guywhoacts This is a wonderful character study of two friends throughout life.Al (Nicolas Cage) and Birdy (Matthew Modine) put in some great performances, to be expected by this point from Cage. Birdy wants to transcend his human experience and learn to fly. Cage humors his aspirations and wants to help his friend.Later on, the friends go through something neither can fully comprehend. (Vietnam War) The ramifications of the war weigh heavy on their heads.It's a tale about friendship, and what it means to be there for someone. Highly recommend.

eric262003 .This is a very thought-provoking, sadly over-looked film that was made back in 1984. It's a crying shame that "Birdy" never got the bravado it deserved then and now simply and I never really understood why. I mean it's well-focused, the characters are endearing and the film itself stands on its own above over-rated and convoluted films that depends on CGI and high-budgeted goodies.It's primary focus is centred on the camaraderie between of two buddies Al Columbato (Nicolas Cage in one of his earliest starring roles) who has recently been returned home from the horrors of the Vietnam War. However his friend Birdy (an outstanding Matthew Modine) who was left hospitalized under psychological evaluation. The opening half of the movie runs at a snail's pace as Al pays a visit to Birdy as he attempts to revive his sanity by going through flashbacks to their teenage years.As the story progresses, Birdy's past is starting to take form and the viewer starts to observe is compassion and curious fixation with birds, that continually increase to epic proportions as he rapidly decreases his association with people and what he's gone through. Birdy now lives in his own world and the only touch of reality he has is his friend who's making strives to get a better understanding of his mind and how it's working.Director Alan Parker expertly touches upon a myriad of touching subjects all into one film. It deals with issues like isolation, questioning one's sanity, how friendship is put to the test, insubordination and connections. Parker succeeds in refraining from making these characters melancholy and grim by making it sincere in studying the characters primarily on the two leads (Cage and Modine). Modine was very believable as the weak and vulnerable Birdy who has strangely adapted to his new world and oblivious to the world in which he lives now.The film also has a gripping coming of age scenario as well Parker avoids from using clichés and we see a simple honest bonding between two friends. The slow pace was a benefit for the development of the characters and the cinematography adds the perfect touch to the creepy and unpredictable mood to the story.and at times some scenes are hard to adjust making the atmosphere quite uncomfortable."Birdy" should be highly recommended and has plenty to offer. It's recommended to those you may know who have felt different, a social outcast to society and how it feel when the world out there never fully understand who you really are. It's frustrating and this movie succeeds in exhibiting the kind of predicament everyone may have experienced in their lifetime.

tieman64 Arguably Alan Parker's best film, "Birdy" stars Mathew Modine and Nicholas Cage as a pair of friends who are shipped off to Vietnam and then come home disfigured and traumatised.Told in flashbacks, the film focuses on Modine's character, nicknamed Birdy, an introverted, polite, sensitive and endearing kid who becomes obsessed with birds to such an extent that he eventually believes himself to be one.Many audiences are baffled by Modine's character, viewing him as a madman or nut-case, but the film's point, made clearer in the William Wharton novel upon which the film is based, is that Modine's retreat into a kind of metaphorical bird cage is a result of a ghastly "adult" world which the sensitive kid rejects. Through various symbolic episodes, Wharton and Parker sketch the world as a horrible place at worst, illogical at best. Birdy is so dumbfounded by the inanities of human society (and biology) that he turns his nose up to a beautiful girl's breasts. They're just mammary glands, he shrugs.Birdy's desire for flight, for escaping a kind of cruel corporeality, are cut short by the Vietnam war. He's shipped off, sees untold horrors, and then returns to America believing himself to be a bird. He's then locked away in a mental hospital. In other words, the war accelerated Birdy's desire for escape. Vietnam's horrors pushed him over the edge, pushed him into a kind of comfortable fantasy land where he no longer has to confront a humanity he deplores.With Birdy drifting further and further away from humanity, his best friend Al, played by Nicholas Cage, struggles to nurse him back to health. It is only when Al breaks down and confesses his own hatred of the world, that Birdy realises that he is not alone and returns from his self imposed avian exile. The film's point: you're not alone, the world violates everyone, everyone suffers, so step out of the box, release your ignis fatuus and hold somebody's hand. Yes, I'm making this stuff sound cheesier than the actual film is.The film is mostly worth watching for Modine and Cage, both of whom turn in a couple of excellent performances. Modine is all internal, invisible pain, while Cage is extroverted, scars on his flesh and tongue. The film is itself a tragi-comedy, a difficult mood to capture. But Parker's does well. He tapes into the nervous energy of youth, the pleasant glow of young friendship, and wisely tones things down when the film ventures into darker territory.8/10 – Parker specialises in overrated, obvious and overcooked dramas. This film is a bit different, though, thanks largely to Modine, Cage and Wharton. Worth one viewing.

kenjha A man suffering from post-war trauma is helped by a friend who was also injured in Vietnam. We learn about their friendship through flashbacks. Modine brings a gentle sensibility to the title role of a bird lover so traumatized that he no longer speaks or acknowledges anyone. In what was at the time his biggest role, Cage is dynamic as Birdy's friend, displaying a volatile combination of empathy and anger. There are some very funny moments, such as Birdy's awkward prom date. The film's pacing suffers somewhat due to the episodic nature of the narrative, but Parker infuses the film with visual elegance and skillfully balances the drama and the comedy. The ending is great.