The troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie Parker.The troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie Parker.The troubled life and career of jazz musician Charlie Parker.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 10 wins & 9 nominations total
Glenn Wright
- Alcoholic Patient
- (as Glenn T. Wright)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaClint Eastwood approached Chan Parker, Charlie Parker's common-law wife on whose memoirs the script was based, for input. She gave Eastwood a collection of lost recordings she'd kept in a bank vault.
- GoofsWhen Charlie Parker goes to Dizzy Gillespie's house in the middle of the night and asks Dizzy to write down a tune, the year is 1953. The tune is "Now's the Time", published and recorded in 1945.
- Quotes
Doctor at Nica's: [while Bird's body is being retired] Charles Christopher Parker, Junior. Preliminary diagnosis: heart attack. Stocky, male, negro. Approximately 65 years of age.
Baroness Nica: [with a sad look] He was 34.
- Crazy creditsPre-titles card: "There are no second acts in American lives." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- SoundtracksMary Land, My Maryland
Performed by Lennie Niehaus
Featured review
Those viewers who claim the film is flawed are missing the point. Screenwriter Joel Oliansky (who also directed the film "The Competition") attempted (quite successfully I believe) to combine the elements of jazz music with the visual medium of film. Rhythm, tone, the improvisational aspects of be-bop, all of these elements go into creating a movie unlike any produced. It is not to be viewed in the traditional sense of linear story-telling. The mood created by Jack N. Green's cinematography is completed suited to the atmosphere of the 1940's and 1950's. As for acting, let us point out Forest Whitaker's Best Actor Award from the Cannes Film Festival and Diane Venora's Best Supporting Actress Award from the New York Film Critics. This film resounds with fine filmmaking, headed by Clint Eastwood's passion for the music. And what music! Parker's original solos were cleaned up and integrated with modern musicians into a seamless flow. The picture won the Best Sound Academy Award (sadly, its only nomination). Look at this film as a tribute to a man and a music, a recollection of a brilliant yet dissipated life, and a kind of filmmaking rarely seen by today's audiences.
- hb_wichita
- Oct 24, 2001
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $9,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,181,286
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $27,116
- Oct 2, 1988
- Gross worldwide
- $2,181,474
- Runtime2 hours 41 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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