A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, accurately and respectfully portrays a brilliant man’s struggle in a highly stressful society.  John Nash is not just your average ordinary guy; he is the farthest thing from it, because of his illness he suffers from he was not able to live up to his fullest.  John Nash suffered from a case of schizophrenia, which in his case was a very bad illness to suffer from while trying to make an impact on the world and convince people of his work.  In this movie Russell Crowe portrays a very difficult character that is torn between his work and his family.  While attending Princeton John has many revelations on different mathematical problems in which he must solve.  John is on a quest to find and to solve a problem that can benefit the world and help to advance our society in some way.  John looks to many different topics until he finds one in which he is very acquainted with.  John decides to revise an old theorem on modern economics.  He recalls the great words of the father of our modern economics, Adam Smith, and states, “the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what’s best for themselves; incomplete.  The best result will come from everyone doing what’s best for themselves and what’s best for the group.”(A Beautiful Mind)  After John writes his theory and goes against years of written theory by Adam Smith he finally finds what he was looking for his whole life.  After John finally accomplishes this feat he becomes a teacher and does other work on the side.  John acquires a new job with William Parcher and does secret work for him.  People around John and his close friends don’t even realize what is happening to him until after his illness gets worse.  After a while John is taken to psychiatric care and is released later but has to take medicine for the rest of his life.  John goes back to teaching and is later recognized by Thomas King and is put up for consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize.  John’s equilibrium has become a cornerstone of modern economics.  The application of John’s new findings has helped many in today’s society.  John and his wife live in Princeton, New Jersey and he “still teaches at Princeton, and he walks to campus everyday.”(Ebert)

             While compiling my list of resources I found that this movie was portrayed very accurately.  While little, unimportant details were left out, the main focus of the life of John Nash was very well laid out.  For example, “There are a few things in the movie that are not as accurate as they could be, characters are more simple, and events are crammed together more throughout the movie.”(Sullentrop)  It is impossible to sum up a person’s life into a 2 hour movie as stated by Chris in his views of the movie.  John Nash portrays a character with exceptional brilliance yet suffers from a disease that hurts his studies.  John is able to find a topic and enhance a theory into one of his own but still struggles with the everyday interaction with people.  John has imaginary people that he sees and performs actions that make him seem crazy to others but make him feel as if he is doing a service to society.  The way that this is shown in the movie is very obvious.  The scenes with him cutting up old newspapers and magazine ads make him look as if he is really making a difference in the world when all he is doing is making a paper mache on his wall at the office in which he works in. 

              One scene that stuck out to me was after he realized that his topic would be on governing dynamics.  He ran back to his room and started to work on his theory.  The camera moved slowly away from the window during a snowy winter’s day.  The snowflakes to me represent the chaos that is going on in his life and inside his head.  They to me have two meanings, one of which is his life and what he is going through and the other is what is going on inside of his head when he is writing down his new findings.  He scanters through his papers and work trying to find a way to his final conclusion which to me seems as if it takes him a long time.  As the camera cascades away from the window the flakes seem to become more organized and more clear.  I find this a direct correlation to his work and to his life at that time. 

              “John and his wife Alicia share a relationship that if John had not had would have totally changed the movie.  A Beautiful Mind changes what love means in a regular Hollywood movie where it is defined by lust and romance to that of love with affection for the other person.”  (Berardinelli)

              A Beautiful Mind is a movie that a person will not get lost in while watching.  Even though it is based on a complicated man with complicated thoughts the theorems are explained in a way that keep the viewer’s attention throughout the entire movie. 

              Toward the end of the movie John is asked to go into the Professor’s dining room to eat lunch.  This is by far the most memorable part in John’s life and for the most part in the entire movie.  At the beginning of the movie John walks up to the entrance of the dining room with his lead professor and it is foreshadowed that he will never be in the position that any of the professors in there.  At that very dining room is where John’s life begins and ends.  He realizes that he needs to find a theorem soon or he will never be remembered by anyone.  The movie ends with him in the dining room being told that he has been chosen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  At this point in his life he has reached what he has been striving for for so long.