A Beautiful Mind
Storyline
Biopic of the famed mathematician John
Nash and his lifelong struggles with his
mental health. Nash enrolled as a graduate
student at Princeton in 1948 and almost
immediately stood out as an odd duck. He
devoted himself to finding something
unique, a mathematical theorem that
would be completely original. He kept to
himself for the most part and while he
went out for drinks with other students, he
spends a lot of time with his roommate,
Charles, who eventually becomes his best
friend. John is soon a professor at MIT
where he meets and eventually married a
graduate student, Alicia. Over time
however John begins to lose his grip on
reality, eventually being institutionalized
diagnosed with schizophrenia. As the
depths of his imaginary world are revealed,
Nash withdraws from society and it's not
until the 1970s that he makes his first
foray back into the world of academics,
gradually returning to research and
teaching. In 1994, John Nash was awarded
the Nobel prize in Economics.
John Nash visited the set, and Russell Crowe said later that he had been fascinated
by the way he moved his hands, and he had tried to do the same thing in the
movie.
Producer Brian Grazer won the rights to the project after John Nash and Alicia
Nashchose him over competitor Scott Rudin; the Nashes had long resisted having a
film made of their story.
The film was shot in sequence in order to help Russell Crowe develop a consistently
progressing manner of behavior.
While this film is inspired by the life of John Nash, there were elements from his life
that were deliberately omitted: 1) he was married twice, both to the same woman
(Alicia Nash); 2) in the past, he had several affairs with both men and women; 3) he
was arrested by the police by scandal; 4) He fathered a child out-of-wedlock in his
twenties; 5) he believed that through his mental illness the extra-terrestrials spoke
him, giving his advanced knowledge by means of cosmic connection with them; 6)
he tried to renounce to his American nationality some times, in the belief that the
USA government pursued him; and 7) he made numerous anti-Semitic comments
during his period of extreme mental illness, most of which equated Jews with world
Communism.
According to a 2001 Entertainment Weekly article on this film, the filmmakers
originally wanted to mention John Nash's homosexuality, but they feared the film
would make the wrong connection between homosexuality and schizophrenia, so
they abandoned it. This connection, according to the article, was based on several
now-discredited psychological studies that first appeared in the late 1950s.
The Riemann Hypothesis mentioned throughout the movie is a real and famous
problem in mathematics that has gone unsolved (it has not been proved yet) for
nearly 150 years. Many other important theories have been proved on the condition
that the Riemann Hypothesis holds, hence its importance. In the year 2000, the Clay
Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts listed the Riemann Hypothesis as
one of seven "Millennium Prize Problems" and offered a $1,000,000 reward to the
person that proves it.
Forrest Gump
Storyline
Forrest, Forrest Gump is a simple man with a
low IQ but good intentions. He is running
through childhood with his best and only friend
Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life
and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest
joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding
new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins
medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet,
inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze,
create the smiley, write bumper stickers and
songs, donating to people and meeting the
president several times. However this is all
irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his
childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed
up her life. Although in the end all he wants to
prove is that anyone can love anyone.
Warner Bros. gave up the rights to the film in 1988, in exchange for the rights
toExecutive Decision, because the studio felt that the project had lost its commercial
promise in the wake of Rain Man.
Warner Brothers had, at one point, the opportunity to make both "Rain Man"
and Forrest Gump but ended up with neither because of concerns they were too
similar. Peter Guberand Jon Peters' production company, which had picked up the
script for "Rain Man", had a first look deal with the studio. However, Roger
Birnbaum, an executive with the production company, felt that because Warner
Brothers was also developing "Forrest Gump", they would likely let "Rain Man" die if
they were to pick it up, because of the script's perceived similarity. So, reportedly,
he purposely gave a weak pitch to the studio in the hopes that they would reject it
and allow it to be pitched to another studio. This did in fact occur and United Artists
ended up making the film. After the movie's enormous success, Warner Brothers
decided to pass on "Forrest Gump" because they felt that audiences would be
unlikely to go to a movie with such a similar theme as "Rain Man". "Forrest Gump,"
which most people would consider to be an entirely different type of film than "Rain
Man", ended up being made by Paramount and became one of the most successful
movies of all time, grossing almost $330,000,000 in U.S. theaters.
Tom Hanks signed onto the film after an hour and a half of reading the script but
agreed to take the role only on the condition that the film was historically accurate.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #76 Greatest Movie of All
Time.
The movie's line "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know
what you're gonna get." was voted as the #40 movie quote by the American Film
Institute (out of 100).
Rain Man
Storyline
Charles Sanford "Charlie" Babbit is a selfcentered Los Angeles-based automobile
dealer/hustler/bookie who is at war with
his own life. Charlie, as a young
teenager, used his father's 1948 Buick
convertible without permission and as a
result, he went to jail for two days on
account that his father reported it stolen.
It is then that Charlie learns that his
estranged father died and left him from
his last will and testament a huge bed of
roses and the car while the remainder
will of $3 Million goes into a trust fund to
be distributed to someone. Charlie
seemed pretty angry by this and decides
to look into this matter. It seems as if
that "someone" is Raymond, Charlie's
unknown brother, an autistic savant who
lives in a world of his own, resides at the
Walbrook Institute. Charlie then kidnaps
Raymond and decides to take him on a
lust for life trip to the west coast as a
threat to get the $3 Million inheritance...
The script originally had Raymond as happy and friendly, but after an initial
reading Dustin Hoffman successfully lobbied for Raymond to be a withdrawn autistic.
Tom Cruise always wanted to rehearse while filming. He and Dustin
Hoffman rehearsed while driving to the set, and in their trailers during takes. They
frequently switched roles.
Dustin Hoffman was originally to play the part of Charlie Babbit, but after being
moved to tears seeing a savant named Leslie Lemke (who is blind, mentally
handicapped, and has cerebral palsy) play full concertos on the piano by ear, he
decided to play the part of Raymond instead.
Dustin Hoffman spent a lot of time with savant Kim Peek, the inspiration for
Raymond's character. Rain Man writer Barry Morrow first met Peek in 1986, and on
winning an Oscar for the screenplay of "Rain Man" in 1989, gave his Oscar trophy to
Kim Peek. Hoffman he made Kim's father (the main caregiver) promise that he would
"share Kim with the world." For nearly 20 years until his death, Kim Peek went all
over the world impressing people with his incredible memory and ability to recall
minute details from centuries of history.
Dustin Hoffman spent a year working with autistic men and their families to
understand their complex relationships. Also, when he was a jobbing actor, he had
worked in a psychiatric care home, and drew from his experiences then for the film.
The film first opened with a disappointing $6 million in sales. However, in the
following weeks, it generated great word of mouth amongst movie viewers, allowing
the movie to steadily climb up to the number 1 slot.
At one point, "Rain Man" was the biggest grossing Best Picture Oscar-winner. It was
subsequently surpassed by Forrest Gump which had been put into development at a
rival studio at roughly the same time.
Steven Spielberg considered directing. He began making notes in order to prepare
for the project. The reason he backed out is because his friend George Lucas needed
him to start work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So Spielberg left the
project and gave his notes to Barry Levinson.
Dustin Hoffman fought for the ending where Raymond goes back to Wallbrook, even
though the screenwriters both wanted him to end up with Charlie. Hoffman thought
it wouldn't be true to Raymond's character if they had him stay.
Barry Morrow
Barry Morrow is partnered with producer Richard Heus. Their company, Morrow-Heus
Productions, is currently located on the Sony (TriStar/Columbia) lot. Highlighted by
winning an Emmy for writing the story about his own life, entitled Bill, and then an
Academy Awardfor writing Rain Man, Barry has enjoyed a successful career as a
writer and more recently, as a producer.
A member of the Association of Retarded Citizens, the National Association of Social
Workers, and the Austism Society of America, Mr. Morrow is a lifelong advocate for
the rights of persons with disabilities.