Themes: Musician's Life, All Washed Up, Bohemian Life
Main Cast: Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Sam Wright, Keith David
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 160 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Forest Whitaker stars as the brilliant jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in this elegiac biopic. Director Clint Eastwood pays full homage to Parker's musical genius, but also devotes ample time to the musician's twin demons--drugs and alcohol-which accelerated his death at the age of 34. In his struggles to gain widespread acceptance for his music, "Bird" is forever stymied by his own self-destructiveness, and forever bailed out by the love of his life, Chan Richardson Parker (Diane Venora). The film bemoans the decline of the brand of jazz fathered by Parker, which came to be replaced by more conventional material -- as illustrated by the "descent" into the mainstream of Parker's mentor Buster Franklin. Also starring in Bird is Samuel E. Wright as Dizzy Gillespie. That's the real Charlie "Bird" Parker on the film's soundtrack, though most of the background music has been re-orchestrated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Apart from being a notorious tough guy, actor/director Clint Eastwood is also a notorious jazz aficionado, and Bird is his sprawling, impressive tribute to one of the great jazz saxophonists of all time, Charlie "Bird" Parker. Parker, one of the originators of bebop, died at an early age due to a long-standing relationship with the high life. Forest Whitaker, who won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival for this role, does an excellent job of capturing the larger-than-life, ultimately destructive man whom many credit for inventing "cool." The film follows Whitaker's somber example, eluding explanations or historical documentation. Though Eastwood has made some very fine movies as a director, Bird is certainly his most accomplished and mature visually. He pulls out techniques that one might not have suspected he had. He also breaks away from the straightforward narrative style of his mentors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. Eastwood's almost impressionistic memory montage as Bird lays dying is probably the most striking directorial achievement that he has produced. The narrative is a bit too disorganized to deliver the full thematic punch that the movie strives for, but the performances of (Whitaker and Diane Venora as Bird's wife) and the lasting images make it a significant achievement for Eastwood behind the camera. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Michael McGuire - Brewster; James Handy - Esteves; Damon Whitaker - Young Bird; Morgan Nagler - Kim; Jason Bernard - Benny Tate; Hamilton Camp - Mayor of 52nd Street; Bill Cobbs - Dr. Caulfield; Tony Cox - Pee Wee Marquette; Peter Crook - Bird's Lawyer; Lou Cutell - Bride's Father; Jo de Winter - Mildred Berg; Roger Etienne - Parisian MC; Matthew Faison - Judge; Joey Green - Gene; Anna Levine - Audrey; Richard Mawe - Medical Examiner; Billy Mitchell - Billy Prince; Al Pugliese - Owner of Three Deuces; Sam Robards - Moscowitz; Tim Russ - Harris; Diane Salinger - Baroness Nica; Arlen Dean Snyder - Dr. Heath; Don Starr - Doctor at Nica's; Tony Todd - Frog; Ann Weldon - Violet Welles; Penelope Windust - Bellevue Nurse; John Witherspoon - Sid; Steve Zettler - Owner of Oasis Club; Richard McKenzie - Southern Doctor; George Orrison - Patient with Checkers; Slim Jim Phantom - Grainger; Glenn Wright - Alcoholic Patient; Charley Lang - DJ at the Paramount; John Miller - Southern Doctor; Johnny Adams - Bartender; Chris Bosley - Doorman; George T. Bruce - Doorman; Patricia Herd - Nun; Richard Jeni - Chummy Morello; Hubert Kelly - John Wilson; Duane Matthews - Engineer; Gretchen Oehler - Southern Nurse; Alec Paul Rubinstein - Recording Producer; Natalia Silverwood - Red's Girlfriend; Karl Vincent - Stratton; Richard Zavaglia - Ralph, the Narc
Credit
Phyllis Huffman - Casting, Deborah Hopper - Costume Designer, Glenn Wright - Costume Designer, L. Dean Jones, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Clint Eastwood - Director, Joel Cox - Editor, David Valdes - Executive Producer, Lennie Niehaus - Composer (Music Score), Michael Hancock - Makeup, Norman Langley - Camera Operator, Edward C. Carfagno - Production Designer, Jack N. Green - Cinematographer, David Valdes - Production Manager, Clint Eastwood - Producer, David Valdes - Producer, Judy Cammer - Set Designer, Thomas Roysden - Set Designer, Joe Day - Special Effects, Willie D. Burton - Sound/Sound Designer, Verne Poore - Sound/Sound Designer, Joel Oliansky - Screenwriter
In the 1970s, Parker's friend and colleague Teddy Edwards shared his reminiscences of the saxophonist to Oliansky, who had wanted to make a biopic about Charlie Parker starring actor Richard Pryor.[1] The property was originally owned by Columbia Pictures, which traded the rights to Warner Bros. at Eastwood's instigation, in exchange for the rights to what would become Columbia's 1990 Kevin Costner vehicle, Revenge.[2] There was a delay of a few years while the trade was completed, and by then Pryor had lost interest. The film was eventually shot in 52 days for $14.4 million dollars, not counting Eastwood's fee,[3] although in interviews Eastwood sometimes said the film only cost $9.1 million to make.[2]
Initially, when Columbia owned the project, the studio executives wanted to hire musicians to re-record all of Parker's music, largely because most of the original recordings were in mono, and considered of insufficient sound quality to accompany a feature film. Eastwood had some recordings of Parker made by Parker's wife, Chan, from which he had a sound engineer electronically isolate Parker's solos. Contemporary musicians such as Ray Brown, Walter Davis, Jr., Ron Carter, Barry Harris and Red Rodney were then hired to record backing tracks on modern sound equipment. Dizzy Gillespie was on tour at the time of recording, so trumpet player Jon Faddis was hired to record his parts.[2]
