Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 09/30/1988(USA)
Release Date: 01/30/2001
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol/Por
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1/DDS
Run Time: 160 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Warner Home Video
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
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