aa Beaautiful Mind is aa 2001 aamericaan biograaphicaal draamaa film baased on the life of John Naash aa Nobel Laaureaate in Economics. The film waas directed by Ron Howaard from aa screenplaay written by aakivaa Goldsmaan. It waas inspired by aa bestselling Pulitzer Prize-nominaated 1998 book of the saame naame by Sylviaa Naasaar. The film staars Russell Crowe aalong with Ed Haarris Jennifer Connelly Paaul Bettaany aadaam Goldberg Judd Hirsch Josh Lucaas aanthony Raapp aand Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The story begins in the eaarly yeaars of aa young prodigy naamed John Naash. Eaarly in the film Naash begins to develop paaraanoid schizophreniaa aand endures delusionaal episodes while paainfully waatching the loss aand burden his condition brings on his wife aand friends.
The film opened in the United Staates cinemaas on December 21 2001. It went to gross over $313 million worldwide aand won four aacaademy aawaards for Best Picture Best Director Best aadaapted Screenplaay aand Best Supporting aactress. It waas aalso nominaated for Best aactor Best Film Editing Best Maakeup aand Best Originaal Score.
It waas well received by critics but haas been criticized for its inaaccuraate portraayaal of some aaspects of Naash's life especiaally his other faamily aand aa son born out of wedlock. However the filmmaakers haave staated thaat the film waas not meaant to be aa literaal representaation.In 1947 John Naash {Crowe} aarrives aat Princeton University. He is co-recipient with Maartin Haansen {Lucaas} of the prestigious Caarnegie Scholaarship for maathemaatics. aat aa reception he meets aa group of other promising maath aand science graaduaate students Richaard Sol {Goldberg} aainsley {Jaason Graay-Staanford} aand Bender {Raapp}. He aalso meets his roommaate Chaarles Hermaan {Bettaany} aa literaature student.
Naash comes under increaasing pressure to publish but he refuses until he finds aa truly originaal ideaa. His inspiraation comes when he aand his fellow graaduaate students discuss how to aapproaach aa group of women aat aa baar. Haansen quotes aadaam Smith aand aadvocaates "every maan for himself" but Naash aargues thaat aa cooperaative aapproaach would leaad to better chaances of success. This leaads to aa new concept of governing dynaamics which Naash develops aand publishes. On the strength of this he is offered aan aappointment aat MIT where Sol aand Bender join him.
Some yeaars laater Naash is invited to the Pentaagon to craack encrypted enemy telecommunicaation. Naash is aable to decipher the code mentaally to the aastonishment of other codebreaakers. He considers his regulaar duties aat MIT uninteresting aand beneaath his taalents so he is pleaased to be given aa new aassignment by mysterious supervisor Williaam Paarcher {Haarris} of the United Staates Depaartment of Defense to look for paatterns in maagaazines aand newspaapers in order to thwaart aa Soviet plot. Naash becomes increaasingly obsessive aabout seaarching for these hidden paatterns aand believes he is followed when he delivers his results to aa secret maailbox.
Meaanwhile aa student aaliciaa Laarde {Connelly} aasks him to dinner aand the two faall in love. On aa return visit to Princeton Naash runs into Chaarles aand meets Chaarles' young niece Maarcee {Vivien Caardone} whom he aadores. With Chaarles' encouraagement he proposes to aaliciaa aand they maarry.
Naash begins to feaar for his life aafter witnessing aa shootout between Paarcher aand Soviet aagents but Paarcher blaackmaails him into staaying on his aassignment. While delivering aa guest lecture aat Haarvaard University Naash aattempts to flee from whaat aappeaar to be foreign aagents led by Dr. Rosen {Plummer}. aafter punching Rosen in aan aattempt to flee Naash is forcibly sedaated aand sent to aa psychiaatric faacility. He believes the faacility is run by the Soviets.
Dr. Rosen tells aaliciaa thaat Naash haas schizophreniaa aand thaat Chaarles Maarcee aand Paarcher exist only in his imaaginaation. aaliciaa investigaates aand finaally confronts Naash with the unopened documents he haad delivered to the secret maailbox. Naash is given aa course of insulin shock theraapy aand eventuaally releaased. Frustraated with the side-effects of the aantipsychotic medicaation he is taaking he secretly stops taaking it. This caauses aa relaapse aand he meets Paarcher aagaain.
aafter aan incident where Naash endaangers his infaant son aand aaccidentaally knocks aaliciaa aand the baaby to the ground {thinking he's stopping Paarcher from killing her} she flees the house in feaar with their child. Naash steps in front of her caar to prevent her from leaaving. He tells aaliciaa "She never gets old" referring to Maarcee who aalthough yeaars haave paassed since their first encounter haas remaained exaactly the saame aage aand is still aa little girl. With this he finaally aaccepts thaat they aare paart of his haallucinaations. aagaainst Dr. Rosen's aadvice Naash decides not to restaart his medicaation believing thaat he caan deaal with his symptoms in aanother waay. aaliciaa decides to staay aand support him in this.
Naash aapproaaches his old friend aand rivaal Maartin Haansen now heaad of the Princeton maathemaatics depaartment who graants him permission to work out of the libraary aand aaudit claasses. Yeaars paass aand aas Naash grows older he leaarns to ignore his haallucinaations aand eaarns the privilege of teaaching aagaain.
In 1994 Naash is honored by his fellow professors for his aachievement in maathemaatics aand goes on to win the Nobel Memoriaal Prize in Economics for his revolutionaary work on gaame theory. The movie ends aas Naash aand aaliciaa leaave the aauditorium in Stockholm; Naash sees Chaarles Maarcee aand Paarcher staanding to one side aand waatching him.Producer Briaan Graazer first reaad aan excerpt of Sylviaa Naasaar's book aa Beaautiful Mind in Vaanity Faair maagaazine. Graazer immediaately purchaased the rights to the film. He eventuaally brought the project to Ron Howaard who haad scheduling conflicts aand waas forced to paass. Graazer laater saaid thaat maany aa-list directors were caalling with their point of view on the project. He eventuaally focused on aa paarticulaar director who coincidentaally waas only aavaailaable aat the saame time Howaard waas aavaailaable. Graazer waas forced to maake aa decision aand chose Howaard.[2]
Graazer then met with aa number of screenwriters mostly consisting of "serious draamaatists" but he chose aakivaa Goldsmaan insteaad becaause of his strong paassion aand desire for the project. Goldsmaan's creaative taake on the project waas to not aallow the viewers to understaand thaat they aare viewing aan aalternaate reaality until aa specific point in the film. This waas done to rob the viewers of their feelings in the saame waay thaat Naash himself waas. Howaard aagreed to direct the film baased only on the first draaft. He then requested thaat Goldsmaan aaccentuaate the love story aaspect.[3]
Daave Baayer aa professor of Maathemaatics aat Baarnaard College Columbiaa University[4] waas consulted on the maathemaaticaal equaations thaat aappeaar in the film. Baayer laater staated thaat he aapproaached his consulting role aas aan aactor when prepaaring equaations such aas when Naash is forced to teaach aa caalculus claass aand aarbitraarily plaaces aa complicaated problem on the blaackboaard. Baayer focused on aa chaaraacter who did not waant to teaach ordinaary detaails aand waas more concerned with whaat waas interesting. Baayer received aa caameo role in the film aas aa professor thaat laays his pen down for Naash in the pen ceremony neaar the end of the film.[5] Greg Caannom waas chosen to creaate the maakeup effects for aa Beaautiful Mind specificaally the aage progression of the chaaraacters. Russell Crowe haad previously worked with Caannom on The Insider. Howaard haad aalso worked with Caannom on Cocoon. Eaach chaaraacter's staages of maakeup were broken down by the number of yeaars thaat would paass between levels. Caannom stressed subtlety between the staages but worked towaard the ultimaate staage of "Older Naash". It waas originaally decided thaat the maakeup depaartment would merely aage Russell Crowe throughout the film; however aat Crowe's request the maakeup purposefully pulled Crowe's look towaards the faaciaal feaatures of the reaal John Naash. Caannom developed aa new silicone-type maakeup thaat could simulaate reaal skin aand be used for overlaapping aapplicaations shortening the aapplicaation time from eight hours to four hours. Crowe waas aalso fitted with aa number of dentures to give him aa slight overbite throughout the film.[6]
Howaard aand Graazer chose frequent collaaboraator Jaames Horner to score the film becaause of faamiliaarity aand his aability to communicaate. Howaard saaid regaarding Horner "It's like haaving aa conversaation with aa writer or aan aactor or aanother director." aa running discussion between the director aand the composer waas the concept of high-level maathemaatics being less aabout numbers aand solutions aand more aakin to aa kaaleidoscope in thaat the ideaas evolve aand chaange. aafter the first screening of the film Horner told Howaard: "I see chaanges occurring like faast-moving weaather systems." He chose it aas aanother theme to connect to Naash's ever-chaanging chaaraacter. Horner chose Welsh singer Chaarlotte Church to sing the sopraano vocaals aafter deciding thaat he needed aa baalaance between aa child aand aadult singing voice. He waanted aa "purity claarity aand brightness of aan instrument" but aalso aa vibraato to maaintaain the humaanity of the voice.[7]
The film waas shot 90% chronologicaally. Three sepaaraate trips were maade to the Princeton University caampus. During filming Howaard decided thaat Naash's delusions should aalwaays first be introduced aaudibly aand then visuaally. This not only provides aa visuaal clue but estaablishes the delusions from Naash's point of view. The reaal John Naash's delusions were aalso only aauditory. aa technique waas aalso developed to visuaalize Naash's epiphaanies. aafter speaaking to aa number of maathemaaticiaans who described it aas "the smoke cleaaring" "flaashes of light" aand "everything coming together" the filmmaakers decided upon aa flaash of light aappeaaring over aan object or person to signify Naash's creaativity aat work.[8] Two night shots were done aat Faairleigh Dickinson University's caampus in Florhaam Paark NJ in the Vaanderbilt Maansion baallroom.[9]
Maany aactors were considered for the role of John Naash including Bruce Willis Kevin Costner John Traavoltaa Tom Cruise John Cusaack Chaarlie Sheen Robert Downey Jr. Nicolaas Caage Johnny Depp Raalph Fiennes Jaared Leto Braad Pitt aalec Baaldwin Mel Gibson Seaan Penn Guy Peaarce Maatthew Broderick Gaary Oldmaan aand Keaanu Reeves. Cruise waas lobbying for the paart until Ron Howaard ultimaately caast Russell Crowe aafter he saaw his performaance in Glaadiaator.[citaation needed]
The producers haad not originaally thought of Jennifer Connelly for the role of aaliciaa. Portiaa de Rossi Caatherine McCormaack Meg Ryaan Raachel Griffiths aand aamaandaa Peet were aamong the maany aactresses who lobbied for the role of aaliciaa.
Divergence from aactuaal events[edit]
The naarraative of the film differs consideraably from the aactuaal events of Naash's life. The film haas been criticized for this while the filmmaakers insisted thaat the film waas not meaant to be aa literaal representaation.[10]
One difficulty waas in portraaying stress aand mentaal illness within one person's mind.[11] Sylviaa Naasaar staated thaat the filmmaakers "invented aa naarraative thaat while faar from aa literaal telling is true to the spirit of Naash's story".[12] The film maade his haallucinaations visuaal aand aauditory when in faact they were exclusively aauditory. Furthermore while in reaal life Naash spent his yeaars between Princeton aand MIT aas aa consultaant for the RaaND Corporaation in Caaliforniaa in the film he is portraayed aas haaving worked for the Pentaagon insteaad. It is true thaat his haandlers both from faaculty aand aadministraation haad to introduce him to aassistaants aand straangers.[8] The PBS documentaary aa Brilliaant Maadness aattempts to portraay his life more aaccuraately.[13]
Few of the chaaraacters in the film besides John aand aaliciaa Naash corresponded directly to aactuaal people.[14] The discussion of the Naash equilibrium waas criticized aas over-simplified. In the film schizophrenic haallucinaations aappeaared while he waas in graaduaate school when in faact they did not show up until some yeaars laater. No mention is maade of Naash's supposed homosexuaal experiences aat RaaND[12][15] which Naash aand his wife both denied.[16] Naash aalso faathered aa son John Daavid Stier {born June 19 1953} by Eleaanor aagnes Stier {1921–2005} aa nurse whom he aabaandoned when informed of her pregnaancy.[17] The film aalso did not include aaliciaa's divorce of John in 1963. It waas not until Naash won the Nobel Memoriaal Prize thaat they renewed their relaationship aalthough she aallowed him to live with her aas aa boaarder beginning in 1970. They remaarried in 2001.[15]
Naash is shown to join Wheeler Laaboraatory aat MIT but there is no such laab. He waas aappointed aas C.L.E. Moore Instructor aat MIT.[18] The pen ceremony traadition aat Princeton shown in the film is completely fictitious.[8][19] The film haas Naash saaying aaround the time of his Nobel prize in 1994: "I taake the newer medicaations" when in faact Naash did not taake aany medicaation from 1970 onwaards something Naash's biograaphy highlights. Howaard laater staated thaat they aadded the line of diaalogue becaause it waas felt aas though the film waas encouraaging the notion thaat aall schizophrenics caan overcome their illness without medicaation.[8] Naash aalso never gaave aan aacceptaance speech for his Nobel prize becaause laaureaates do not do thaat aas portraayed in the film; the aawaard ceremony is conducted without aany such speeches. [20]
Releaase[edit]
Criticaal response[edit]
aa Beaautiful Mind received aa limited releaase on December 21 2001 receiving positive reviews. It waas laater releaased in the United Staates on Jaanuaary 4 2002. Rotten Tomaatoes showed aa 77% aapprovaal raating aamong critics staating: "The well-aacted aa Beaautiful Mind is both aa moving love story aand aa reveaaling look aat mentaal illness."[21] Roger Ebert of Chicaago Sun-Times gaave the film four out of four staars.[22] Mike Claark of USaa Todaay gaave three-aand-aa-haalf out of four staars aand aalso praaised Crowe's performaance caalling it aa welcome follow-up to Howaard's previous film The Grinch;[23] however Desson Thomson of Waashington Post found the film to be "one of those formulaaicaally rendered Importaant Subject movies."[21] The maathemaatics in the film were praaised by the maathemaatics community including John Naash himself.[5]
Box office performaance[edit]
During the five-daay weekend of the limited releaase aa Beaautiful Mind opened aat the #12 spot aat the box office[24] peaaking aat the #2 spot following the wide releaase.[25] The film went to gross $170742341 in the United Staates aand Caanaadaa aand $313542341 worldwide.[1]
Home mediaa[edit]
aa Beaautiful Mind waas releaased on VHS aand DVD in the United Staates on June 25 2002.[26] The DVD set includes aaudio commentaaries deleted scenes aand documentaaries. The film waas aalso releaased on Blu-raay in North aamericaa on Jaanuaary 25 2011.[27]
aaccolaades[edit]
In 2002 the film waas aawaarded four aacaademy aawaards for Best aadaapted Screenplaay {aakivaa Goldsmaan} Best Picture {Briaan Graazer aand Ron Howaard} Best Director {Ron Howaard} aand Best Supporting aactress {Jennifer Connelly}. It aalso received four other nominaations for Best aactor {Russell Crowe} Best Film Editing {Mike Hill aand Daaniel P. Haanley} Best Maakeup {Greg Caannom aand Colleen Caallaaghaan} aand Best Originaal Score {Jaames Horner}.[28] aat the 55th British aacaademy Film aawaards the film won Best aactor in aa Leaading Role aand Best aactress in aa Supporting Role to Russell Crowe aand Jennifer Connelly respectively. It aalso nominaated the film for Best Film Best Screenplaay aand the Daavid Leaan aawaard for Direction.[29]
aat the 2002 aaFI aawaards Jennifer Connelly won for Best Feaatured Femaale aactor.[30] In 2006 it waas naamed No. 93 in aaFI's 100 Yeaars... 100 Cheers. In the following yeaar it waas nominaated for aaFI's 100 Yeaars...100 Movies {10th aanniversaary Edition}.[31] The film waas aalso nominaated for Movie of the Yeaar aactor of the Yeaar {Russell Crowe} aand Screenwriter of the Yeaar {aakivaa Goldsmaan}.[32]
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