The young David is associated with the sound motif of the
piano and the applauding audiences he played before, while the adult David
mostly is introduced by the melancholy sound of rain against a windowpane. At
the film's conclusion he is again able to hear the music as he once did, and he
is fairly healed. A piano, a violin, applause, and the voice of an announcer
melt together in a sound montage that creates tension as David, his father, and
his instructor await the decision on the National Champion. The sound is very
loud and powerful during scenes of change or major development, and understated
in more stagnant scenes or those dependent on audible dialogue. However, the
political standpoint of the film, or its ideology, is not quite so clear. Hicks
directed the film to be of implicit nature, wherein the protagonist and
antagonist represent opposing value systems. David's father is obviously a
rightist in his beliefs, since he places worth in religion, custom, competition,
and, above all else, family. While David believes in competition, he is not so
set in religion and custom (he lives for an amount of time in a Christian
church, while he himself is Jewish), he places the individual over the family.
In search of his own fortune, David leaves after expressly being told not to.
This one difference is strong enough to tear the family apart and create a
conflict around which the story can revolve. The irony of the situation is that,
while trying desperately to preserve his family, David's father actually
succeeds in alienating his son and putting undue stress on his relationships
with the other family members. The music he counted on to bring David and
himself together also split them apart. Until his breakdown, David had all but
adopted the old professor as his father because he understood David well and was
kind to him. The literary aspect of this film comes not from the fact that it
was adapted from a novel (since it was not), but from its strong basis in the
literary convention.
For example, the motifs of rain and applause are a common
technique of literature, as is the shifting point of view. The story is told
from first a third-person limited perspective, then goes into personal
flashbacks from David's memory, and the remainder of the film switches back and
forth between the two. Also, the film is rife with imagery and symbolism, both
of which are favourite literary devices. Such symbols can be interpreted from
the viewpoint of the theories of Structuralism and Semiology. Water is the most
obvious of these symbols, and traditionally means cleansing, rebirth, and
calmness. However, rain means bad weather and difficulties, and dirtied water
(such as that in the bath) is poison. Just before David's first adult recital,
all of his pages float in clear blue pool water as clouds drift by above them.
This is finally the foreshadowing of a rebirth. While not a universal symbol,
the glasses signal David's dependency on things outside himself. Such things
eventually destroy him, since he is not able to break through the multitude of
walls and fences that fill the screen and live for himself. A lion appears
twice, first when David describes his father to Katherine and later when he
awakens at the base of a huge sculpture of one. Lions are typically strong and
powerful, the king of all they survey. The fact that David wakes up with one
behind him foreshadows his father's return and his support of his son. The medal
won for the recital of Rack III and the composition itself both become symbols
of the father that was so bent on having his child son play the impossible
piece. The fact that David chose that as his premiere work told of both his
lasting devotion to his father and his determination to please. When Mr.
Helfgott returned the medal he was recognising the accomplishment and forgiving
his disowned son at once. The closing shot is one of David and his wife as they
leave his father's grave and the cemetery, the camera pulling back on a crane as
the two become lost in the vast stretch. No longer is the audience involved; the
story is over. The main themes of this film- complications, deterioration, and
loss- are expertly portrayed through the harmony of all divisions of filmmaking.
Both Hicks and Rush are excellent, and, despite herself, this eclectic critic
enjoyed the film.
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