There is another victim here: David. Even though on the face of it Shine is sympathetic to him, depicting him as both a hero and a victim, I believe that in fact it humiliates him. David’s life is held up to public viewing in the most distasteful way. He is shown defecating in the bathtub, walking around with his penis dangling in front of his landlady in London, grabbing the breasts of strange women, bouncing naked on a trampoline, dumping sheet music in the swimming pool, and so on. Hicks asks the audience to view these things not as troubling but as cute. Yet it exposes my brother to ridicule, and in effect belittles him. The reality is that mental illness is neither quaint, lovable, nor amusing. Certainly not to those who suffer from it and not to their loved ones who care for them.
Much as Hicks and Gillian would like to convince themselves that David is merely some kind of free-spirited eccentric, a cuddly, creative oddball with extremely erratic behavior—he is not. He suffers from a serious mental illness, which raises questions about how far he was able to give informed consent to the making of Shine. It is doubtful whether he is capable of objectively judging the impact of such a controversial film or the way it has infringed his own right to privacy.
The nightmare has been going for a long time now, but I still live in hope that one of these days Scott Hicks might be brave enough to do the right thing. If only he would stop telling journalists about his “meticulous research,” apologize to me and my family, insert a disclaimer at the start of videos of Shine and at the beginning of the published screenplay, and completely withdraw Shine Study Guides from schools worldwide. We can only hope.
It has been a great struggle for me to clear my father’s name. Once the media latch onto a myth that appeals to the public, the protests of private individuals are liable to get completely swamped. By writing this book, I have done my best to make the truth known, but I realize that there’s little chance of ever really repairing the damage to my father’s reputation. It will be some compensation, though, if others in the movie and publishing industries take the lesson of Shine to heart; if they learn to check their facts more carefully and become more aware of the suffering they can inflict on innocent people if they don’t.
As I write, Shine continues to be described in many of the world’s newspapers and on television networks as “the ultimate feel-good film,” “a happily-ever-after tale” and the “feel-good story that is so totally uplifting because it’s true.” Filmgoers may leave the theater moved and uplifted, but for the Helfgott family, there has been no happy ending.
“The night my brother David performed live at the
Oscar ceremony should have been one of the most
exciting nights of my lie; a moment of great pride for him
and the whole Helfgott family. Instead I was overcome
by a great sadness that night, for the movie Shine is an
unforgivable distortion of the truth.”
—MARGARET HELFGOTT
* This line was cut from the film at the last minute but remains in the officially published screenplay that went on sale in bookstores after the film’s release, has been reprinted four times, and remains on sale.
* I have agreed with Claire that we shall not publish her surname.
* Pritchard was a founding member of the Australian Communist Party and music lover, whom David had befriended prior to going to London, but had passed away while he was there. ‘Father burned them all,’ David recalled. It was done very surreptitiously, it was done very brilliantly. It was out of spite.’ … Bewildered by Peter’s perverse act, David hardly saw his father or any family over the next three years.”
Out of Tune Page 23