Bird

by-the-book labour-o'-love-biopic that has a nice rainy VHS vibe to it but despite some emotional harpooning never gets under the skin of charlie parker. a distant movie because it's basically just stating facts with some cinematographic panache - but in Clint Eastwood's hands still oddly solemn and without swing.

Eastwood at his most artistic. The film's fragmented narrative really soothes the biopic genre and I wish more filmmakers would opt for this kind of approach to the genre. Withtaker is fantastic, the thing really missing is a deeper insight on the music and not the drugs, the alcohol and the women - like all other biopics.

, but the music and the beautiful cars.

Far from the familiar biopic formular, this is not so much a film 'about' jazz great Charlie Parker, as it is a film that 'is' jazz.

Clint's heart is in it, and he's close to his style appex, but this is dead boring biopic stuff, less you're into Bird.

Eastwood's decision to portray the life of Charlie Parker through flashbacks within flashbacks may not have been the most cohesive one to make, but I'll be damned if it wasn't the right one. Starting toward the end of Parker's life and working its way back, through, and around it, "Bird" is mesmerising, beautifully chaotic in the way that only the best jazz is, and haunting, a depiction of a life, a legend, and a dizzying road to self-destruction. What do I think about Yardbird? Only the best.

Viewed December 20, 2017. This movie seems to be completely lacking in danger - not the danger of the hedonistic lifestyle Bird lived (The movie depicts him solely as a tortured soul, which strikes me as both inaccurate and a bizarre misreading of what made him such an interesting figure), nor the danger inherent in bebop, the radical style he pioneered. Occasionally beautiful, but often just morose and aimless.

Technically superb with a wonderful and inspired performance by Forest Whitaker. This is certainly toward the top of Eastwood's best directorial endeavors - he clearly has a soft spot for music (bio)pics and has achieved a solid tone here. Lower score for subjective reasons - I am not a fan of the genre, of the music and I don't find the tone terribly appealing (although very solid and spot-on, as stated above), thus the overly-long film felt very tedious. Some great scenes nevertheless.

Of the many Eastwood attempts to depict historical figures through lonesome individuals, this feels like one of the most beautiful both in form and surface. It starts as this loosely, Abel Ferrara-like portrait of a loner, and slowly and smoothly, as any Eastwood film, it becomes the character itself: warm, vivid and self-destructive story of one of the most adored and influential artists of all time. Ignored in US, beloved in Paris -- where he ate a rose -- and dead after a couple of laughs.

Just like Parker himself, it seems this brooding, soulful biopic has become unfortunately forgotten. Eastwood had already directed some great films before Bird but here he really hit a sweet spot in balancing dramatic storytelling and his elegant, stylistic flair that would define his future masterpieces Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Although unnecessarily long, Parker is a perfect subject for Eastwood to apply his typical loner protagonist to, and he does it here with honesty and love.

A shadow-filled paste-up of passages from the life of a creative man as a conflicting and mythicized figure whose torch burned short but bright and whose self-destruction is practically a foregone conclusion. Not only does Eastwood featherbed his love for jazz, it also marks a crossroad in his critical repute as a director, and lays the groundwork for a mosaic editing style that he would surmount with his much later biopic J. Edgar.

78.500

76.750

Forest Whitaker gives a great performance and the music is outstanding. However I didn't find the story all that interesting and the movie did seem to drag on too long.

Bird never comes to life here. The film doesn't capture his impulsiveness, his insatiability or his humor. Whitaker might have been up to it, but Eastwood wasnt.

Well-crafted, handsome movie about a tragic figure. Everyone knew it wasn't going to make any money, but it stands up sturdily as a piece of art. Lots of fine jazz, too

Very good.