Schizophrenia In Ron Howard's Film A Beautiful Mind

Pivotal to a film’s success is in its ability to engage the wider audience into differing perceptions of truly unique experiences. A film has the ability to subject the responder to unconventional mentalities, in the hope of a catalyst in the change of their narrow perceptions on undisclosed experiences. Ron Howard’s 2001 Roman A Clef film A Beautiful Mind, resonates with the viewer as it is a rare opportunity to experience firsthand the psychosis, debilitation and eventual redemption associated with living with schizophrenia. The three act structure is ironically symbolic of this illness where initially we see from the sufferer’s perspective as to enhance our empathy through his desirable qualities as Goldman the screenwriter states, “The architecture of John’s life... [gives] people some insight into what it might be like to have this disease”. Howard has skilfully utilized film noir, characterisation and mise-en-scene to allow the audience to better understand the sufferer and the social stigma their illness incurs. Through Howard’s powerful use of film noir he deceptively draws the viewer into Nash’s ‘life’; allowing us to ride the experiences of the protagonist’s all-consuming notion of his real experiences. Throughout the first culmination of second act ‘the car chase’ scene Howard conveys Nash as …show more content…
The three act perspective structure is strongly employed in the film as the audience views schizophrenia from the inside. In turn, the responder’s stigma of mental illness is challenged as the audience is allowed a powerful experience into the hardship, trauma, powerlessness and redemption associated with mental illness. This has been achieved through illuminating film noir, strong complimenting characterisations, dynamic mise-en-scene and an engaging