A Beautiful Mind Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind

Synopsis

The movie selected for the assignment is A Beautiful Mind. A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 critically acclaimed film starring Russell Crowe The movie is a biographical drama film based on the life of Professor John Nash. The movie begins during the earlier years of John Nash’s life. Nash is a new graduate student at Princeton University. A young prodigy, Nash is under a lot of stress and pressure. Nash earns his way to Princeton not through wealth, but instead through prizes and scholarships, for his remarkable intellectual abilities in mathematics. Nash receives a room and Princeton and a completely paid tuition. However, Nash has to move in with a roommate named Charles. Contrasting to Nash, Charles is an outgoing person with a lively

Nash suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness in which a person loses touch with reality. Also identified as psychosis, the mental illness ravages an individual’s life and makes functioning in society extremely problematic. Schizophrenia severely impacts thought and perception and as well causes disturbances in mood and behavior. Schizophrenia is characterized by various symptoms which are present throughout the movie. Hallucinations or false sensory perception is one symptom of schizophrenia. Generally involving auditory hallucinations it is common to have hallucinations that encompass touch, vision, smell, and taste as was illustrated in the film. Delusions are likewise a significant component in schizophrenia. Delusions are fixed, false beliefs that are held by an individual despite the impossibility of the delusion. Delusions are strong held and often the person is very reluctant and resistant of attempts of persuasion to reality from others. The delusions can in fact ultimately cause the person to become paranoid. Paranoia manifests into the person believing they are in immediate danger or threat. Delusions tend to frequently have a specific emphasis on an object or event (e.g. United States Department of Defense). Another common theme with delusional schizophrenia is visions of grandiose, such as the belief that a

Foremost, the film is one of a few films that portray mental illness. A Beautiful Mind was a box office hit, and brought the discussion of mental illness into the spot light. Any consciousness effort to bring awareness of mental health issues is definitely positive for public perception. However, there are certain features of the film that were not good for public perception. In the film, Nash abandoned his medication and began to treat himself through sheer will power. The movie produces the image that not taking medication and defeating schizophrenia through sheer will power is a serious possibility. Nonetheless, in authenticity not taking medication for an illness can cause several serious difficulties for certain people. Although Nash did overcome schizophrenia with no medication, not all people can. People who are highly intelligent cannot just use will power to eradicate psychotic symptoms. The movie depicts Nash as merely disregarding his schizophrenic delusions. In actuality, a person cannot ignore delusions, nor differentiate between reality and delusion. The film places a negative label on medications and practically gives the message that anyone can defeat