Bird main backdrop
Bird main poster

6.8/10 • 318

1988-06-012h 41m

DramaMusic

"There are no second acts in American lives."

Saxophone player Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker comes to New York in 1940 and is quickly noticed for his remarkable way of playing. He becomes a drug addict but his loving wife Chan tries to help him.

Directors
Clint Eastwood
Editors
Joel Cox

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. Forest Whitaker

    Forest Whitaker

    Charlie 'Bird' Parker

  2. Diane Venora

    Diane Venora

    Chan Parker

  3. Michael Zelniker

    Michael Zelniker

    Red Rodney

  4. Samuel E. Wright

    Samuel E. Wright

    Dizzy Gillespie

  5. Keith David

    Keith David

    Buster Franklin

  6. Michael McGuire

    Michael McGuire

    Brewster

  7. James Handy

    James Handy

    Esteves

  8. Damon Whitaker

    Damon Whitaker

    Young Bird

  9. Morgan Nagler

    Morgan Nagler

    Kim

Reviews1

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r96sk Avatar

r96sk

Feb 2, 2022

5/10

I personally found 'Bird' - directed by Clint Eastwood - to be an absolute slog to sit through. It's an interesting story no doubt, but it's told in the most mundane and boring way possible. I didn't know anything about Charlie Parker beforehand, which is what kept that aforementioned interest there. I'm no jazz fan either, but I am always happy to listen to it when it comes up though. Despite that, I just couldn't get into the film itself. It just felt like it was 160 minutes (!) worth of the following on repeat: performance, drunk and/or depressed, performance, drunk and/or depressed etc. I didn't feel like I was learning anything about Parker and his life. I literally gave an internal cheer when the credits finally rolled around. I do enjoy Forest Whitaker as an actor and he is probably the reason I'm not rating this lower. As for the rest, I don't even recall any of them - though I'm putting that down to what I've already noted, as opposed to the cast themselves who I'm sure tried their upmost. Way too long, in short. As I said it's an intriguing person to make a film about, an around 100 minute production would've been perfect in my opinion. A shame, all in all.

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$9,000,000.00
Revenue
$2,000,000.00
Keywords
jazzheroinsaxophonebiographypsychiatric hospitalheroin addictelectroconvulsive therapydeath of daughterbebopeiffel tower, paris1950s