Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The Squeerelist I had great expectations for this Alan Parker movie that I have been meaning to watch for years. In my opinion, it is a classic that everybody should watch once but I also have mixed feelings about it. The plot is fairly simple. When 2 childhood friends come back from Vietnam among the casualties, one has lost it, the other is disfigured and will try to connect to his friend and bring him back from the crazies. In terms of harsh topics, Birdy is no testing ground for Parker. With this movie, the director deals with post-war mental and physical trauma as well as the struggle to fit in as a high schooler. On one hand, the combination of the Peter Gabriel-made soundtrack and the flying camera shots really convinced me. On the other, I thought it beats around the bush for quite a while. Nicolas Cage's monologues are a bit sketchy even though his overall performance is good. Matthew Modine makes a convincing quiet and deranged bird-lover. As I'm no war-movie enthusiast, I appreciate the fact that Birdy only shows a few war scenes. The plot is largely based on childhood flashbacks. Birdy is a good movie and I get satisfaction and personal pride to have watched it. 1 reason to watch: very few war scenesRead it here: http://squeerelist.blogspot.com/2013/06/birdy-1984.html

Raul Faust Well, from the get go we can already see how BAD this actors do their jobs-- specially Nicolas Cage. Most of the cast has no skill in acting whatsoever. Matthew Modine plays a character crazy about birds, flying and stuff like that. It is a new subject in movies-- or was when released--, has a relatively entertaining plot but, unfortunately, isn't enough to save the whole thing. Some situations are TOO clumsy to be true and actors help to ruin the badly executed scenes. It is, in fact, maybe director's fault, since he is the one who should avoid this kind of amateur scenes. Even animals are very fake-- you can easily see they are teddy bears. All in all, this is a bad movie with an interesting storyline-- and nothing else!

Walter Kovacs I didn't see a large number of such multi-layered films like "The Birdy", which has not only a dramatic & emotional story, but in addition hidden (inside?) serious philosophical topics about mankind and human inside the exteriorly story. By the way I couldn't really believe when I had known about the fact of Nicolas Cage's being 20 years in his performance. The leading line is a story about perfect friendship of a pair of opposites and this friendship seems so weird to me because of a great contrast between 2 different persons, but maybe it is attraction of opposites there. But this story is only general background for unveiling such global problems: an individual and society and their conflicts, the meaning of dreams for human, freedom, humanity, types of love, human faith and one of the key ideas about "People need each other", "homo homini amicus est". I don't like making a distinction between Birdy and El as introvert and extrovert, or "a man with poor in spirit" and "a man with a willing spirit", cause both sides had fears and were weakling, thinking that they would run away. Nicolas Cage's character was trying to escape from himself, Matthew Modine's character wanted to shelter from a cold reality under his solitary shell. Unfortunately, they both were egregiously wrong, that's why I reckon that no one was mentally stronger and consequently they were in need of support from each other. Towards the end of the movie it becomes more and more depressive - Cage's final monologue is totally hopeless, 2 "crazy" men having no way out. However, the final scene so purifies that you will be feeling a huge relief after all, despite a constant exertion throughout the ending. There's nothing to say about brilliant playing of Modine and Cage - they did awesome work, really "young" geniuses. The Alan Parker's movie is a kind of trip from high-state dreams into the core of the hell called "life" sometimes .

kenjha A man suffering from post-war trauma is helped by a friend who was also injured in Vietnam. We learn about their friendship through flashbacks. Modine brings a gentle sensibility to the title role of a bird lover so traumatized that he no longer speaks or acknowledges anyone. In what was at the time his biggest role, Cage is dynamic as Birdy's friend, displaying a volatile combination of empathy and anger. There are some very funny moments, such as Birdy's awkward prom date. The film's pacing suffers somewhat due to the episodic nature of the narrative, but Parker infuses the film with visual elegance and skillfully balances the drama and the comedy. The ending is great.