A Beautiful Mind. A brilliantly made film, but a fraud

Rating: 6/10 (12 November 2007)

I wonder why it's O.K. to laud some pictures that are suppose to be made from fact and condemn others. A Beautiful Mind is a movie based on a real person but the film changed him and his wife and no one seemed to mind. Denzel Washington played Hurricane Carter in his film, The Hurricane, and the film was blasted by critics because the screen writer had to take some "creative liberties" in telling the story. Murder in the First, the story based on Henri Young's prison time at Alcatraz was also lamblasted because of "creative libertes." Murder in the First did poorly at the box office because of certain film critics let it be known that it took such liberities. Yet these same critics shouted Hosannas over A Beautiful Mind deliberately over looking the "facts" that the main character was homosexual and that his wife was a Spanish woman. And to add insult to injury, the actress playing his wife won an Academy Award. Several Spanish actresses commented that how little roles came their way and that this role would have been just what was needed. Sure, some readers will probably say "so, what."! it was the story that counted. And that would be true except that it was not the real story about the genius. What with Ron Howard one would expect nothing less than him changing the wife to a white woman. All in all, A Beautiful Mind might have been an Academy Award picture but it's pure fraud. But that's Hollywood and American critics for you. I hope some viewers will see this in it's true light.