A Beautiful Mind (USA, 2001)
Aichi Insurance Physicians’ Newspaper
June, 2002
Winner of Four Major Academy Awards
Few films have portrayed schizophrenia, a condition that was soon to be renamed from “schizophrenia” under the old Japanese terminology to “integration disorder” (tōgō shitchōshō). Perhaps this is because few famous people have publicly lived with the condition. Among the best-known examples are Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln; the brilliant ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky; and David Helfgott, whose life inspired the Oscar-winning film Shine.
A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor, tells the story of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who received the Nobel Prize in Economics. A solitary young man who tries to explain everything in the world through mathematics, Nash is fiercely proud but socially awkward and has no idea how to court women. His blunt approach to a woman he has just met serves as a warning against the shallow tactics of a pickup artist, while also illustrating the social difficulties that can be seen in highly gifted people with traits resembling high-functioning autism.
After America's victory in World War II, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union begins. Brilliant mathematicians are recruited for intelligence work in the national security struggle. Nash is selected from Princeton for a position at MIT and assigned a secret mission. Around this time, his delusions begin to take root, eventually making it difficult for him to distinguish reality from fantasy. He becomes unable to lecture at the university or even care properly for his infant child.
Desperate, his wife contacts a psychiatrist, and Nash is hospitalized against his will. The film depicts the side effects of chlorpromazine, which had only recently been introduced at the time, including Parkinsonian symptoms, weight gain, and sexual dysfunction. Scenes of insulin shock therapy also appear, although some aspects seem to confuse it with electroconvulsive therapy.
The story follows Nash through repeated refusals to take medication and relapses. Even when he can no longer teach or produce intellectual work, Princeton, his former academic home, continues to provide him with a place to live and a community where he belongs. Supported by his wife's patient and enduring love, he eventually stands at the Nobel Prize ceremony nearly half a century later.
The film offers viewers a message of hope: even if much of one's life is spent struggling with illness, a time may eventually come to shine.
Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly, who plays Nash's wife, also deliver memorable performances. Despite Crowe's excellent acting, however, the film falls short of Shine in its overall impact. Unlike Helfgott, who rebuilt his life and emerged as a world-renowned pianist after years of illness, Nash received the Nobel Prize for work he had done at the age of twenty-one, before the onset of his illness. The film deserves some credit for showing that a person who has experienced schizophrenia could attend a Nobel Prize ceremony.
Stories about famous people living with serious illnesses can offer hope and courage to the many unknown individuals suffering from the same conditions. An editorial in the Asahi Shimbun suggested that Hollywood might deliberately make such films in order to win Oscars. That remark revealed much about the standard of journalism at the time. In this respect, A Beautiful Mind certainly became a film that generated considerable discussion.
