Blast from the Past: August Rush

Released in 2007 August Rush is a remarkable film. If there ever was a movie that could truly show the power and magic of music this is it. The story goes as such, a young orphan named Evan Taylor believes in music the way most people believe in God. Music is his religion. He can hear music in everything, and there is an incredible scene when he first steps foot in Times Square that demonstrates this. His journey throughout the film is to find his parents, and he believes that if he can just get a chance to play his music they would hear it and know that is was him. Through incredible circumstances, either by chance or the power of music, this does happen. I have never seen a film that was so musically driven, not even musicals. It really makes you believe that music is a force of nature and not just something that entertains us on the way to work or in our spare time. On his journey to find his parents he meets a different array of people as he "follows the music". The kid is a music prodigy, never having been able to play an instrument in the orphanage the music could never go any further than his head. Yet once he gets into the big city meets a few musicians, and all he has to do is see someone play an instrument once and he knows how to play that instrument. The first time we get a chance to see him play a guitar and hear the music that had been in his head is outstanding. You might be wondering about the score given the subject matter of the film; well I'm not going to go out on a limb and say that it's the best score I've ever heard (Titanic still holds that) but it is quite remarkable. The score created by Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer does however capture the emotion of a moment in such a way that I have never seen in a film. The music of the film embodies the ideas and philosophies of the film, which are, music is something that moves, inspires, and connects us all, and if we believed hard enough it can make the impossible happen. If you've not yet seen this gem of a film, then I highly recommend that you hop on netfilx and put this one on your queue. It will make you remember why you love music in the first place.

Agree or Disagree? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about this movie.

one luv, Toinne