Amazon.com essential video: This tearjerker by Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks is a surprising story about real-life classical pianist David Helfgott, an Australian who rose to international prominence at a very young age in the 1950s and '60s, and suffered a psychological collapse after enduring years of abuse from his father (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Hicks has three very fine actors portraying Helfgott at different stages of his life, including the adorably wry and goofy Noah Taylor (Flirting), who takes up the character's teen years, and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, giving a great performance playing the musician as a schizophrenic adult. Despite the Helfgotts' compromised psychological health, Shine is hardly a depressing experience. If anything, the story is really about how long one person's life can take to make glorious sense of itself. Sir John Gielgud, in golden form, plays Helfgott's teacher. The DVD release presents the film in its widescreen format, and also includes a Q&A with director Hicks and Rush's Golden Globes acceptance speech. --Tom Keogh
Shine - Terrible packaging This DVD has TERRIBLE packaging. Once you have opened the DVD case by breaking the plastic seal, it will never close properly again. I didn't do anything wrong - you're supposed to break the plastic seals - but it's just terrible!
Scroll down to the 'Snapper' type case: http://www.andreas-lenz.de/dvd/casetypes/index.php
loving and caring ! Even my 8 and 10 year old children loved this movie which inspired them to practise harder their piano lessons ! The story needed some explainations for them but then made my children think for days about it. They finally understood how own behavior can influence especially weaker persons and that you have to be aware of it... A very loving and caring story !
Tearjerking euphoria Wonderful tearjerker showing some of life's excesses. Stunning music and a euphorius ending that will set free any suppressed emotions....
Phenomenal This is a great film, with stellar acting. The characters are based on real people, although they had to modify certain things to make the story more interesting. David Helfgott probably can't play the piano as well as he is portrayed in here. Nevertheless, the true Helfgott probably plays better than the majority of the people leaving reviews on Amazon...just a hunch. I find it somewhat humorous that Helfgott's sister tried to cash in on the inaccuracies of this film. Once you realize that this is based on true characters/events, it's much easier to accept this movie for what it is as a film instead of fact.
SHINE-A MUST SEE FOR PIANO MUSIC LOVERS this is a must see for all people who love piano music-also a very good story.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
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