10. A Beautiful Mind (Ridley Scott, 2001)
The Subject John Nash, a Noble laureate in the field of economics.
The Story (According To The Film) Nash (Russell Crowe) is a gifted mathematician who becomes involved with The Pentagon after making a name for himself as both a student at Princeton and a teacher at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT), meeting and marrying a student named Alicia in the process. Later diagnosed with schizophrenia, it is revealed that Nash has been suffering from both visual and auditory hallucinations, and that both his Department of Defence handler and former roommate/best friend are fictitious creations of his own mind. Frustrated by side effects, he eventually stops taking the medication that he has been prescribed for his condition and with the support of his wife eventually learns to deal with his hallucinations in other ways, eventually earning the right to teach once again.
The Lies There are many, including the following: Nash is shown to have both visual and auditory hallucinations in the film, whilst in real life, he only suffered from the latter. Nash is shown to have the support of his wife throughout his life until his Nobel prize win in 1994, when they actually divorced in 1963. A throwaway line towards the end of the film implies that Nash is taking newer medications for his condition, when in reality he stopped taking any and all types of medication in 1970. The film completely ignores the fact that Nash had a son born out of wedlock in the early 1950s, refusing to marry the mother of the child due to his belief that she was beneath him, something that wouldve conferred a great stigma on her at the time.