August Rush, Child Prodigy Musician

There is a film out, by the name of August Rush. It tells of a child prodigy musician. Unsurprisingly, my wife and I decided to go to see it, to see if it had anything insightful to say about prodigy. It didn't.

August Rush is the kind of film that I would wish never made. It is full of stereotypes and cartoonish characters - indeed, the central character, "August Rush"/Evan Taylor, is a cartoon prodigy - so shallow is the depth of his portrayal, by the director and writer. I will say nothing more of him, other than to say that there is little that can be said.

As regular readers of my blog will know, I am not fond of plagiarism - indeed, it is one of my abiding hates. Unfortunately, August Rush is one of the most plagiaristic, derivative, composite films I have seen in many years. Virtually, the entire content of the film is borrowed from somewhere else.

There is a main character, Wizard, who is just like Fagin, from Charles Dickens. The prodigy, August Rush, is forever hearing music in the world, just like Bjork, in her film of quite a few years ago, the name of which eludes me. Indeed, there are scenes of rhythmic sound and natural notes, sounding in the world, just like those that appear in the earlier film. It nauseated me to hear such imitativeness. Then there is a scene where August Rush fills a room with musical notes - they were appended everywhere, all over the walls, and all - just like the famous garage scene in A Beautiful Mind, in which we find a room filled with the jottings and connections drawn by John Nash, on every surface.

Anyone well versed in the filmic culture of the last twenty years, or the literature of the last two hundred, will find themselves recognizing virtually everything in this film, as being derived from something else. Watching the film became a kind of game of "Spot the theft".

I found it ironic, actually. You see the film concerns a boy of great creative and prodigious power - but the film itself showed that its creators had none of either power, at all. Nor did they have any real understanding of prodigy.

We left the cinema thoroughly unenlightened - except for a new appreciation of just how few thinking, creating people there are in Hollywood these days.

Don't rush to see August Rush - unless you are a masochist (or know nothing of film or literature and won't recognize the incessant borrowings.) On second thoughts, even if you don't spot the thefts, the film isn't up to much: it adds nothing to the world, and takes a couple of hours of your life away- an utter waste of time.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)