From AwardAnnals
An inventive, hypnotic novel about frienship and family, love and war, madness and beauty, and, above all, “birdness.” Wharton crafts an unforgettable tale—one that suggests another notion of sanity in a world that is manifestly insane.
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Birdy
Alan Parker
Based on William Wharton’s transcendent novel of the same name, this film is about many things: friendship, war, and, of course, birds. The framing device is an effort by a horribly scarred combat soldier (Nicolas Cage) to break through to his best friend, Birdy (Matthew Modine), hospitalized after seemingly being driven mad by fighting in the Vietnam War. Cage then flashes back to their boyhood, where Birdy, a canary aficionado, was considered the school weirdo but managed to be a solid companion nonetheless. Directed by Alan Parker, it works best as a…
