Birdy (film)

Following publication of William Wharton's 1978 novel Birdy, Alan Parker received galley proofs of the book from his agent, who advised him that the novel was going to be optioned. Upon reading the novel, Parker discussed it with his colleague, producer Alan Marshall, before turning down the opportunity to direct a film adaptation.[6] He explained, "So much of the story happened inside the boy's head, and the poetry of the book was literary. To make it cinematic - I didn't know if I could make the jump."[7] In September 1979, Orion Pictures optioned the novel for $150,000.[3]

In October 1982, A&M Films, a newly established subsidiary of A&M Records, acquired the film rights and commissioned Sandy Kroopf and Jack Behr to write the screenplay.[3][6][7] Kroopf and Behr made various changes from the novel, opting to focus primarily on the friendship between Birdy and Al Columbato. They also decided to set the story during the Vietnam War, as opposed to the novel, which is set during World War II. "We were in high school in the mid-1960s," Behr explained, "so growing up then was our experience."[7] Structuring the film required Kroopf and Behr to create a nonlinear narrative, and manufacture much of its action and dialogue from Al's narrative in the novel.[7] They spent one year trying to sell their script to various studios, without success.[7] In 1983, Parker received the script from A&M and, after reading it, signed on as director.[8] He then discussed the adaptation with executives at Tri-Star Pictures. After the studio agreed to produce the film, Parker traveled to Los Angeles, where he met with Kroopf and Behr to work on the script.[6]

Left to right: Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage, who star in the film as Birdy and Al, respectively.

Parker and casting director Juliet Taylor held open casting calls in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, New York City and Philadelphia.[6][8] Matthew Modine originally auditioned for the role of Al Columbato,[9] but Parker decided to cast him as Birdy, believing that the actor possessed an "introverted honest quality" that best suited the character.[6] Modine said, "I was flabbergasted because I hadn't auditioned for Birdy. I had never imagined playing the part of Birdy. So, I had to really go through an extraordinary transformation in my mind of trying to bring this remarkable character to life. It was an incredible experience making the film."[9]

Nicolas Cage was cast as Al Columbato. He reflected, "I was terrified of the role of Al, because it was like nothing I'd ever done before, and I didn't know how to get to the places the role was asking me to go emotionally."[7] For scenes in which Al's face is disfigured and swathed in bandages, Cage lost 15 pounds and had two of his front teeth pulled out.[6] "I wanted to look like I was hit by a bomb," he said. "It gave me a feeling of something I had lost. I felt this was a once-in-a-lifetime part, and it deserved that much."[7]

Elizabeth Whitcraft had been working as a waitress in Philadelphia before she was cast as Rosanne, a teenage girl who makes out with Al. The film marked her feature film debut.[6][8] Maude Winchester secured the role of Doris Robinson, a teenage girl who Birdy encounters, during auditions in San Francisco.[8] Dolores Sage, also making her film debut, plays Birdy's mother.[6] Danny Glover secured the role of Mr. Lincoln, a bird owner who befriends Birdy, but Parker had his scene removed from the final film, explaining that it "was rather misplaced within the framework of [the] story".[6]

Parker originally planned to shoot scenes in Oakland, California, before visiting the actual Philadelphia locations described in the novel.[6] Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he and producer Alan Marshall set up production offices at a Holiday Inn hotel. Location scouting began as Parker was holding casting calls in New York City. Location manager Rory Enke and production designer Geoffrey Kirkland visited run-down areas of Philadelphia, and offered suggestions to Parker on his weekend visits from New York.[8] Parker made an arrangement with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) that permitted the British crew members to work alongside members of both the east and west coast union locals.[6][8] He had to employ no less than four members of the two camera locals in order to allow his past collaborators—director of photography Michael Seresin, camera operator Michael Roberts and editor Gerry Hambling—to work on the film.[8]

Filming was scheduled to start in December 1983, but was postponed for six months to accommodate Modine's shooting schedule for Mrs. Soffel (1984).[6] Principal photography began in Philadelphia on May 15, 1984,[6][8] with a budget of $12 million.[2][3] The script required that a total of 24 locations be used for filming in Philadelphia and Santa Clara, California.[6][8] Animal trainer Gary Gero employed the use of 80 different canaries for various scenes in the film, as well as pigeons, a hornbill, a cat, eighteen dogs and a seagull.[6]

A women's prison wing located in the Philadelphia House of Correction doubled for a scene set in an Atlantic City jail.[8][10] A scene depicting Birdy and Al climbing an elevated railway was filmed at the 46th Street Station above the intersection of Farragut and Market Street in the Mill Creek neighborhood.[10] The cast and crew then moved to Philadelphia City Hall, where Wilson Goode, the city's first African American mayor, visited the set and gave the production his blessing.[6]

After four weeks of filming in Philadelphia, the cast and crew moved to Wildwood, New Jersey, which doubled for scenes set at the Atlantic City boardwalk.[6][8] Filming then moved to San Francisco, California. The scene where Birdy and Al climb atop a refinery building was filmed on the rooftop of an abandoned gasworks in Hercules, California. The scene required Modine and Cage to hang off the edge of the roof secured by safety wires, while the sequence in which Birdy falls off the roof was performed by a stunt double.[6]

The production next filmed Birdy's flight on an ornithopter at the Newby Island landfill in Santa Clara County. The filming of the scene was considered to be a health concern among the cast and crew, due to the exposed garbage and smell of methane gas. The filmmakers originally planned to shoot Birdy landing in a reservoir thirty feet away from the landfill, but a test of the water had shown it to be hazardous. Parker said, "We experimented with a 100-foot wire hanging from a helicopter to allow us to 'fly' Birdy into a pond we'd constructed at the bottom of a hill of garbage."[6] The military hospital scenes were filmed at the Agnews Developmental Center, a psychiatric and medical care facility located in Santa Clara. A corner of the hospital was used to film scenes set in Birdy's bedroom.[6]

The production then moved to Stockton, California to depict a scene involving Al aboard a train.[8] The Vietnam War sequences were filmed in Modesto, California, where the art department found difficulty in pinpointing filming locations, as the entire area was flooded.[8] The use of helicopters during filming was the subject of frequent discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), following an accident during the production of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).[8] The special effects department used fifteen 20-gallon drums of gasoline rigged with explosive charges to depict a napalm strike. A total of four cameras were used to film the explosions.[6][8] Principal photography concluded in early August 1984.[3]

The film was the first to be partially shot with the Skycam, a computer-controlled, cable-suspended camera system created by Garrett Brown.

The film was the first to be partially shot with the Skycam, a computer-controlled, cable-suspended camera system created by Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam. The Skycam had 100-foot high posts with four hanging wires controlled by a computer, and a lightweight Panavision camera with 200 feet of film hung at the center of the wires.[6][8] The filmmakers intended to use the Skycam to fully depict Birdy's point of view during a fantasy sequence in which he imagines himself as a bird flying,[6] but they encountered difficulties, as the camera would often malfunction. Although the Skycam proved successful on its first take, Parker insisted that the filmed footage be shot more rapidly, but the camera system malfunctioned during its second take, after capturing 40 seconds of footage. This resulted in the camera operators shooting the remainder of the sequence with a Steadicam mounted on top of an improvised camera dolly.[6]

Peter Gabriel, who scored the film.

The score was written, co-produced and composed by English singer and songwriter Peter Gabriel, and marked his first work on a feature film.[6][11][12] During post-production, Parker had been incorporating the percussive rhythms from Gabriel's solo albums into the film.[6] He contacted the musician's manager David Geffen, who advised him that producing the soundtrack would be a slow process, as Gabriel was known for working at his own pace.[6] While working on his fifth studio album So, Gabriel agreed to score Birdy after viewing a rough cut of the film.[6][13]

Recording sessions took place at the Ashcombe House in Somerset, England, from October to December 1984.[11][14] Gabriel used tapes of previously recorded material from the past four years, which he and music producer Daniel Lanois remixed for select scenes in the film.[6] The score "Close Up" originated from the song "Family Snapshot" (from Gabriel's third album), which was composed on a Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand Piano.[11][15] "The Heat", "Birdy's Flight", "Under Lock and Key" and "Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain" borrowed musical elements from the songs on his fourth album, which had been composed on a Fairlight CMI IIx, a music workstation with an embedded digital sampling synthesizer.[11]

The soundtrack album, entitled Birdy: Music from the Film, was released on March 18, 1985 by Geffen Records and Charisma Records.[11] AllMusic's Tom Demalon awarded it four stars out of five, writing, "The fact that Birdy is comprised of all instrumentals means that listeners whose familiarity with Gabriel is limited to 'Sledgehammer' and 'In Your Eyes' will be largely disappointed. However, its meditative nature makes it fine, reflective listening for the more adventurous."[16]

The film was released on VHS in mid-June 1985 by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video,[19] and on DVD on February 15, 2000 by Columbia TriStar Home Video. The DVD presents the film in optional fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen versions on both sides of the disc. Special features include the film's theatrical trailer, as well as trailers for other films starring Cage and directed by Parker, information on the cast and crew, and a booklet featuring production notes.[20]

Birdy was first released on the Blu-ray format in the United States on June 25, 2019. It was given a manufacture on demand release, with no extras other than the theatrical trailer.[21] A region-free, limited edition version was released in the United Kingdom by Powerhouse Films on October 28, 2019. Parker oversaw the film's 2K digital restoration. Special features include a 48-page booklet, the theatrical trailer, interviews with the cast and crew, an audio commentary by Parker and Justin Johnson of the British Film Institute, and Parker's 1976 television film No Hard Feelings.[22]

Birdy received mostly positive reviews from mainstream film critics.[23] The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes sampled 27 reviews, and gave the film a score of 85%, with an average score of 7.4 out of 10.[24] Roger Ebert, in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film four stars out of four, writing, "Birdy ... tells a story so unlikely ... and yet a story so interesting it is impossible to put this movie out of my mind."[25] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Parker has for the most part directed the film deftly and unobtrusively. Every so often, though, he introduces the kind of overstatement Birdy didn't need ... Fortunately, the heavy-handedness is in limited supply. Most of Birdy is enchanting."[26] Film critic Emanuel Levy called it "a powerfully dramatic chronicle of postwar trauma."[27]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, felt that the film was "far better as an antiwar film than as a poetic tribute to flight".[28] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker praised Modine and Cage's performance, but described that the film as being "morose and unrelieved".[29] Variety wrote, "Belying the lightheartedness of its title, Birdy is a heavy adult drama about best friends and the after-effects of war, but it takes too long to live up to its ambitious premise."[30] Jack Zink of the Sun-Sentinel wrote that the film "takes a while to hook you into its story. This is one occasion we can afford the wait; Parker keeps us awake by repeatedly slapping us across the face visually."[31]

Birdy received several awards and honors, with particular recognition for the film itself. The National Board of Review named it one of the Top Ten Films of 1984.[32] Following its release, the film premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, and on May 20, 1985, it won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury prize.[33] In 1987, the film received an Audience Award at the Warsaw International Film Festival.[34]