A Beautiful Mind Film Analysis

‘A Beautiful Mind’, directed by Ron Howard, is set in and around Princeton. It is a film about a Mathematical genius whose life is complicated by him developing Schizophrenia. In comparison ‘The Social Network’, directed by David Fincher, is set in Harvard and California. ‘The Social Network’ is a film about a genius that is sued for allegedly stealing the idea behind Facebook. In a comparison of these two films I will set out to show how both directors have successfully portrayed their protagonist’s obsessions and the effects of this on their lives.

Ron Howard uses various techniques to portray Nash’s obsession for patterns and numbers. One technique, is the use of bright light when Nash sees a solution, as shown with lit numbers popping out when he is deciphering code. This obsession is revealed as a feature of his schizophrenia Howard uses over the shoulder shots when Nash is working in his office and we see the information popping up from the mess of papers to emphasise Nash’s point of view.

Similarly, Fincher introduces us to Mark as a social misfit obsessed with technology. Fincher uses mostly low …show more content…
He uses over the shoulder shots to see this through Nash’s perspective and only in the psychiatric hospital a different perspective is employed. Like Nash, we struggle to distinguish between reality and fiction. Fincher shows the characters being held in the frame for a short time, then cut, dissolved and framed, demonstrating a flashback. Nash’s difficulty relating is presented when teaching his students, we see him walking away from the students and then a close-up shot of him peering through the window, a high angle shot out of the window, conveying John’s disconnection with those around him. The hallucinations of Charles and Marcy fulfil his need for relationship. His obsessions and behaviours isolate him and due to this Alicia struggles to relate to