SnoopyStyle Birdy (Matthew Modine) is the weirdo kid in a working class Philadelphia neighborhood. Al Columbato (Nicolas Cage) becomes his friend. Birdy introduces Al to his love of pigeons. They're both sent to Vietnam. Birdy returns in psychological distress after a month MIA. Al returns after suffering wounds to his face. Birdy's doctor finds Al to help in his treatment.These are two great performances. Matthew Modine transforms physically and also mentally. Cage is the conduit between the audience and Birdy. He's not necessarily in the easier role at the least. They're both equally amazing. This isn't a movie about big plot developments. It's watching the obsessive Birdy going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

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!

moonspinner55 Two young men (Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage) in pre-Vietnam, small town America become friends despite one boy who seemingly lives in a dream world: he's obsessed with birds, and fantasizes about flying. Alan Parker directed in a keen, outré manner, but also with a very heavy hand; several sequences which might have been strong (a surprise visit to a slaughterhouse, a bird's death after flying into a window) instead become extreme examples of Parker's preening style, teeter-tottering madly between vulgar bravado and sappy, false sentiment. Modine is a strong, focused actor, but this leading role is rather woebegone--culminating with an exceptionally uncomfortable scene where Birdy has a flying wet-dream (many viewers might give up on the film right there). Cage's role--the sensible one--isn't as showy (or obvious), yet he's the one keeping this flighty material grounded and he comes off better than Modine. The whole movie palls in the last stretch, ridiculously blaming the war for much of Birdy's behavioral problems, and ending with a jokey bit that will either make you laugh or scoff outright. ** from ****