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Alan Parker
is a director that I really don't think gets all the credit
he deserves. This is the man who made Midnight Express, Fame,
Pink
Floyd: The Wall, Angel Heart, Mississippi Burning, The
Commitments, Evita and the current Oscar contender Angela's
Ashes. While their has been a misstep or two in his career
(I absolutely HATED The Road To Wellville), his films have
continuously been groundbreaking and critically lauded. Yet
you never really hear his name mentioned in the same breath
as colleagues like Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen. Even Terence
Malick seems to garner more acclaim with only three films
in twenty-five years.
The main
reason, if I had to guess, is that Parker has never had a
real seminal work that he could claim as his own. Midnight
Express seems to be more attributed to the true life story
that inspired it, The Wall has Pink Floyd's name all over
it and Evita and Mississippi Burning are more largely associated
with the performers than the director. In my mind, Angel Heart
is the closest Parker has come to really having a signature
film. But I think Birdy is an even better one.
As our story
starts, Al Columbato (Nicolas Cage) is being sent off from
the hospital, where he is being treated for injuries sustained
in the war, to a psychiatric hospital to try and help a friend.
His friend Birdy (Matthew Modine) is suffering from a state
of catatonia, psychologically submerged in his boyhood dream
of becoming a bird. Al's arrival is meant to make a break-through
and snap Birdy out of this non-responsive state. But the depth
of Birdy's dysfunction are deeper than just what the war has
done to him and may require memories of their past together
for Al to bring him to the present.
Birdy is
a film with charm, humor and tenderness. It's basically a
love story between friends and between a man and his dreams.
Based on the novel by William Wharton, Alan Parker's filmed
version is a nearly perfect film. The story is told in flashback
with a great love for the periods of the story. His characters
and performances are uniformly wonderful. This was Nicolas
Cage before we knew who Nicolas Cage was and you can see the
actor we're all familiar today in this role. If you've never
seen Birdy before, check it out, I guarantee you'll be smiling
when it's over.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Any of the
sins against this new DVD are directly attributable to the
original photography and the print used for transfer. Birdy
has, in this new version, been made available for the first
time in the widescreen format. It was mastered in high-definition
and downconverted for this anamorphic DVD and that process
again yields a fabulous picture. Birdy was filmed with a slightly
desaturated and natural look and the picture brings that through
without flaw with solid colors and no bleeding or oversaturation.
Detail is excellent with a smooth character that looks great.
Black level falls just short of perfect and effects the level
of shadow detail just slightly.
Flaws I
noticed in the film seem to be all print related. A small
amount of dirt and specs were visible, primarily in the beginning
shots and then disappearing for the most part once the film
gets going. I also noticed several shots that were quite unstable
resulting in a shaky image that vibrates and distracts. Again,
this is print related because it happens during just one shot
then the next one is stable then you won't see it again for
twenty minutes. Kind of weird but worth mentioning. Compression
artifacting was at a real minimum here and only the very occasional
moire pattern was visible. This is a really nice looking disc
and suffers mostly only from its age. A full-frame version
is included on the other side.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
Again, the
disc falters due to age and original deficiencies. The English
Dolby 2.0 surround track is serviceable but not very impressive.
Fidelity is limited, even in the creative score by Peter Gabriel.
This limited fidelity leaves a soundtrack that sounds muffled
during any portion of the track that is not dialog. Dialog
does sound fine though and will carry you through without
distortion. On a positive note, I noticed that some of the
Gabriel music in Birdy has since been used in a million other
trailers, now I know where it came from. A Portuguese mono
is included with subtitling in English, Spanish, Portuguese,
Chinese, Korean and Thai.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Trailers,
trailers, trailers!!! Birdy houses its fair share of trailers
including one for Birdy and a bonus section of the Nicolas
Cage films 8mm,
Red Rock West, It Could Happen to You and Guarding Tess. Alan
Parker has his own trailer section on the main extras page
with looks at Midnight Express and The Road To Wellville.
Columbia/TriStar's slim talent files cover Modine, Cage and
Parker. Most unique in this pack though is that the insert
has actually been written by Alan Parker and are his (brief)
production notes.
Parting Thoughts
I'm happy
with this release. While a would have loved to hear a new
commentary from Parker, I can't slight the disc for what it
doesn't have and must appreciate it for what it does. And
first and foremost, it has the film in a better presentation
than has ever been available before.
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