10 “True” Movies That Glossed Over Major Controversies

6. A Beautiful Mind

The Lie: The film omits difficult aspects of John Nash's personal life, including affairs. Ron Howard's drama A Beautiful Mind, which won four Academy Awards back in 2002, told the story of mathematician John Nash and his battle to succeed in his field despite hallucinations brought about by paranoid schizophrenia. Russell Crowe's portrayal of Nash won him a BAFTA and an Oscar nomination. Crucially, though, the film places a Hollywood sheen on Nash and fails to acknowledge the fact that the real man behind the story was an intensely flawed character and had a far more turbulent personal life than the film suggested. Nash experimented with homosexuality as a young man and fathered a child as a result of an affair with an older nurse. As soon as Nash found out the woman, Eleanor Stier, was pregnant, he abandoned her and was cruel to both her and the child. On top of these cruelties, Nash was allegedly an antisemite, which is something he has subsequently chalked up to his schizophrenia. A Beautiful Mind is another case of a Hollywood biopic stripping down a flawed human being in order to more easily court awards glory. In fact, the real Nash would arguably have been the subject of an even better film. It certainly would've been a braver story to tell.