30
Friday, May 10, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
TAN MOM
MORT AT THE MOVIES
MORT ZIEVE
(or Yourself)
Flying High With Sirdy'
For Mother's Day
GIFT CERTIFICATE
Sessions $ 22 5 0
I 5
for
(Graduated lengths)
LSIUSI1111111111111111ral
Introductory Offer
3 Sessions
for $6.00
(10 minutes each)
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=. ■
. . "
UVATanning Salon
626-3420
Pine Lake Mall next to Crickets
Actor Matthew Modine struggles with the psychological wounds
created by his Vietnam experience in "Birdy."
f
.
,
Our dinner was by candlelight.
The dessert was by citylight.
Cup after cup,
The coffee was Brim.®
Fill your cup to the rim
With the richness of Brim.®
K Kosher
01985 General Foods Corporation
GENERAL
FOODS
Birdy (rated "R") has been de-
scribed as an anti-war film, a film
about freedom, and about male
bonding. But simple labels like
these do the film an injustice.
The fact is that Birdy is a beau-
tiful, sensitive, powerful film
about two young men and how
they survive the best and worst
that life offers.
Don't let the word "sensitive"
put you off. Sometimes it connotes
a delicate, fragile experience. But
not in Birdy. For Director Alan
Parker has managed the unusual
feat of combining slam-bang in-
tensity with moving insights into
human behavior. Parker had the
slam-bang part down pat in Mid-
night Express and Fame. But
there wasn't much in those films
that suggested he could dig so de-
eply into the human psyche and
move us as profoundly as he does
here.
Al Columbato (Nicholas Cage)
has been wounded in the Vietnam
War. So has his closest friend,
Birdy (Matthew Modine). While
Al's face has been badly burned,
Birdy's wounds are psychological.
He has retreated into his own pri-
vate world and refuses to talk, eat,
or perform any normal functions.
The plot asks simply, "What final
trauma caused this and can Al
bring Birdy out of it?"
The action moves from present
to. past and back as we uncover
layer after layer in the relation-
ship between the two men and the
events they experience. It culmi-
nates in the horror of the Vietnam
War.
These two young actors, Modine
and Cage, are stunning. Every
moment rings true; there is never
a false note. The depth, reality
and interplay in their scenes is
electric. There is a real chemistry
here and the screen comes to life
with it.
The friendship of Birdy and Al
is unlikely. If ever there were an
odd couple, this , is it. Al comes
from a tempestuous Italian family
His father is physical to the point
of violence. His mother a timid
shadow. Al makes it by making
himself tough. He lifts weights,
takes a swing when challenged
and grabs the nearest girl
whenever the opportunity pre-
sents itself.
Birdy is shy, sensitive, intro-
verted. He escapes an abusive
mother and ineffectual father
with flights of bird-like fantasy.
When his prom date drops the
front of her dress, he can't even
find words to say, much less the
motivation to do anything.
In a surprisingly tender, but
vigorous moment at the start of
the film, these two products of the
Philadelphia ghetto, at once usual
and unusual men, encounter each
other and the spark of deep
friendship is ignited.
While Parker has done a re-
markable job overall with this
film, two things really stand out.
First, his extraordinary economy.
Every scene is sharply focused.
With a minimum of dialogue, and
just the right shots, Parker makes
his point — immediately. There is
never a moment's puzzlement as
to what the director is saying or
where he is taking you.
Many scenes have no dialogue.
Like the wonderful vignette when
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