After watching Birdy, I felt three things: satisfied from the ending, impressed with both Nicolas Cage once again and Matthew Modine, and weird from the story as a whole. I thought this was a very different movie than many other films I have seen. It was strange, but at the same time, very interesting. I found myself feeling several varying emotions as I watched Modine's character transform himself into a bird.
The story was a bit odd and it's the type that will either make you love it, hate it, or possibly be confused over it. I believe I am the latter. I frequently asked myself over the course of the film why someone would write a film about this and how it got transformed into a very good movie. Anyway, that's besides the point. The movie follows Birdy(Matthew Moldine) and his best childhood friend Al(Nicolas Cage) as they grow up together having fun and forming a bond. However, as Nic Cage's Al is a fun-loving, cool-guy typical of awesome high schoolers back in the '80s, Birdy is an amazingly weird teenager who fascinates himself with birds, before eventually dreaming of one and finally thinking himself as one. The story is told through flashbacks as Al visits Birdy in his mental hospital cell in order to attempt to bring him back from bird to humanity. It seems like a cheesy boring plot, but it actually involves several emotions and doesn't fail to capture. I found myself annoyed, sympathetic, admired, and satisfied by the end of the movie. The ending is just completely different from the rest of the movie and although I'm usually against endings like this one, I enjoyed it very much, just because it captured the ridiculousness of the entire plot into one scene.
The acting, I thought, was the best part of the film and that's why this film earned a solid B+ grade. Nicolas Cage puts in a wonderful job. He is very young in this movie, but I enjoyed every moment of it. He plays a very cool character and I tended to favored his character a lot more when both he and Modine are on screen. Modine, on the other hand, plays Birdy, the man who crouches in his cell like a bird after coming back from war. He does a very good job, it's weird but excellent. Even though I found myself annoyed by him each time I saw him in the cell, I learned to sympathize with him and ultimately see the universal truth in which this movie is trying to convey: why should we let the horrors and the cages around us trap us in when we can decide to fly and freely express ourselves at our own will? Great acting to the both of them.
The direction in this film is also intelligently filmed. One particular scene I want to point out is the camera moving and capturing the perspective of a bird flying through the city and streets. It was beautiful to watch. Very graceful, fluent, and exciting. The cinematic style of the movements were wonderful. The camera swayed back and forth, zoomed in and out, swished passed passerbys, cars, and buildings, and conveyed the point of view as a bird while linking it all to Birdy's socially wrecked character.
In the end, I really liked this movie. I popped it into my DVD player and didn't expect much since this film isn't really talked about anywhere, but I found myself enjoying almost every minute of it, and finally feeling satisfied by it in the end. A very very solid performance given by both Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine and a great start to both their careers.
The story was a bit odd and it's the type that will either make you love it, hate it, or possibly be confused over it. I believe I am the latter. I frequently asked myself over the course of the film why someone would write a film about this and how it got transformed into a very good movie. Anyway, that's besides the point. The movie follows Birdy(Matthew Moldine) and his best childhood friend Al(Nicolas Cage) as they grow up together having fun and forming a bond. However, as Nic Cage's Al is a fun-loving, cool-guy typical of awesome high schoolers back in the '80s, Birdy is an amazingly weird teenager who fascinates himself with birds, before eventually dreaming of one and finally thinking himself as one. The story is told through flashbacks as Al visits Birdy in his mental hospital cell in order to attempt to bring him back from bird to humanity. It seems like a cheesy boring plot, but it actually involves several emotions and doesn't fail to capture. I found myself annoyed, sympathetic, admired, and satisfied by the end of the movie. The ending is just completely different from the rest of the movie and although I'm usually against endings like this one, I enjoyed it very much, just because it captured the ridiculousness of the entire plot into one scene.
The acting, I thought, was the best part of the film and that's why this film earned a solid B+ grade. Nicolas Cage puts in a wonderful job. He is very young in this movie, but I enjoyed every moment of it. He plays a very cool character and I tended to favored his character a lot more when both he and Modine are on screen. Modine, on the other hand, plays Birdy, the man who crouches in his cell like a bird after coming back from war. He does a very good job, it's weird but excellent. Even though I found myself annoyed by him each time I saw him in the cell, I learned to sympathize with him and ultimately see the universal truth in which this movie is trying to convey: why should we let the horrors and the cages around us trap us in when we can decide to fly and freely express ourselves at our own will? Great acting to the both of them.
The direction in this film is also intelligently filmed. One particular scene I want to point out is the camera moving and capturing the perspective of a bird flying through the city and streets. It was beautiful to watch. Very graceful, fluent, and exciting. The cinematic style of the movements were wonderful. The camera swayed back and forth, zoomed in and out, swished passed passerbys, cars, and buildings, and conveyed the point of view as a bird while linking it all to Birdy's socially wrecked character.
In the end, I really liked this movie. I popped it into my DVD player and didn't expect much since this film isn't really talked about anywhere, but I found myself enjoying almost every minute of it, and finally feeling satisfied by it in the end. A very very solid performance given by both Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine and a great start to both their careers.
Top Box Office
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- 2.$35.8M
- 3.$23.9M
- 4.$3.2M
- 5.$3.0M
- 6.$2.8M
- 7.$2.3M
- 8.$2.2M
- 9.$2.2M
- 10.$1.2M