Film & Synopsis | williamwharton

Director Alan Parker tackles this adapation of William Wharton's novel, which retains much of the source material's texture and complexity. Matthew Modine is Birdy, who comes back from Vietnam mentally shattered and deludes himself into thinking that he is a bird, an animal that has obsessed him since childhood. Birdy is confined to a military hospital, where he spends his time sitting naked in his room, not acknowleding anyone, moving and acting like a parakeet. His best friend Al (Nicolas Cage), also a wounded Vietnam vet, visits Birdy every day, determined to bring him back to reality. Birdy is occasionally disjointed but enriched by strong performances from Modine and Cage and a number of hard-to-forget moments.

Birdy (1984)

Looking like death warmed over, Jack Lemmon plays the aging father of Ted Danson. Always proud of being able to fend for himself, Lemmon despises being reliant upon others, but his enfeebled state does not allow him his old independence. For his part, Danson resents having to care for his dad as he would for an infant. Things take an upward turn when a "Doctor Feelgood" (Zakes Mokae) enters the scene, pumping Lemmon full of self-confidence. But then Lemmon is stricken with cancer, an affliction that he can't jolly himself out of. As the reality of his imminent death strikes everyone around him, Lemmon retreats into fantasy, recalling the past happy events of his life as though they're happening here and now. The rest of the family humors their dying dad, and in so doing draws closer together than they've been in years. TV sitcom maestro Gary David Goldberg co-produced and directed Dad, and also adapted the screenplay from the novel by William Wharton.

Dad (1989)

Based on a novel by William Wharton, A Midnight Clear is set in the Adriennes Forest in December of 1944. A group of American GIs, all of whom have been together a bit too long, cling to the vestiges of their peacetime interests to remain sane. None are brilliant soldiers, though Will Knot Ethan Hawke is the one who exhibits the strongest leadership qualities. Billeted at a chateau, the soldiers begin hearing strange noises emanating from a graveyard, the handiwork of a group of mischievous German soldiers. The two enemy camps draw closer to one another as Christmas approaches, due in great part to the influence of GI Vince "Mother" Wilkins Gary Sinise. A sudden, impulsive hostile act results in the wholesale -- and unnecessary -- slaughter of the German soldiers. Though the exteriors are convincingly mid-European, the film was actually lensed in Utah.