Amazon.com essential video: Clint Eastwood's moody, evocative direction and Forest Whitaker's strong, sensitive performance are the chief proponents to recommend an otherwise muted biopic of '40s jazz legend Charlie Parker, who fell victim to his chemical excesses and convinced the doctor who pronounced him dead that he was a good four decades older than he actually was. The film doesn't try to assign clear blame for Parker's demons, though the era's racism is addressed unflinchingly. Clearly a labor of love, Eastwood's movie structurally attempts to ape the angular music of bebop itself (there are flashbacks within flashbacks, which gets a little confusing), but doesn't quite capture the smolder of the period. Diane Venora registers strongly as Bird's wife, Chan, the woman who can't rescue Bird from the abyss into which he peers. --David Kronke
Dark I love this film and the review that follows is for the DVD quality only. Some have said that the DVD is a little dark in places. Others have claimed that the film was meant to be dark because of its subject matter. Well, to say that this DVD is a little dark in some scenes is a gross undersatement. It is so dark that you cannot see any of the people in these scenes. I have the laserdisc of the film and it is no where near as dark as this DVD. This DVD needed to be recalled!! It is a joke and I am going to try and get a refund because the whole master needs to be re-done. The "remastered 5.1 sound" is also a joke. Although it sounds good, the sound on the laserdisc is vastly superior. I was anxiosly awaiting this disc because the laser is not in widescreen, but the trade-off is not worth it.
Up-date: I have just viewed both DVD and Laser simultaneously on my fairly new Samsung LCD HD TV and they actually both look the same. Since the last time I watched my laserdisc copy was on my previous TV, which was a standard set, the overly dark picture seems to be related to the inability of LCD TVs to reproduce detail in extreme shadow areas. An interesting side-note, however, is that the DVD widescreen version does not add information to the sides of the picture, it justs masks off the top and bottom.
First Class First Class Film Making by Clint Eastwood. You can tell by the quality of this film that Clint is a JAZZ Lover Extraordinary!!!!! Dark presentation which really detracts from the film but had it been less difficult to view i would have given it a 10 out of 5 !!!!!!!!!!! I am a little miffed why this was allowed to be released with such a dark presentation especially after the professional attention given a film before release!!!!!!!????????
Essential Ornithology Some time after Unforgiven in the 90s I began to revise my thoughts about Clint. I had been used to him being the prototype of the mindless wordless macho or the rightwing law and order guy. Hard to take him seriously. Then he became somebody else. I heard that he had made a film about Charlie Parker in the late 80s, but I never found that one. Well, now my daughter found it for me somewhere in Shanghai. I watched as immediately as possible. Alone, as none of my women could be moved to share my interest. I spent the first hour of an impossibly long film wondering why Clint had not bothered to hire a script writer. Then I thought, what is this obsession with scripts that I seem to have. Who needs a script for a life like this? What story could you possibly tell that requires a script writer? What you need is Forest Whitaker, and some people who knew what happened, like Mrs. Parker, and some original soundtracks, and some good bands for replays. There you are. Nothing else required. But you need to be a Birdfan and a Clintfan. Otherwise you might underappreciate this.
Bird It is an awesome movie. Very detailed and true to life. Definitely among my favorites.
The Bird flies... An honest story on the life of this great Jazz artist. Well done. Worth your time. At the end, you want to say, "Thank you Clint Eastwood for showing us the REAL Bird." The music tracks are cool, so reminiscent of that time period.
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