A beautiful mind film
Blankita

Official site: http://www.abeautifulmind.com


Film name: A beautiful mind


Year: 2001


Country: United States


Filming Locations:

New York, New York, USA

Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Bayonne, New Jersey, USA


Director: Ron Howard


Language: English


Accent: American English


Written by Sylvia Nasar


Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman



Cast:

  • Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash, Jr.. A mathematical genius who is obsessed with finding an original idea to ensure his legacy. There was difficulty when casting Crowe, who was well-liked by the producers, when he went to film Gladiator in a different time-zone and was difficult to reach for an extended period of time to attach him to the project.
  • Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash. A later student of Nash who catches his interest. Connelly was cast after Ron Howard drew comparisons to her and Alicia Nash, both academically and in facial features.
  • Paul Bettany as Charles Herman. Nash's cheerful, supportive roommate and best friend throughout graduate college. The character of Charles was not written to be British; however, director Brian Helgeland provided a tape of Bettany from A Knight's Tale. The filmmakers agreed that the character could be British, based on Bettany's performance in the film.
  • Ed Harris as William Parcher. A highly dedicated and forceful government agent for the Department of Defense. He recruits Nash to help fight Soviet spies.
  • Josh Lucas as Martin Hansen. Nash's friendly rival from his graduate school years at Princeton. In the end, Hansen tells Nash that nobody wins, and they are at that point to consider each other as equals.
  • Adam Goldberg as Sol. A friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Bender, to work with him at MIT.
  • Anthony Rapp as Bender. A friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Sol, to work with him at MIT.

  • Judd Hirsch as Helinger. The head of the Princeton mathematics department.



Main characters:


1. John Forbes Nash, J

2. Alicia Nash


Plot: At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.

Taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/plotsummary

Context:

The film starts on September 1947, in Princeton. In the University with the same name “Princeton University”.

John Nash was one of the two winners of the distinguished Carnegie scholarship to study chemical engineering in this University. Where John Nash were considered as the Genius from West Virginia, (the place where he came from) by his schoolmates.

Princeton University is a provare research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States.

“Princeton's program in chemical engineering is part of a distinguished tradition of graduate education and scientific research at the University. Formal graduate study at Princeton was initiated in 1869 when three fellowships were established. In 1900, the Graduate School was formally chartered within the University, and 12 years later the first residential graduate college in America was dedicated” ((2008). Chemical engineering. Princeton University and the Department of Chemical. Taken from Engineering. http://www.princeton.edu/che/grad/).

The film ends in the same place where He served as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the later part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize In Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi.

Powerful ideas and Values:

  • Perseverance
  • Love
  • Passion for ideals
  • Dreams
  • Gratitude
  • Friendship
  • Recognition of achievements
  • Humility (recognize errors and weaknesses)
  • Empathy





Personal opinion:

It is a very good film, especially for the remarkable performance of Russell Crowe, who in his character, shows the magnificence of the human mind.

Despite of the fact that John Nash was so smart, he could not face his disease, being often overcome by it to the point of being part of an unreal world which almost causes him the loss of the most precious that he had his family.

I must mention that the plot of the film was interesting because it is a real story of one of the greatest mathematicians in the world, who with his ingenuity does significant contributions to the economy; as a result, he gets the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.

This important fact shows unbelievable that could be the love, because only with the hope of recovering his old life, he conquered the hearts of who initially made fun of him because of his misfortune. However, thanks to his perseverance, the support of his old schoolmates and his family, he could control his disease in order to become again in the genius that he was.

This is one of the most beautiful movies that I have ever seen.

It shows not only the creation of new things by the ingenuity, but also the creation of things that do not exist, because they are part of the imagination. The problem is when we do not know what is part of the imagination and what is part of the reality.



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Micro-lessons for August 25th, 2009
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1. Micro lesson about respect.




Evelyn Antillanca's presentation. I consider it was an excellent presentation with a good management of: space, time and visual resources, which were well focused on the Chilean reality. The theme chosen by Evelyn was formidable, because the respect is a topic that concerns directly to all of us as teachers. Evelyn's performance was excellent and very fluent. The ppt had a very clear organization and very structured information, with essential elements and timely to the topic.

2. Micro lesson about technology.



Cristobal Jara was who presented this important topic, today almost all things are dominated by technology, which is to the service of man, Cristobal showed us novel and innovative computing programs with educational purposes which I did not know.
That computing programs are very appropriate as a visual aid in a lesson. He gave a historical summary of the origin and evolution of technology.

the structuring and time of the presentation both were very well, but Cristobal had to have a plan B to present in order to avoid the great amount of technical problems, In spite of that the presentation was solid and clear.

3. My micro lesson about recycling.




I prepared this topic, because I consider it vital. Every day more advances in technology are made, each time there is more and better appliances to improve the comfort of life, but each time there is less native environmental Habitat, each time there is more pollution and less human consciousness. It is not important the technology, but also the care of the planet. I think we need environmental education, so that we take care not only of the material things but also look around and realize the damage that we are doing to our planet because the unity is strength.
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Class for August 25Th, 2009
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Today was one of the most exciting classes that I have had, because I had to present my micro lesson. My presentation was the last of three presentations. I got very nervous, but in spite of that I gave the best of me and criticism that I received were in my opinion very good, my classmates said that I had done a good job and my performance had been excellent.

I must emphasize that the other two presentations were also very good, within the established time limits. The topics showed today were technology, respect and recycling, which are of a great importance in the life of any human being.

As Mr Litmans said, I will go knowing that I learned something new.
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Micro-lessons for August 18th, 2009
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1.Micro lesson about The National Institute.



This presentation was shown by Gustavo Rojas was full of historical information. Approached much to what would be a historical outline of this emblematic school, but from my point of view I do not find the relevance of the topic for my personal development, because it is true that know history is something that concerns to all of us, but I do not think to do a micro lesson of this emblematic school It is relevant and significant for us as teachers. In addition, I consider inappropriate the use of Spanish in a few quotations because it could have been avoided with to paraphrase these paragraphs.
Moreover, Gustavo made a good performance in terms of the management of the topic and his bodily expression, as well as in the use of the space and management and distribution of time and additional resources.

2. Micro lesson about obesity.



This presentation which was in charge by Stephanie Bravo, I consider significant and important but repeated because although it is an important topic, I do not think that she mentioned new aspects different to the already known. A point against her was the distribution of the space and time because the presentation was very long. I have to mention the use of audiovisual materials, because these were very attractive and consistent with the information, but if perhaps she would have been respected its range of time, the presentation had been more captivating for the audience.

3. Micro lesson about the relaxation.




This presentation was shown by Daisy Barril. It was of my total pleasure because it was a new topic, creative and very useful for us as teachers and as citizens who live in constant stress.

I liked the management of space and the auditory resources, although in my opinion the volume was very low. The management of the topic was appropriate and fluid. Related to the time, it was very well appointed and her performance was consistent.
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Class for August 18Th, 2009
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Today, it was a class to see dissertations, 3 classmates exposed their micro- lessons.

The first one was Gustavo who talks about the National Institute. The Second one was Daisy Barril with relaxation exercises.

And finally spoke Stephanie Bravo, who spoke about the obesity. Despite of the theme was very good and the presentation was very full she does not respect the limits of time allotted by the teacher.

The two previous presentations I found them interesting and according to the allotted time.

Next week is my turn and I will speak about recycling, I've worked hard to make a good exposure, I hope that the theme will be unpalatable to the teacher and to my classmates
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Class for August 11Th, 2009
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Today, the Professor Litman gave us instructions to make our individual presentations which start the next week.

He showed us a power point with relevant indications for our evaluation. Furthermore he suggested some themes in which we can base our presentations.

Each student must choose a topic and make an individual and oral presentation at least 15 minutes. The presentations will be in alphabetical order and will begin in the week of August 17th.
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Comment for August, 2009
Blankita
Is applicable a pardoned to teachers who refused to give the teacher evaluation, or who has had unsatisfactory result for three consecutive years?

See the complete page here:
http://www.educarchile.cl/Portal.Base/Web/verContenido.aspx?ID=198661

I agree with the words said by Jaime Guajardo Chilean Colegio de Profesores’ president, because it is very simple to demand high quality standards and threatening to dismiss teachers without giving solutions. It was supposed that solutions would have been given long time ago.

From my opinion, the Government can not claim only have teachers of excellence if the state has no spend money in teachers’ formation, because there are many variables that have to be measured before saying that to fail for third time is unacceptable as said Mario Waissbluth Leader of the 200 movement.

First, it has to be understood, the flaws in education are bigger than just to put pressure on teachers to give an evaluation and to threaten them if they fail for third time.

I think that the solution is that evaluation are not been used as a pressure means, it has to be evidence to indicate where there are failures in order to improve them, but also ask the Government for improving standards in education it is necessary to spend more money in teachers’ development and also spend money in improve the schools’ infrastructure to reduce the number of student inside the classroom, because it is unfair that the bad pay teachers have to take their money to afford studies to become brilliant teachers.

I think that is much better to star giving to teachers tools before ask them miracles with tools that they do not have.
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Class for August 04Th, 2009
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Starting my second semester....

Today, it was my first class of the second semester of the year. May be it is the most important subject of my career, because in this subject I have to practise all my knowledge about English and all things that I have learned during these four years.

Today, it was an ordinary class where Mr Litman gave us instructions about the new films to watch during the whole semester; also he gave us a feedback in order to improve our blogs.

It is my first post; I hope that it is a good beginning.
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