An Insight into The Various Aspects of Society in a Beautiful Mind, a Film by Ron Howard

To what extent does a film give insight into society (past or present)?

In his acclaimed bio-pic of John Nash, “A Beautiful Mind”, director Ron Howard depicts the triumphs and struggles of a Nobel-Prize-winning mathematician whose mind was no less flawed than it was brilliant. The film provides an insight into various aspects of society, including the great competiveness that exists among the academic elite, the reality and difficulties of marriage as well as the world of schizophrenia.

John Nash’s struggle with schizophrenia, which is arguably the film’s main theme, is depicted extraordinarily well by Ron Howard and his team, who have shown the entire first half of the film from Nash’s perspective, allowing the audience to see how a victim experiences schizophrenia. An example of this is the scene where Nash awakes in a psychiatric hospital, which because of his illness he believes to be a Russian facility, where he, supposedly a military code breaker, is being held captive. The camera shows Dr. Rosen’s sinister-looking face, from Nash’s point-of-view, looking down on Nash. Nash does not believe Dr. Rosen and this belief is reaffirmed when he sees Charles, his imaginary friend, looking guiltily on while Nash struggles with his cuffs. Later, Dr. Rosen asks of Nash’s illness, “What kind of a hell would that be?” The fact that the film initially shows Nash’s imaginary companions as real allows the audience to feel empathy for Nash and gives an insight into the reality of schizophrenia, an illness that society often fails to understand.

“A Beautiful Mind” delves deeply too into the competiveness that existed and exists today between members of the academic elite. A recurring theme in the film is the rivalry between Nash and Martin Hansen, “the other winner of the distinguished Carnaghie Scholarship.” Despite their common academic brilliance, the two are opposites in terms of character. Nash says of himself: “I like to think that I’m a lone wolf, but it’s mainly because people don’t like me.” Hansen, on the other hand, is a very popular and outgoing character, who at least during their time at Princeton’s graduate school remains confident of his academic superiority to Nash, whom he frequently teases: “What if you never come up with your original idea? What if you lose?” Nash, too, seems to be spurred on by this rivalry. However, he is also haunted by the thought of failure, saying that finding “a truly original idea … is the only way I’ll ever matter.” This desperate desire for achievement and recognition among academics is depicted very well in “A Beautiful Mind”.

Finally, “A Beautiful Mind” gives insight into the reality of marriage and what it means to love. When the beautiful, aspiring mathematics student, Alicia, marries her professor, John Nash, she is completely unaware of Nash’s illness, which has been tightening its grip on him since Princeton. When the illness causes Nash to become increasingly paranoid and disorganized, his relationship with Alicia begins to become less than ideal. Even though it would have been understandable for Alicia to give up on him, she decides to keep the promise she made to him by holding on to him for better and worse, and indeed in sickness and in health. When Nash receives the Nobel Prize for Economics, the recognition he always desired, he declares his appreciation for his wife. “It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reason can be found.” This brilliant film provides an insight into another aspect of society that is often considered taboo, namely the reality of marriage and the reality of love.

In “A Beautiful Mind” we have an Oscar-winning masterpiece of Hollywood that does not simply depict the career of a flawed genius, “the great John Nash”; it is a portrayal of all those who cannot distinguish between the imaginary and the real, of those who believe that the only way that they will ever matter is by being extraordinary. It is also a portrayal of the triumph of love against all odds, odds that not even a beautiful mind can define.