parker turning a supposedly unfilmable novel into a soaring -- and emotionally searing -- success." Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film four stars out of four, writing, "Birdy ... tells a story so unlikely ... and yet a story so interesting it is impossible to put this movie out of my mind." Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Parker has for the most part directed the film deftly and unobtrusively. Every so often, though, he introduces the kind of overstatement Birdy didn't need ... Fortunately, the heavy-handedness is in limited supply. Most of Birdy is enchanting." Film critic Emanuel Levy called it "a powerfully dramatic chronicle of postwar trauma."

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, felt that the film was "far better as an antiwar film than as a poetic tribute to flight". Pauline Kael of The New Yorker praised Modine and Cage's performance, but described that the film as being "morose and unrelieved". Variety wrote, "Belying the lightheartedness of its title, Birdy is a heavy adult drama about best friends and the after-effects of war, but it takes too long to live up to its ambitious premise." Jack Zink of the Sun-Sentinel wrote that the film "takes a while to hook you into its story. This is one occasion we can afford the wait; Parker keeps us awake by repeatedly slapping us across the face visually."

Accolades

Birdy received several awards and honors, with particular recognition for the film itself. The National Board of Review named it one of the Top Ten Films of 1984. Following its release, the film premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, and on May 20, 1985, it won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury prize. In 1987, the film received an Audience Award at the Warsaw International Film Festival.

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Birdy at AlanParker.com