The underside of genius in the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001): Plot Analysis & Meaning Of The Film, Explanation Of The Ending.
Country: USA
Genre: drama, biography, melodrama
Year of production: 2001
Director: Ron Howard
Actors: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly
The point of A Beautiful Mind is that nothing is impossible for a person. The picture reveals the tragedy of a scientist, drugged by a thirst not only for discoveries, but also for fame. Schizophrenia causes him to periodically lose touch with reality. Nash, desperately fighting the disease and his demons, emerges victorious in this fight.
There is no hidden meaning in the picture, complex riddles that require clues, and an intricate plot that involves several interpretations. This is just a touching picture about the strength of the spirit, about the possibilities of the intellect. And about love.
Plot
A brief description of the content of the picture. The film “A Beautiful Mind” is based on the story of John Nash, the genius of mathematics, economics, and the author of game theory.
The chronology of the picture begins with the young years of John Nash. As a student, he showed great promise. However, when he arrived at the university, he could not establish contact with others: John was too strange. He only interacted with his roommate, Charles Herman.
Russell Crowe starring John Nash. Frame from the film.
John ignored university seminars in every possible way, in some way despising them: in his opinion, this form of education destroys the creative thinking of students, giving them only stereotyped knowledge.
The brilliant young scientist went on to a career as an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, his life changed dramatically: he met a girl named Alicia, and, despite his difficult nature, they soon began a relationship that eventually led to marriage.
It would seem that everything is going well: the young genius builds a family, is engaged in adored science, but soon the content of the film becomes more gloomy: the hero receives a blow of fate that turns his life upside down.
It all starts with the fact that Nash is approached by a CIA agent and offers him to work for the good of the country, namely, to analyze encrypted information directed against the United States. Soon, along with a government agent, Nash comes under fire.
After a while, it turns out that this story is just an illusion that was born in John’s head. That is, during this period, the beginnings of paranoid schizophrenia begin to appear in him, which is accompanied by hallucinations.
More and more immersed in work, Nash realizes that his illness is progressing. He does not know how to deal with it, and as a result, everything that happens in his head seriously threatens his career and relationship with his wife.
By the way, there is a mistake in the film. In reality, the scientist John Nash had only auditory hallucinations, not accompanied by visions. But in the picture “A Beautiful Mind” everything is presented in such a way that the hero sees non-existent people.
Jennifer Connelly as John’s wife, Alicia. Frame from the film.
In the end, Nash faced a dilemma: to undergo a long and painful treatment, putting his scientific work at risk, or to continue to live as he lived before. At first, he was in denial for a long time, but eventually agreed to undergo therapy, which eventually helped him bring the disease under some control.
John could not completely get rid of hallucinations, but he learned to distinguish them from reality, which made him no longer so dangerous to others. By the way, his wife Alicia made the greatest contribution to John’s rehabilitation: if not for her love and faith, one can only guess what could have happened to him.
According to the creators of the picture, the film “A Beautiful Mind” allows you to “look” into the head of the character: almost until the end of the film, the viewer does not know that he is watching a fictional reality. This was done so that the audience could feel the same way as Nash – to be in his shoes.
Game theory
All John Nash’s thoughts were occupied with how to solve problems that baffled other mathematicians. Through his search, John learned about a new field of applied mathematics called “Game Theory”, and he set to work on his unique idea.
The essence of game theory is explained by the scene in the bar. The meaning is this: when a beautiful girl entered the bar, Nash suggested that all young people pay attention not to her, but to her “retinue”.
The role of Parcher was played by Ed Harris. Frame from the film.
Nash’s solution was that all participants in the process (players) should use the most optimal strategy to achieve the goal. That is, they should take into account not only their own interests, but also the interests of other participants. The balance will be upset if one of the guys starts flirting with that same beautiful girl. This strategy of behavior leads to the emergence of sustainable interest. It is beneficial for the players to maintain balance: any change will worsen their situation.
That is, John Nash’s game theory is a mathematical way of studying a process in which two or more parties are fighting for the realization of their interests. The developed solutions of game theory have found application in all spheres of life, from modeling the behavior of an individual in various situations to forecasting the development of international relations.
A real example of the Nash theory in international relations is the guaranteed destruction of each other by countries if nuclear weapons are used. The balance is broken if one of the countries starts a nuclear conflict, provided that its opponents also possess these weapons. Also, the balance is disturbed if one of the parties disarms unilaterally – that is, renounces nuclear weapons.
The meaning of the film
The idea behind A Beautiful Mind is that genius is also a disease, a gift and a curse at the same time.
Nash is besotted with a thirst not only for discoveries, but also for recognition of his usefulness to society. A terrible disease causes him to periodically lose touch with reality.
And yet, Nash, desperately fighting with circumstances, not without the help of loving people, emerges victorious. Like Forrest Gump, like Charlie Babbitt, like the paralytic Leonard Lowe from The Awakening and Andrew Beckett from Philadelphia dying of AIDS, the protagonist undergoes an initiation rite, the meaning of which was to defeat the inner demon that turned him into what he is. was. At the same time, John Nash goes through a difficult path of socialization, learning the difficult art of living in the world of people. His path seems to tell the viewer: nothing is impossible.
The explanation of Nash’s disease lies in one simple phrase: “woe from the mind.” Although the fault here lies with his ego: it catches the eye from the very beginning of the film and is felt almost to the end.
Viewers in their analysis and reviews note that the protagonist of the picture “A Beautiful Mind” does not just want to be the best – he wants to rise above others. He has such a high opinion of his own person that he does not need other people. He rejects them, and sometimes humiliates and insults them. Thus, the human element in him is gradually eroded, and the ego grows and takes up so much space that it begins to control it.
The meaning of the appearance of unrealistic characters is that at first they become a kind of “stimulant” for Nash, and closer to the finale, when the hero, fighting the disease, confronts them, they symbolize a subdued ego. Almost at the end of the picture, they leave, and at the same time, in the soul of the protagonist of the film “A Beautiful Mind”, a place is made for real people.
Frame from the film.
Ending explanation
The explanation for the ending is the simplest: at the end of A Beautiful Mind, a slightly aged John and Alicia attend the Nobel Prize ceremony. The moment of truth arrives: Nash wins an economics award for his analysis of equilibrium in non-cooperative game theory.
At the ceremony, John receives the floor and thanks his wife. He says that if not for her, he would never have become a scientist with a worldwide reputation.
The point of the ending of A Beautiful Mind is that a person is able to overcome all obstacles – especially if he has powerful support.
So what is the movie about?
“A Beautiful Mind” is not a movie about genius or mental disorders. It’s about what to do with it all.
The point of everything that happens is that John did not break down under the weight of the disease – moreover, he was able to recognize it himself, which is very rare for patients with schizophrenia.
This film can be a great motivation not to give up, because even such a disease as paranoid schizophrenia can be defeated.
I cried a lot watching the film. I don’t think he had schizophrenia. He was a savant on the autistic scale and did not suffer fools gladly. It is telling that he never went to seminars for fear of them corrupting his beautiful mind, which is why I never went to university.
He and I come across as arrogant and antisocial and are only capable of having good relationships with fellow savants. I have only met five in my long life and got along great. Only one survives.