From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his tragedy, and finally – late in life – received the Nobel Prize.
A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar.
The film stars Russell Crowe, 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 painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on wife Alicia and friends.
During the five-day weekend of the limited release, A Beautiful Mind opened at the #12 spot at the box office, peaking at the #2 spot following the wide release. The film went to gross $170,742,341 in the United States and Canada and $313,542,341 worldwide.
In 2002, the film was awarded four awards at the 74th Academy Awards, for Best Adapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman), Best Picture (Brian Grazer and Ron Howard), Best Director (Ron Howard) and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly). It also received four other nominations for Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Film Editing (Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley), Best Makeup (Greg Cannom and Colleen Callaghan) and Best Original Score (James Horner).
At the 55th British Academy Film Awards the film won Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role to Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly, respectively. It also nominated the film for Best Film, Best Screenplay and the David Lean Award for Direction. At the 2002 AFI Awards, Jennifer Connelly won for Best Featured Female Actor.
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. Two night shots were done at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s campus in Florham Park, New Jersey, in the Vanderbilt Mansion ballroom. Portions of the film set at Harvard were filmed at Manhattan College.
A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Victor Steinbach, Tanya Clarke, Vivien Cardone
Screenplay by: Sylvia Nasar, Akiva Goldsman
Cinematography by: Wynn Thomas
Costume Design by: Rita Ryack
Set Decoration by: Leslie E. Rollins
art Direction by: Robert Guerra
Makeup Department: Dale Brownell, Francesca Buccellato
Music by: James Horner
Distributed by Universal Pictures (North America), DreamWorks Pictures (International)
Release Date: January 4, 2002
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