Creation – a movie about Charles Darwin that Lili Marlene can recommend

I’ve managed to find the time to escape the domestic scene and go see a flick. The movie is Creation and it is about the life of the world-changing scientist Charles Darwin, and his family. I’m not into Hollywood movies and I have little time for popular screen entertainment or smushy dramas, but I thought this movie was pretty good. It’s not quite sensational or extreme enough to rate as a favourite movie of mine, but it was good. A bit sad, definitely not a movie to see to cheer yourself up. Maybe a good film to see with a person to cuddle up to, should you be so lucky to have such a person in your life. I would recommend this as a movie to take thoughtful teenagers to, if they will sit still long enough. This is a movie about big ideas and conflicting world views. It might appeal to teens going through that stage when they are figuring out what they do and don’t believe in. There are scenes of intimacy that nicely convey the mood of intimacy but aren’t sexy, so it’s OK for family viewing in my opinion. There is one point in which this movie is not entirely realistic - the actor who plays Darwin is considerably better looking than the real Charles Darwin, who had those great brow-ridges (a fine example of testosterone-created sexual dimorphism in the face of an adult human male) and those great bushy eyebrows growing off them. Not a Hollywood look. Great minds don't always come in pretty packages.

Charles Darwin was of course one of the famous people who are thought to have been autistic who are in my big list. I have listened to a discussion of the movie Creation from the Science Show on Radio National. Darwin apparently had an eidetic memory – further evidence to support the case that Darwin was on the autistic spectrum.


Creation - the screenplay, the issues, and the big idea for the 21st century
The Science Show. ABC Radio National July 24th 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2010/2959169.htm


About Charles Darwin

Brilliant minds linked to autism. (2004) BBC.co.uk January 8th 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3380569.stm
[about Prof. Fitzgerald’s book Autism and creativity]

Coghlan, Andy (2010) Darwin dynasty’s ill health blamed on inbreeding. New Scientist. May 3rd 2010.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18847-darwin-dynastys-ill-health-blamed-on-inbreeding.html

Creation (movie) (2009) Director – Jon Amiel
[Biographical feature movie about the life of Charles Darwin, who is played by Paul Bettany.]

Fitzgerald, Michael, and O’Brien, Brendan (2007) Genius genes: how Asperger talents changed the world. Autism Asperger Publishing Company, 2007.
[Newton, Henry Cavendish, Jefferson, Charles Babbage, Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Nikola Tesla, David Hilbert, H.G. Wells, John B. Watson, Einstein, Bernard Montgomery (of Alamein), Charles de Gaulle, Alfred Kinsey, Norbert Wiener, Charles Lindbergh, Kurt Godel, Paul Erdos and other famous people discussed in this book. Parts of this book available to read free through Google Book Search]

Fitzgerald, Michael (2006) Autism, Asperger’s syndrome and creativity. Autism2006: AWARES Conference Centre. October 4th 2006.
http://212.74.184.44:8083/BM_DIRECTORY/E/BM000001662/7679/FIT1.PDF

http://awares.nemisys.uk.com/conferences/show_paper.asp?section=000100010001&conferenceCode=000200020002&id=42
[Stanley Kubrick, George Orwell, Andy Warhol, Charles Darwin, Albert Einsten and many other famous people discussed in this conference paper]

Hooper, Rowan (2009) Back to the beginning. New Scientist. February 7th 2009. Number 2694. p.49.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126943.000-review-the-young-charles-darwin-by-keith-thomson.html
[This brief review of The Young Charles Darwin by Keith Thomson mentions the fact that Darwin has been subject of the suggestion that he had Asperger syndrome, but it is not clear whether Thomson addresses this possibility in his book.]

Houston, Muiris (2009) Darwin is the origin of new thesis on Asperger's. IrishTimes.com Irish Times. February 24th 2009.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2009/0224/1224241701332.html

Ledgin, Norman (2002) Asperger’s and self-esteem: insight and hope through famous role models. Future Horizons, 2002.
[Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Orson Welles, Marie Curie, Carl Sagan, Glenn Gould, Mozart, Thomas Jefferson, Bela Bartok, Paul Robeson, Gregor Mendel and other famous people mentioned in this book. Parts of the book available to read through Google Book Search]

Lyons, Viktoria and Fitzgerald, Michael (2005) Asperger Syndrome - A Gift or a Curse? Nova Science Publishers Inc.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eMunoqn0iU8C
[Kinsey, Kubrick, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Darwin, Bertrand Russell, Robert Walser, Joy Adamson, Enoch Powell, William James Sidis, Kurt Godel]

Pickover, Clifford A. (1998) Strange brains and genius: the secret lives of eccentric scientists and madmen. Plenum, 1998.
[Charles Darwin and many other famous people discussed in this dated but entertaining book. Darwin not identified as autistic in this book.]

Smith, Rebecca (2009) Charles Darwin had autism, leading psychiatrist claims. Telegraph.co.uk February 18th 2009.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4680971/Charles-Darwin-had-autism-leading-psychiatrist-claims.html

Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2010) Charles Darwin's health. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Darwin%27s_health&oldid=365808618