Aspies For Freedom

Marketing initiatives, advance publicity and actor interviews  for films yet to be released tell us little about the quality of a film, but they do tell us who the target consumers are intended to be.

Stella

The last paragraph in the quote from Josh is inaccurate and I have corrected him on Ron Bass's spin of how MATW originated. I haven't seen Josh say that since.  I also don't describe myself as "suffering" from AS. But Josh, Radha, other cast members etc spent time with a LOT of our peers. There are some who do feel that way. The movie presents a spectrum of opinion.

        As for its quality, having seen most autism movies and having a brother who was production designer of two of the better ones, I am confident about the quality of this one.  

                                  Jerry

From a person currently working for an A2 Film Studies level it sounds interesting.

Incidentally you might just want to check this years Oscar nominations especially the Best Documentary, Short Subjects one.

I hear "The Passion" got shut out of the major nominations but that's Hollywood, bigoted as ever.

                           Jerry

How is it bigotry? That movie SUCKED.

Your minority opinion. That movie was loved by millions. But the obvious truth that Hollywood can't tolerate a good movie about Christianity or fiscally back it. Not hard to imagine why.

        OTOH, "Schindler's List" and any other movie that serves the purpose of american zionism (paralyze the goyim with holocaust guilt so they keep supporting Israel) gets Hollywood money and a fast track to the Oscars.

                     That is BIGOTRY and RACISM.

                                Jerry Newport

Nash, in A Beautiful Mind, and Helfgott, in Shine,  both presented as schizophrenic.

And we're stuck with Dustbin Hoffman as  Rain Man and The Cetacean Amadeus!

Stella  :roll:

Shine's narrative  is only  loosely based on the  pianist's actual life.  Helfgott began as a child  prodigy, leaving his native Australia in 1966 to study at the  Royal College of Music, where he won a prize and later developed schizophrenia

In the film,  Helfgott's breakdown occurs during his prize-winning performance, but  in real life,  occurred much later.

Stella

well Amy, I think you can have schizophrenia superposed on an ASD - but when Helfgott was a child he would have received a dx of "childhood schizophrenia" even though he might now be said to have had an ASD - so short of access to his medical notes, who can say?

Stella

[quote="Amy"]

     We have all heard of 'idiots savants' - people with low IQs but outstanding gifts for music, writing, drawing, calculating - and cinema capitalises on such talents. In Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman played an autistic man with a phenomenal way with figures; in Shine, Geoffrey Rush was the virtuoso pianist David Helfgott.

         Amy,

       The fictional character in "Rain Man" is based on four people, none of whom would appreciate being called an idiot savant. The mental stuff comes mainly from Peter Guthrie, autistic savant, and Kim Peek, non-autistic savant. The personality is mostly from autistic savant, Joe Sullivan and some from artist/autist, Mark Rimland, son of Dr. Bernard Rimland. I don't know about Mark's IQ but it is probably near 100. Kim Peek's was measured at 184 and I imagine the other two men are well over 100.

         Oh, being a savant myself, the lowest IQ I ever had was in first grade at 126 and the highest result was 173 so if you call me an idiot, do it for some other reason

         I don't believe Helfgott is an "idiot savant" either. The sad truth about him is that like most autistic pianists, his actual performances are not up to concert level. There seems to be an inherent motor dysfunction in autistic pianists that inevitably trips them up when playing a peice of any length.

       The one exception I know to that rule is twelve-year-old Matt Savage of Boston, whose jazz piano concerts are simply amazing. Off the stage, Matt is definitely autistic, too.

                               Jerry Newport

The term "idiot savant" was  widedy used in the 19th Century, if not earlier, and was not "invented by professionals who have to keep finding ways to put us down," as Mr Newport claims.  

It's most certainly an unpleasant term, but it's not helpful to apportion blame where it doesn't belong.

Stella

Yea I agree I think ramen over exaggerate or misinterpeted by mistake jerry's posts

If its legal in your country then I hope you enjoy it.
Its illegal here, we hope to either see it in the cinema, or buy the dvd.

:smile:

What i have known by browsing the internet is that the movie is already out for a long time in Brasil and Russia, they even have the DVD's!! So i think the leecher's are from those countries. Don't forget that Brasil is one of the largest countries in the WORLD. And if everything is going just fine, i can see the movie in 30 minutes (90%)....