Birdy

Alan Parker’s elliptical, ethereal adaptation of the acclaimed, ‘unfilmable’ novel by William Wharton, about a boy who dreams of flying.

Birdy (Matthew Modine) returns from the Vietnam War deeply scarred by his experiences. Traumatised by what he witnessed, he retreats entirely into himself, convinced that he is a bird. Confined to a military hospital, where doctors struggle to treat him, Birdy’s boyhood friend Al (Nicolas Cage) – also wounded in Vietnam – visits daily, determined to help him find a way back to reality.

Alan Parker’s (Midnight Express, Angel Heart) haunting and unconventional film features extraordinary central performances from Modine and Cage (who famously had teeth removed for gruelling authenticity), alongside a dreamlike score by Peter Gabriel. Visually poetic and emotionally resonant, Birdy remains one of the unsung masterpieces of 1980s cinema – an elliptical meditation on trauma, friendship, and the fragile boundaries of the human mind.