Birdy is an interesting little film. At first, I was under the impression that it was going to be a quirky indie film about a regular guy and his oddball friend, and in a way, it still was, but it was also a rather effective drama about the ups and downs of friendship, how it can be torn apart and warped by a major event, and how the two pillars can fall apart without the support of one another. The film backs this up with a very cold yet emotional feel throughout most of the runtime that I found to be quite impactful as well, with the production design, cinematography, and music all helping to form this vibe. But first, let’s look at the story and see what this film has in store.
The story follows the friendship of two guys: Alfonso, a relatively normal guy with a bit of toughness to him, and Birdy, a socially awkward guy who has a near-obsessive fascination with birds. The film cuts between different points in time, mostly focusing on their teen years and the many trials and hijinks they go through together, as well as the present day wherein Alfonso tries to break Birdy out of a mental state that he’s been stuck in since coming out of the war. Throughout their teen years, Birdy would often take Al on various wild projects or events, such as building a pigeon coop in his backyard, dressing up in pigeon suits and going out to the construction site to catch pigeons, and attempting to fly with a Leonardo da Vinci-esque glider. They also often run into conflict with Birdy’s mother and Alfonso’s father, both of whom are rather hard-assed or strict and don’t approve of what they’re doing. Birdy’s mom destroys the pigeon coop in the backyard while Alfonso’s father sells the car that Al and Birdy bought. While their friendship mostly seems to be doing well, Alfonso starts to take issue with Birdy’s lack of social awareness, especially around girls. Even when a girl seems to be interested in Birdy and goes with him to the prom, he basically blows her off entirely. Interestingly, Birdy seems to have an almost spiritual moment after this, in which he strips naked, climbs into the canary cage he built in his room, and imagines himself flying over the town. Birdy is overjoyed with this experience, but Alfonso doesn’t share his enthusiasm and has finally had enough with his bird obsession, leading to a spat between the two. Sadly, not long after this, both men are drafted into the Vietnam War, and neither come out of it the same as they were before. Birdy is committed in a mental hospital wherein he seems to suffer from some sort of psychosis, one in which he never responds to anyone and slowly becomes more and more bird-like. Alfonso is brought to said hospital after being bandaged up from a bomb-blast to the face to try and bring Birdy out of his current state. Throughout his time there, Alfonso runs the emotional gambit from being frustrated at Birdy’s lack of response (and even thinking that he’s faking it) to pleading with Birdy to come back, especially after learning that he’ll be committed to a larger institution if no progress is made. In addition, he also starts facing the personal issues that he’s been trying to bury for so long and wants to bring Birdy back not just for Birdy’s sake, but for his own as well. I won’t tell you where the story ends up going, but I will say that it does end on a positive note as well as a classic abrupt one.
First off, I have to note the interesting vibe this film gives off, which I would describe as being cold yet emotional. Not cold in the sense of cold-hearted, but cold like a cloudy day or a depressing environment, which is rather fitting as the film mostly takes place in both Philadelphia, which isn’t shown to be very sunny, and a mental hospital, which contains many blank white walls and dim shadows. The hospital is very much the tone-setter for the film, as it’s where the present story is taking place while everything else is just a collection of memories. In a way, this choice seems to put you in a similar state of mind that Alfonso must be going through at the time, or at least allows you to understand where he’s coming from. His best friend has become an extremely closed-off and unresponsive person, and is under threat of being fully committed, all the while he himself is starting to crumble under the weight of his regrets with Birdy, his war experience, and the internal problems that he’s never truly faced before. Recalling the past would be a very bittersweet experience, all the good times and bad times flooding back, forcing you to face the sour note that the friendship left off on and triggering an immense guilt over your part in it. In addition to Al’s condition, the vibe also seems to reflect Birdy’s as well. Throughout the story, Birdy’s obsession with birds had been growing more and more, going from just wanting to make a roost for them to trying to fly like them to forming a very close attachment to a canary, and even to experiencing a flying dream that in his mind was almost a next step in consciousness. It would seem to me that Birdy had already been on a path of retreat from the human world and into one of “flights of fantasy,” as it were, but a lack of understanding from his best friend and his traumatic experiences in the war, caused him to regress much farther and faster than he might have otherwise. His current state is perfectly represented by his residence, a dim cell with only a small window high up on the wall to provide any sort of light or scenery. This both shows his regressed state, as the cell could be seen as his mind and the walls that he’s sheltered himself in, as well as how he’s treated in the real world, a freak who is kept in a cage with only a sliver of a glance at the freedom of the outside world. Not unlike, oh, shall we say, a bird? The production team did a good job of choosing locations that fit these ideas, as well as lighting the mental asylum to give off a dreary look. The rundown parts of Philadelphia in the flashbacks help to emphasize the feeling of being stuck in an environment where you can’t “spread your wings,” and might help to explain why Alfonso took a shine to Birdy to begin with. Being raised in that sort of environment can make on starved for some kind of escape or outlet, so an eccentric bird lover with dreams of flying would definitely give your life more interest. I also have to commend the cinematography, especially during Birdy’s flying vision. For that time-frame, it really does make you feel as though you are flying over the city, a very impressive feat. Technology has advanced so far since then that this would be much easier to accomplish now, but back then, this would’ve been much trickier, and even taking out the context of the time, it’s still a very well done segment that puts you in that sort of “spiritual journey” state. Peter Gabriel deserves credit as well for his score. While it does definitely have elements that date it to the 80s, the ambient keyboard/synth feel is very recognizable, the tone is restrained enough to where it doesn’t feel so blatant and cheesy and instead helps to envelop the audience in the moods and emotions of the film. Lastly, I want to give praise to Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage for their performances. Modine seems to channel Crispin Glover a bit with his performance (I was almost fooled into thinking he was Glover at first), but with a softer edge that makes him more relatable and sympathetic. He loves birds and is happy to have someone to share the interest with, but he’s so fixated on that subject that it’s hard for him to relate in other ways. I had a feeling that they might have been going for an autism angle with his character, which would make sense given his demeanor and behavior. He’s not a bad person, he just doesn’t operate the same way Al or most other characters in the film do, and sadly he was also never able to better understand himself and learn how to integrate into the social world, whether through his own volition or through the will of his folks. These sorts of mental states weren’t as well understood back then as they are now, so it would have been much more difficult for someone to get the help or compassion that they would need to live a better life. Modine captures this idea very well, and though I know that some would take offense to a neurotypical actor playing someone neurodivergent, I think that he was able to play is character very effectively. As for Nicolas Cage, it’s very interesting to see him earlier in his career before he became the iconic crazy actor that we know him as now. His performance as Alfonso is certainly more “normal” than many of his later roles, but within that concept, I felt that he was able to bring a certain “underlying turmoil waiting to come out” element to the role that fit the character very well. Alfonso came from a working-class household with a hard-ass father who he was never able to stand up to. Hell, even Birdy is able to stand up to the man in one scene. This sort of frustration was kept inside him for so long that, after his painful war experience and seeing what his friend has become, he’s clinging to some form of grounding point so as to not completely lose himself to despair. This is why he tries so hard to get Birdy to respond, as not only does he know that Birdy is in danger of being locked away forever, but he might also be next in line should he not find some way to balance himself. Again, I won’t give away the ending, but the resolution for his character is on-point and Cage pulls off the emotional climax very well. Well, I think I’ve rambled on long enough, let’s wrap this up.
Overall, Birdy is a good film. It tells a classic story of the ups and downs of friendship, and how important it is to maintain our close relationships as they can very easily fall apart or be twisted by the changes in our lives. It also makes great use of its style to enhance the dramatic experience, lending weight to the story while avoiding the common heavy-handed pitfall. If you’ve only ever heard of this film, or even if you’ve never heard of it, I’d say it’s worth seeking out. It’s a solid drama that tells its story very well and might even bring a few tears out of the more emotional members of the audience. And for some of you out there, it’d probably just be cool to see a young Nicolas Cage from back in the day. Either way, take flight with Birdy and soar through the peaks and valleys of drama (or just ignore that cheesy line and watch it).