<p>"A Beautiful Mind tells the autobiographical story of John Forbes Nash Jr. a distinguished professor from Princeton who went on to make some great theories and win the nobel prize. The centerpiece of the story is the fact that John Nash suffers from schizophrenia a debilitating condition for most people which leaves them helpless. Thus it is amazing that Nash has been able to achieve what he has. For the most part of the story his hallucinations turn out to institutionalize him at one point, when he thinks the Russians are trying to secretly send him coded messages through news publications."</p>
<p>The movie is set on the Princeton campus and contains great shots of the school's grounds and buildings. A Beautiful Mind was created by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks. In 2001, the film was awarded four Oscars for:</p>
<p>Adapted Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman
Best Picture: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Directing: Ron Howard
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Connelly
It also received four other nominations:</p>
<p>Best Actor in a Leading Role: Russell Crowe
Film Editing: Mike Hill, Daniel P. Hanley
Best Makeup: Greg Cannom, Colleen Callaghan
Original Music Score: James Horner </p>
<p>Trivia: The Harvard scene is actually filmed at Manhattan College.</p>
<p>Great campus views. Although set in the 50s, Princeton's beautiful stone and gothic buildings required few if any props. You can read the story line and film history here:</p>
<p>Someone I know, a Princeton '09, bumped into Professor Nash on her first day of classes. For a brief moment they were standing alone waiting to enter an office. He proceeded, in a friendly way, to comment on the weather. She said he was absolutely charming. What a start!!</p>
<p>There is an interesting anachronism in this film. In the undergrad scene at Princeton in 1948 there is worn a necktie that clearly depicts the double-stranded helical structure of DNA. As I recall, I think the molecule is shown replicating. It's a nice tie, but it is a problem because that was about five years before Watson and Crick first discovered the structure of DNA.</p>
<p>Ron Howard did a fantastic job with the movie. I think he managed to include every one of Princeton's famed archways in the movie as well as nearly all of the buildings existing at that period in time. </p>
<p>I suggest you read the link above for details on the filming.</p>
<p>Don't mind him, mystic. Just the pot calling the kettle black. Only, the kettle doesn't go out of its way to deride other schools and then deny it.</p>
<p>On the subject of John Nash, the filmmakers did whitewash some aspects of his personal life. However, great movie all the same.</p>
<p>The Princeton shots were filmed in Princeton, and the campus does look enchanting. I believe the MIT shots were filmed in the Bronx campus formerly belonging to either NYU or City College, and the Harvard shots were filmed in Brooklyn College (or was that Legally Blond?).</p>
<p>One odd thing about this beautiful movie that has been pointed out to me is the total exclusion of Asian professors from the movie. Given that this is highly unrealistic for either Princeton or MIT, even for those times, Ron Howard must, unexplainably, have made the conscious decision not to show Asians in this movie.</p>
<p>The pen signing ceremony, which is an invention of the film and not a Princeton tradition, was shot in the Commons Room of Rockefeller College.</p>
<p>It's a great movie, but please tell us you have something better to do on a Saturday night. Also, with the pen signing ceremony the way they enter the room from under Blair Arch doesn't work. That's all dorms, so it is Pton campus in all, but soem details are different. Also, the benches were added to Cannon Green. But, I do believe pton actually has a Go team, so that is kinda neat.</p>
<p>I think Russel Crowe is the best actor out there. He deserved the best actor award for this film too (he won for Gladiator the year before), but that was the year the academy decided to award minorities stuff. (Not that Denzel Washington and Halle Berry are bad at acting, they are really good. Its just that Crowe did a better job than Washington that year.</p>
<p>I love how whenever an African-American actor's performance is criticized in anyway, the poster always feels it incumbent upon himself to take the "NO NO NO I AM NOT RACIST ITS JUST THE ACTING WAS BAD GUYS!@" stance.</p>
<p>I didn't say I'm not racist, I simply said that Washington and Berry are good at acting. Berry deserved the award that year. I just think that Crowe was better than Washington for the movies they were in that particular year. I'm criticizing the academy for choosing Washington over Crowe because of what appears to be race. Also, I'm not criticizing anyone's acting, I just think that Crowe did a slightly better job than Washington did in Training Day.</p>
<p>So 1. I didn't criticize anyone. I just said that while Washington's performance was really good, it just wasn't as good as Crowe's.
2. I didn't defend anyone because of race. Washington and Berry could be Black, White, Asian or Martian and I would still say that Crowe did a better job than Washington. Berry deserved it that year though.</p>
<p>Therefore your argument doesn't hold and you look like an idiot. Also, you think I'm only saying that Washington and Berry are good at acting because of their race? They are good at acting no matter what their race. I was defending them from the "they only won because they are black" argument some moron would say.</p>