Forest Whitaker stars as the brilliant jazz saxophonist Charlie Bird Parker in this elegiac biopic. Director Clint Eastwood pays full homage to Parkers musical genius, but also devotes ample time to the musicians 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 demise of cool jazz in favor of conventional, as illustrated by the descent into the mainstream of Parkers mentor Buster Franklin. Also starring in Bird is Samuel E. Wright as Dizzy Gillespie. Thats the real Charlie Bird Parker on the films soundtrack, though most of the background music has been re-orchestrated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide