Hunting For A Beautiful Mind Essay - 2,586 words

Hunting For A Beautiful Mind Years 1997 and 2001 were remarkable in the history of the American cinematography, because they brought the cinema-goers two remarkable movies, Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind. These movies tell the stories of genius mathematicians and their search for the place in the world. Both movies have some similar features, but each story is unique, just like every person and every life. The task of this work is to analyze the movies, distinguish the similarities between two movies and see how these similarities help in delivering of different ideas to the audience. The story of the movie Good Will Hunting is the life of a genius boy, artful mathematician Will Hunting, his position in the society and inability, or more correctly unwillingness to use his abilities for changing anything in his life and achieving success. Here it is necessary to point out the ambiguous meaning of the movie title Good Will Hunting.


It is possible follow three references of the title to the idea of the story. First reference, which lies in the surface is the direct meaning of the word good, which describes the main protagonist of the story like a good scholar, good mathematician, outstanding young man Will, who has no education but has remarkable knowledge. At the beginning of the movie Professor Lambeau gave a task for his students "I also put an advanced Fourier system on the main hallway chalkboard. I'm hoping that one of you might prove it by the end of the semester" (Lambeau), and only Will could do it. "This...this boy is incredible. I've never seen anything like him" (Lambeau).


Second reference lays the meaning of the word good in the ironic opposition to the word bad. It symbolizes Will's criminal nature "June '93, Assault. September '93, Assault. Grand theft auto, February '94...Free Property Rights of Horse and Carriage from 1798. January '95, impersonating an officer. Mayhem. Theft. Resisting" (Judge Malone).


First two meanings of the title refer to the description of Will's personality. The third meaning refers to the whole idea of the story, Good Will Hunting or hunting for a good will. As we know, the protagonist of the story has criminal background and he despises official education. As he said to the boy Clark in the Bow and Arrow Pub "You dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library" (Will). But Clark answered "Yeah, but I will have a degree. And you'll be serving my kids fries at a drive-through on our way to a skiing trip" (Clark).


And Will knows the truth, but his character and sad life experience taught him to despise reality and search truth only in books. He knows that he can't trust anyone, he didn't even have an attorney in the court: "A defendant can claim self-defense against an agent of the government... I'm afforded the right to speak in my own defense, sir, by the Constitution of the United States" (Will). The title Good Will Hunting refers to the main idea of the movie, which is the desire of professor Lambeau and then other people to change Will's perception of reality, earn his trust and change his life that can only be a fact of Will's good will. The movie A Beautiful Mind also tells us the story about life of a genius mathematician, John Nash, whose prototype was Professor John Forbes Nash, Jr. the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1994 for his revolutionary development of game theory. The title of this movie also carries ambiguous meaning.


A beautiful mind, a mind of a genius, whose breakthrough challenged a century and a half of economic theory and whose work was so important that it influenced many sciences, including economics and mathematics. The mind of such a genius is unique, the mind of such people can only be described as beautiful and people should be proud to call them contemporaries. But the title also has another meaning that refers to another feature of John Nashs mind, his mental illness schizophrenia that forced him to see things that never existed. As John Nash said to Thomas King, the man who first told him about his Nobel award nomination: "I am crazy... I still see the world differently". We see that John Nash and Will Hunting have much in common.


They are both mathematic geniuses who have great achievements not only at their chosen field but in many others. And even though the origins of their troubles are different, they both reach the point in their lives when they can't deny that they have problems. At this point, people who care for the characters welfare stepped into the scene and did their best to help them. The movies Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind reveal the origins of the problems of of both protagonists. John Nash once told his imaginary friend Charles Herman about what his school teacher said about him "I was born with three halves of brain and one half of heart" (John Nash). John Nash was considered cold and indifferent person who had no close friends and that served as one of the reasons why nobody knew about his illness until the signs became evident in the age of thirty. The political situation in the World in the middle of the twentieth century and the opposition between the Soviet Union and the United states not only deepened Nash's mental illness.


However, they also helped to mask the signs because the whole country was in fear of war. The hatred of Russians and the fear of them were so great that people imagined spies and enemies everywhere. From the first day of studies at the University young students were told that they were the future defenders of the country. "Mathematicians wined the war... mathematicians like you. Who of you will be the next Morse? Who of you will be defender of democracy and discoveries?" (The University professor). There was a rush among students and teachers, which prompted for their actions. Everyone wanted to be important and helpful for the country.


How could anyone possibly notice what was going on with John Nash in such an unstable state of politics? Mistrust and suspicion were everywhere - a sick person could not be easily distinguished from the normal people. The situation with John Nash emphasizes how easily people were neglected at the time of a Cold War fever. The movie shows us how easily a person can be trapped in his beliefs and how destructive the global fever can be to a human mind. Through this case the viewer is shown what can happen with a common person, when even a prized mind of a genius fails to resist the pressure. The movie Good Will Hunting doesn't reveal such global political problem but it also describes the influence of the society on a person. Will Hunting was brought up in the foster home where nobody cared much about his talent.


He was from the poor uneducated community and nobody from his surrounding could understand his phenomenon or help him. As a child, he was the frequent victim of abuse. It is evident that the external world played a major role in shaping of his character and his outlook. His speech is overflow with rude curses. He has a short temper and it easily brings him into trouble. Will possesses encyclopedia knowledge and talent, extraordinary memory and ability to find a simple decision of a difficult problem but he remains surrounded by ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: hunting, nash, main character, genius, political situation

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