69%User score 69 percent
Bird
1988 · Drama · Music
User Score
318 votes
Her voice would not be silenced.
Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."
Recommendations based on this film
Manuel São Bento
February 22, 2021
If you enjoy reading my Spoiler-Free reviews, please follow my blog @ https://www.msbreviews.com Even though I love listening to jazz, I've never been to a concert or a club specific to this type of music. Following this train of thought, I didn't know anything about Billie Holiday's real-life story and her tremendous impact not only in the respective musical genre but also in the fight against the government concern…
Read the full review on TMDBLouisa Moore - Screen Zealots
March 9, 2021
Jazz musician Billie Holiday is a legend; one of the greatest musicians of all time. Most music fans can name their favorite Holiday tune, but none caused more controversy than her song about black lynching, “Strange Fruit.” Screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks builds her story (based on the novel by Johann Hari) around the song, one that many people claimed had un-American lyrics and provoked people “in the wrong way.” “Th…
Read the full review on TMDBtmdb28039023
August 28, 2022
In a scene from The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Billie (Andra Day) is about to sing “Strange Fruit” in concert, which Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), the first commissioner of the US Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, had forbidden her to do. Behind the audience is a row of uniformed policemen. Billie goes straight for the first verse (even though “Strange Fruit” actually features a long i…
Read the full review on TMDBReviews are written by the TMDB community, not by The United States vs. Billie Holiday's publisher.
