A Beautiful Mind (film)

''A Beautiful Mind'' is a 2001 American biographical drama film directed by Ron Howard. Written by Akiva Goldsman, its screenplay was inspired by Sylvia Nasar's 1998 biography of the mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. ''A Beautiful Mind'' stars Russell Crowe as Nash, along with Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The story begins in Nash's days as a graduate student at Princeton University. Early in the film, Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while watching the burden his condition brings on his wife Alicia and friends.

''A Beautiful Mind'' was released theatrically in the United States on December 21, 2001. It went on to gross over $313 million worldwide and won four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Connelly. It was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score.

Plot

In 1947, John Nash arrives at Princeton University as co-recipient, with Martin Hansen, of the Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics. He meets fellow math and science graduate students Sol, Ainsley, and Bender, as well as his roommate Charles Herman, a literature student.

Determined to publish his own original idea, Nash is inspired when he and his classmates discuss how to approach a group of women at a bar. Hansen quotes Adam Smith advocating "every man for himself", but Nash argues that a cooperative approach would lead to better chances of success developing a new concept of governing dynamics. Publishing an article on his theory, he earns an appointment at MIT where he chooses Sol and Bender over Hansen to join him.

In 1953, Nash is invited to the Pentagon to study encrypted enemy telecommunications, which he deciphers mentally. Bored with his regular duties at MIT, including teaching, he is recruited by the mysterious William Parcher of the United States Department of Defense with a classified assignment: to look for hidden patterns in magazines and newspapers to thwart a Soviet plot. Nash becomes increasingly obsessive in his search for these patterns, delivering his results to a secret mailbox, and comes to believe he is being followed.

One of his students, Alicia Larde, asks him to dinner, and they fall in love. On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into Charles and his niece, Marcee. With Charles' encouragement, he proposes to Alicia and they marry. Nash fears for his life after surviving a shootout between Parcher and Soviet agents, and learns Alicia is pregnant, but he is forced to continue his assignment. While delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash tries to flee from people he thinks are Soviet agents, led by psychiatrist Dr. Rosen, but is forcibly sedated and committed to a psychiatric facility.

Dr. Rosen tells Alicia that Nash has schizophrenia and that Charles, Marcee, and Parcher exist only in his imagination. Alicia backs up the doctor, telling Nash that no "William Parcher" is in the Defense Department and takes out the unopened documents he delivered to the secret mailbox. Nash is given a course of insulin shock therapy and eventually released. Frustrated with the side effects of his antipsychotic medication, he secretly stops taking it and starts seeing Parcher and Charles again.

In 1956, Alicia discovers Nash has resumed his "assignment" in a shed near their home. Realizing he has relapsed, Alicia rushes to the house to find Nash had left their infant son in the running bathtub, believing "Charles" was watching the baby. Alicia calls Dr. Rosen, but Nash accidentally knocks her and the baby to the ground, believing he's fighting Parcher.

As Alicia flees with the baby, Nash stops her car and tells her he realizes that "Marcee" isn't real because she doesn't age, finally accepting that Parcher and other figures are hallucinations. Against Dr. Rosen's advice, Nash chooses not to restart his medication, believing he can deal with his symptoms himself, and Alicia decides to stay and support him.

Nash returns to Princeton, approaching his old rival Hansen, now head of the mathematics department, who allows him to work out of the library and audit classes. Over the next two decades, Nash learns to ignore his hallucinations and, by the late 1970s, is allowed to teach again.

In 1994, Nash is awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his revolutionary work on game theory, and is honored by his fellow professors. At the ceremony, he dedicates the prize to his wife. As Nash, Alicia, and their son leave the auditorium in Stockholm, Nash sees Charles, Marcee, and Parcher watching him, but glances at them before departing.

Cast

Production

Development

After producer Brian Grazer first read an excerpt of Sylvia Nasar's book '' A Beautiful Mind'' in '' Vanity Fair'' magazine, he immediately purchased the rights to the film. Grazer later said that many A-list directors were calling with their point of view on the project. He eventually brought the project to his long time partner and director Ron Howard."A Beautiful Partnership: Ron Howard and Brian Grazer", from ''A Beautiful Mind'' DVD, 2002.

Grazer met with a number of screenwriters, mostly consisting of "serious dramatists", but he chose Akiva Goldsman because of his strong passion and desire for the project. Goldsman's creative take on the project was to avoid having viewers understand they are viewing an alternative reality until a specific point in the film. This was done to rob the viewers of their understanding, to mimic how Nash comprehended his experiences. Howard agreed to direct the film based on the first draft. He asked Goldsman to emphasize the love story of Nash and his wife; she was critical to his being able to continue living at home."Development of the Screenplay", from ''A Beautiful Mind'' DVD, 2002.

Dave Bayer, a professor of mathematics at Barnard College, Columbia University, was consulted on the mathematical equations that appear in the film. For the scene where Nash has to teach a calculus class and gives them a complicated problem to keep them busy, Bayer chose a problem physically unrealistic but mathematically very rich, in keeping with Nash as "someone who really doesn't want to teach the mundane details, who will home in on what's really interesting". Bayer received a cameo role in the film as a professor who lays his pen down for Nash in the pen ceremony near the end of the film.

Greg Cannom was chosen to create the makeup effects for ''A Beautiful Mind'', specifically the age progression of the characters. Crowe had previously worked with Cannom on '' The Insider''. Howard had also worked with Cannom on '' Cocoon''. Each character's stages of makeup were broken down by the number of years that would pass between levels. Cannom stressed subtlety between the stages, but worked toward the ultimate stage of "Older Nash". The production team originally decided that the makeup department would age Russell Crowe throughout the film; however, at Crowe's request, the makeup was used to push his look to resemble the facial features of John Nash. Cannom developed a new silicone-type makeup that could simulate skin and be used for overlapping applications; this shortened make-up application time from eight to four hours. Crowe was also fitted with a number of dentures to give him a slight overbite in the film."The Process of Age Progression", from ''A Beautiful Mind'' DVD. 2002.

Howard and Grazer chose frequent collaborator James Horner to score the film because they knew of his ability to communicate. Howard said, regarding Horner, "it's like having a conversation with a writer or an actor or another director". A running discussion between the director and the composer was the concept of high-level mathematics being less about numbers and solutions, and more akin to a kaleidoscope, in that the ideas evolve and change. After the first screening of the film, Horner told Howard: "I see changes occurring like fast-moving weather systems". He chose it as another theme to connect to Nash's ever-changing character. Horner chose Welsh singer Charlotte Church to sing the soprano vocals after deciding that he needed a balance between a child and adult singing voice. He wanted a "purity, clarity and brightness of an instrument" but also a vibrato to maintain the humanity of the voice."Scoring the Film", from ''A Beautiful Mind'' DVD, 2002.

The film was shot 90% chronologically. Three separate trips were made to the Princeton University campus. During filming, Howard decided that Nash's delusions should always be introduced first audibly and then visually. This provides a clue for the audience and establishes the delusions from Nash's point of view. The historic John Nash had only auditory delusions. The filmmakers developed a technique to represent Nash's mental epiphanies. Mathematicians described to them such moments as a sense of "the smoke clearing", "flashes of light" and "everything coming together", so the filmmakers used a flash of light appearing over an object or person to signify Nash's creativity at work.''A Beautiful Mind'' DVD commentary featuring Ron Howard, 2002. Two night shots were done at Fairleigh Dickinson University's campus in Florham Park, New Jersey

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