Search - Bird [Special Edition][Bonus Soundtrack CD] on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity Movie Release: 1988 DVD Release: 07/22/2008 Format: DVD - Color Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 40 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 4 Genres: Drama, Musical Drama, Biopic [feature], Showbiz Drama See Also: Bird [Widescreen]

Forest Whitaker stars as the brilliant jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in this elegiac biopic. Director Clint Eastwood pays full homage to Parker's musical genius, but also devotes ample time to the musician's twin demons--drugs and alcohol-which accelerated his death at the age of 34. In his struggles to gain widespread acceptance for his music, "Bird" is forever stymied by his own self-destructiveness, and forever bailed out by the love of his life, Chan Richardson Parker (Diane Venora). The film bemoans the decline of the brand of jazz fathered by Parker, which came to be replaced by more conventional material -- as illustrated by the "descent" into the mainstream of Parker's mentor Buster Franklin. Also starring in Bird is Samuel E. Wright as Dizzy Gillespie. That's the real Charlie "Bird" Parker on the film's soundtrack, though most of the background music has been re-orchestrated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Forest Whitaker - Charlie "Yardbird" Parker
Diane Venora - Chan Richardson Parker
Michael Zelniker - Red Rodney
Sam Wright - Dizzy Gillespie
Keith David - Buster Franklin