Nicolas Cage Series #4 - Birdy / #5 - The Boy in Blue

Alright, a double on the Nicolas Cage marathon (though not really).

Birdy (1984, Parker)

Birdy is an unexpectedly emotional film about the friendship between two boys, Al (Nicolas Cage) and 'Birdy' (Matthew Mondine), told through flashbacks as Al tries to get Birdy to open up in a mental hospital. Both were drafted in the Vietnam War, and Al, still recovering from severe facial wounds, is sent to try and save Birdy, who has stopped communicating since he came back. We learn that Birdy has been obsessed with birds and flying for all of his life, and when Al first meets him, it's a strange hobby. But as they grow older he gets more and more obsessed and withdraws from society, and when he sees him after the war, it seems like he really thinks he's a bird.

It's really moving, seeing how isolated Birdy feels throughout his life; Al is his only friend. By the time they meet again, Al is almost as broken as Birdy; his face is healing, but he's not dealing well with the possibility of being disfigured and the trauma of the war in general. I was honestly surprised about how involved I got into the story; Parker really does a good job of helping you understand Birdy and why Al is so loyal to him.

However, it's almost completely ruined by the flippant, out of nowhere ending. The last act ramps up the drama as Al tries to save Birdy from being stuck in a mental hospital for the rest of his life as he worries that he'll be thrown in there also, and then it just...ends. Seriously. Abruptly, and in a way that would seem comedic if we hadn't been watching a drama for the last two hours. I mean, really? It's still worth watching, but it would be so much better if the ending wasn't so fucking flippant.

Fortunately for the next movie I watched, I didn't have such a big problem with the end.

The Boy in Blue (1986, Jarrot)

Unfortunately, that's because I didn't get there. The Boy in Blue is a typical rise from nowhere to fame sports movie about sculling set in the 1870s. Sculling is some sort of boat racing (it's similar to crew, except really kind of only for one person instead of a team), and it's pretty fucking boring. There's really no attempt to make it seem interesting in any way, so why should I care? Cage is playing the offbeat chick-fucking decent guy with something special that he's played in Valley Girl and the flashback parts of Birdy, but it's really out of place in the 1870s. I lasted maybe 45 minutes, hoping that something would differentiate this from every rags to fame sports movie movie ever, but it really didn't, so I have to admit that I gave up. Don't even bother with this one.

Nicolas Cage Series - Valley Girl / Shameful - Star Wars

Valley Girl (1983, Coolidge)

Not counting Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Valley Girl,  is Nicolas Cage's first appearance in film, and the first where he's billed as Nicolas Cage. It's a loose retelling of Romeo and Juliet, where the Juliet character, Julie, is the leader in a trio of valley girls, and Cage's character, Randy, is the punk Romeo from Hollywood who vies for her affection.

Really, I feel like there's not much to say about this film. I grew up in a decade where the Valley Girl was a trope already being lampooned and where the punk isn't a weirdo, but the awesome one. In general, the whole "good girl bad boy they're from different worlds but it eventually works" storyline is pretty damn boring. The only thing that makes this remarkable at all, besides the now-surprising idea of Nicolas Cage as the hot guy, is Julie's parents. Instead of the typical "I disapprove of your unconventional love!" types, Julie's parents are hippies who own a health food store, smoke pot on occasion, and really just want her to be happy.

Oh, also, for those who are interested, there are tits. I'm not, so yeah, it was a wash for me.

Fortunately for me, soon after that I saw something was much, much better.

Star Wars (1977, Lucas)

 

I was a little reluctant to see this at first. After all, everyone on earth knows that Darth is his father, Leia is his sister, and those Family Guy episodes pretty much go through the entire plot of the first two films, so I thought, why bother? I just didn't feel like it, and the exaggerated shock I got whenever I admitted I hadn't seen it as a kid got so annoying that I felt like I never wanted to.

But I did, and it was awesome. So awesome that I can't even give a half-decent review or discussion about it, because my thoughts after watching it were basically "space battles laser guns PEW PEW omg Han Solo is so awesome and cute!"

Someday I'll probably end up watching the other two of the original trilogy (I really see no reason to watch the prequels at all), but really, Star Wars works so well on its own that I don't feel like I really need them.

Which almost definitely means I'll be forced to watch them about five years from now.