Bird **** (1988, Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker) – Classic Movie Review 8366

Director Clint Eastwood’s outstanding 1988 film about America’s renowned Forties Kansas City, Missouri, jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker – jazz’s most venerated artist – is obviously truly a labour of love.

Bird is beautifully atmospheric with its sharp-eyed depiction of the smokey clubs and seedy hotels of the period. Forest Whitaker won the best actor award at Cannes for his wholeheartedly credible performance, and Diane Venora is almost as good as Parker’s long-suffering wife Chan.

The film won an Oscar for Best Sound recording, and Parker’s classic playing on the soundtrack has been enhanced by having all the accompanying music re-recorded for the film. Eastwood won the Golden Globe for Best Director – Motion Picture.

Bird is not perfect. The film is over-extended at 161 minutes, there is too much emphasis on the material about the self-destructive drug abuse that killed Parker at only 34, and there is too little celebration of Parker’s achievement. Nevertheless, it is still the ultimate tribute to Parker and a great credit to Eastwood.

Also in the cast are Michael Zelniker, Samuel E Wright, Keith David, Michael McGuire, Sam Robards, Arlen Dean Snyder, Damon Whitaker, Morgan Nagler and James Handy.

Bird is directed by Clint Eastwood, runs 161 minutes, is made by The Malpaso Company and Warner Bros, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Joel Oliansky, is shot by Jack N Green, is produced by Clint Eastwood and is scored by Lennie Niehaus.

Parker’s music is painstakingly digitally stripped from old recordings and mixed with newly recorded rhythm tracks.

It had a careful budget of $9,000,000, but, perhaps surprisingly, was not one of Eastwood’s hits, grossing only $2,181,000 in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8366

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