Remember when Nicolas Cage used his acting abilities for good rather than evil?  This goes all the way back to 1984, before Cage became an assemblage of weird tics and bizarre behavior.  He plays a wounded soldier just back from Vietnam who has been trying to help his friend and fellow soldier Birdy (Matthew Modine) snap out of a war trauma induced sort of catatonia in which he has mentally become a bird.  Frustrated by his inability to help his friend, Cage breaks down (in one long shot, first take):


This is a truly unique and beautiful movie, one of my all-time favorites, and not seen by enough people.