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"The American Experience" A Brilliant Madness (2002)
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Overview
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TV Series:
"The American Experience" (1988)Original Air Date:
28 April 2002 (Season 14, Episode 14)Plot:
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Public Media
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Reenactment
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Anthology
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USA
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Rich and human story behind A Beautiful Mind moreCast
(Episode Credited cast) | Sylvia Nasar | ... | Herself |
| Alicia Nash | ... | Herself |
| John Nash | ... | Himself |
 | Liev Schreiber | ... | Himself - Narrator (voice) |
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A very good documentary, well-paced, balanced and focused on a interesting subject.
The film captures Nash's individuality, and opens a window into his thinking. I wouldn't say that his experience of schizophrenia is typical, but this is not a documentary on schizophrenia, rather it is a portrait of a man whose entire experience of life has been atypical. In this, A Brilliant Madness is a very solid piece of work, in its own right.
However, it is impossible not to view it in relation to Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind. While in some ways this is a bit distracting, it means the film plays out on another level: as a lesson in media manipulation and the power of stigma. Apparently, the makers of A Beautiful Mind felt people could only overcome their feelings about mental illness if the rest of the story was clean cut Americana. (Let's face it, the original ad campaign was meant to deceive people entirely, as to the focus of the film. I know this has been defended as "bringing the audience into Nash's reality", but suspect the motivation may have originated in marketing) A Brilliant Madness reveals much (but not all) of the true complexity of Nash's story, while making all the same anti-stigma points that A Beautiful Mind was lauded for.