A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is probably one of the most clear examples of a movie with existentialist ideas. In the movie, Nash has a problem where he cannot tell if the people he thinks he sees are real or made up in his head. Existentialism focuses on the concrete existence of people. Nash is constantly struggling with distinguishing between his imagination and real life. The fact that Nash is leading a whole different life in his head confuses him when he finally sees that he has a problem. This is where the idea of existence before essence comes into play. If Nash doesn’t always know what is real and what is not, he has a hard time making decisions and determining his own future. He is being influenced by his imagination and that makes it hard for Nash to define his own destiny. I don’t think it would be fair to say that Nash is able to control his destiny because he can’t even make proper decisions when he is not able to distinguish between what is real and not real. A Beautiful Mind fits into many of the themes and ideas of existentialism.