Margaret Clayton / 10 May 2025 / Categories: Movie and TV Shows, Movie

The Birdcage shows we’re going backwards

The Birdcage, come as you are, the clever and compelling movie strapline.

I haven’t done a movie review yet. This film is a great place to start. I was completely inspired to write after watching for maybe the 10th time.

The film was adapted from a 1973 French farce by Jean Poiret La Cage aux Folles (“The Cage of Madwomen") with a sound track to die for, for anyone who came of age in the 1980s.

In some ways it’s tough watching a movie that shows clearly how the world sometimes moves in reverse as this 1996 absolute classic must watch movie tackles challenging themes as republican Senator Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman) faces public scandal as his co chair, the leader of the “Coalition for Moral Order” Senator Jackson dies in the arms of an under age black prostitute and Senator Keeley is left to take the heat from the press and a swarm of TV camera crews.

Meanwhile in South Beach Florida Armand Goldman (Robin Williams) and Albert aka Starina (Nathan Lane) own and star in respectively a drag club on the strip “The Birdcage” assisted by their Guatemalan house boy Agador (Hank Azaria) who steals the show creating laugh out loud totally hilarious exaggerated physical comedy through out the whole movie.

This is a movie of deep contrast when Val, the straight son of Armand and Albert brilliantly played by Dan Futterman announces he’s getting married to Barbara (Calista Flockhart) the daughter of Senator and Mrs Keeley again superbly played by the enigmatic academy award winning actress Dianne Weist.

Nathan Lane won a Sag award and was nominated for a Golden Globe and despite winning best ensemble cast for director Mike Nichols the film wasn’t acknowledged at the academy awards with only one nomination.

Maybe it was a bit too soon for the industry tackling difficult themes of open prejudice like gays in the military which in reality didn’t happen until 2011, 15 years later.

Regardless the film enjoyed massive box office success grossing a whooping $185M it cost $31M to make.

A beautiful tribute from the public who went to see this film in their droves, to the sheer talent of this cast, the late great Robin Williams, the equally late great Gene Hackman and a yet to mention hilarious performance from Christine Baranski who plays Val’s birth mother Katherine Archer.

A belly laugh movie for the whole family and a reminder of a time when inspite of global prejudice against the LGBTQ community love and laughter in whatever form does indeed conquer all.

Watch the The Birdcage again be reminded where your heart is and what a powerful healing force laughter actually is, the very best medicine for anything.