Posted by Ritch on January 19, 2003, at 15:13:06
In reply to Re: 'A Beautiful Mind' anyone? (SPOILER!) » M .Lee, posted by wendy b. on January 16, 2003, at 21:21:38
> Just ran across this link to an article about "A Beautiful Mind," from the web-zine Disability World, which maintains that John Nash was not in fact taking any psych-drugs for his schizophrenia at the time of his winning the Nobel Prize.
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> http://www.disabilityworld.org/01-03_02/arts/mind.shtml
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> The article says the screenwriters misled the public by having the Nash character say he was on some "newer" medication, when in fact he had gone into remission without the neuroleptics. Nash himself wondered whether the fact that one of the screen-writers was a psychiatrist, and possibly had a stake in the psychiatric drug-industry, had anything to do with the distortion of the facts. Interesting.
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> No, M.Lee, as a former student of the filmmaking arts, I don't ever think we're getting truth or even close to it on films like these. What I'm interested in is the *representation* of mental illness, and what it says about our culture. So I liked this thread, and felt I should revive it!
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> Best wishes,
> Wendy
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> ps: Speaking of Russell Crowe, I watched "L.A. Confidential" for the first time today (yes, I'm way behind on that one!), and he was fabulous. What a great movie...
Hi Wendy, I just watched "A Beautiful Mind" for the first time a couple of weeks ago on HBO. They did an excellent job of setting up the delusions and making them look so real. It fooled me and others that were watching it at first. Everybody had competing ideas of what was really happening-except the idea of a hallucination. The cold-war paranoia in the historical background of the movie helped to make those delusions seem much more real. I think you are onto something about the screenwriting and "the new meds" thing. The number one thing that gripes me about movies nowadays is the blatant (and perhaps more sinister) subtle product placement that just HAS to be there. Military movies are getting close to being commercials for defense contractors, too.
poster:Ritch
thread:34562
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030111/msgs/35511.html