I recommended the film Birdy to Aaron Brischetto and he asked me what I thought about it. Obviously I wrote way too much as a comment, but there is even more about this great film. Therefore, I decided to write down all that I think about as my review of the BIRDY.
Birdy was directed by Alan Parker and it is based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton. Two main actors are Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. Birdy (Matthew Modine) and Al (Cage) are best friends since they were kids. They live the life in different ways after they grow up. Birdy has tremendous passion and love to birds. He even attempted to experience the flying like a bird. He crashed when he joined the Vietnam War and saw a lot of birds were killed in the war. He was sent back to US and treated in the hospital, where he however, rejected to talk to anyone and behaved like a bird. In order to know what happened to him and how to solve his problem, doctors contacted Al for help. Best friend Al has a way deeper understanding and respet to Birdy and eventually helped Birdy escape from the Hospital.
Michel Foucault is my favorite philosopher and the movie Birdy was considered a brave and exhaustive representative of Foucault's opinions regarding madness. In the history of madness, people who were diagnosed as madness were marginalized and were required to turn back to the norms defined by the mainstream or dominant powers. Though hospitals have been trying to help improve their mental health, these patients are not really respected and understood as an unique individual who has his/her own experience, reason or meaning behind these so called abnormal behavior or madness. In this movie, the birdy guy loved birds and wanted to live with and for birds, but people thought he was abnormal and tried to drag him back to the normal track, to talk to people, love people, and live as a normal person. I think that just because the mass or dominant social norms or thoughts wanted all people to be similar, even uniformed. Centralization and uniform are two main characteristics of modernism, but post modernism tried to discover, understand, and respect individual uniqueness and diversity. This movie did a great job to present this idea. As Habermas stated, our knowledge and values are distorted because of the influence of the dominant and institutional power, but they may be not really true. I think the opposite of normal should not be abnormal, but non-normal. It is a reasonable and possible being and should be respected and understood. I think this movie showed huge concern, compassion, understanding and respect to marginalized population.
Also the historical background of this movie was the Vietnam War and Birdy was crashed in Vietnam when he saw a lot of birds were killed in the war. People thought he was schizophrenic and sent him back to US and gave him treatment. However, I think the real one who was schizophrenic was not a person who loved birds and loved these adorable innocent lives, but those who led the war because of selfishness and greed. War was considered “normal” but a human-being who used his life to tell the crime and huge damage of the war was sent to the hospital as an “abnormal” patient. An individual life is so fragile and negligible in the war or any social movement or revolution. I think this movie also inspires us to think about the righteousness, the value of a life, and the suppression and scarification of an individual life (both human being and other lives) in the society.
The time of 1960s and 1970s was called an age of belief crisis, during which young people in western countries, especially in America, were in a period of getting lost in terms of faith, beliefs, and meaning in the life. It was a consequence of the World War Two, Vietnam War and the Cold War between USA and Soviet Union. Humanity and individual identity was trampled and sacrificed in the wars. Fighting for the country and victory is honored and admirable, but, the cost is too high to pay off and the consequence is unmeasurably miserable. Comparing with most young people who were lost in 1960s and 1970s, Birdy was even better because he found the valuable passion, enthusiastics, love, and meaning of his life -- to live with birds and live like a bird for the beauty of the blue sky and the nature, as well as for flying and the freedom.
Birdy has desired and even tried to fly as a bird and he realized his dream when Al helped him escape from the hospital and he was safe. Flying as a bird, my feeling is that, it is a perfect symbol of freedom. The end of the story seems more like a triumph of a fighting for individual identity and freedom from the suppresion and uniform of dominant power and mainstreaming norms.
Birdy, apparently, is an extreme case to present the genuine feeling and emotion, as well as the deep inside thought and beliefs of people who choose a non-normal way to live. However, it conveys a noble notion about the significance of understanding and respecting others who are different from us, or me. As Jean-Paul Sartre claimed, existence precedes essence, every existence is possible and has its meaning. There is no universal essence and every single life has its unique experience, purpose, meaning and values. Being respectful and open to diversity is the best way toward a better world.
Birdy just wanted to fly like a bird, please let him fly for the most precious and beautiful meaning of the life-the freedom to dream and to enjoy the process of realizing the dream (don't hurt others of course :) ).
PS: I watched this movie when I was in college, and cannot remember too much in detail...It would be nice to see it again!
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