After the Rewrite the Mind is Now Beautiful

By Demon

Yeah, let’s get this straight.

According to President Bush, America is a country at war. We rain bombs on Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, to get rid of religious fundamentalists who want to kill us. We send military advisors to Columbia and the Phillipines to take care of other problems before they start. We casually debate in the newspapers whether or not we should invade Iraq and knock off the man with the power moustache who used to be our friend and still uses our weapons. We scorn Cuba for its totalitarianism, while at the same time support military occupation in Israel, monarchy in oil rich Saudi Arabia, and human rights abuse with our favorite trading partner China.

Let the labotomy begin:
A Beautiful Mind

Here at home, we go about our usual business of deforestation and pollution. We make every effort to jumpstart the economy and get our usual pattern of weedlike growth underway with brand new Wal-Marts, new subdivision sprawl and all the other goodies that keep our mutual funds healthy. Cadillac boasts on the radio that it now holds the title to the world’s most powerful SUV with its 375 horsepower engine.

Meanwhile, we sabotage efforts to form a World Court under the likely presumption that Americans may someday find themselves on trial for crimes against humanity. Henry Kissinger breathes a sigh of relief as the French continue to plot ways to snag him in transit.

Now, set against this backdrop is the Academy Awards Ceremony with all of its pomp and parade. This year’s Best Picture goes to A Beautiful Mind, a movie about the psychology of a schizophrenic based on the true life story of mathemetician John Nash.

However, it seems that many of the uncomfortable details of Nash’s actual life never made it into this film. Nash’s beautiful mind, apparently, was only beautiful enough for the big screen after a good Hollywood rewrite (Best Screenplay too!). Left out was Nash’s homosexuality, his first wife, and his anti-semitic views.

Truth, apparently, has no place at the box office.

Hollywood has therewith declared its allegiance during this time of crisis. Leaning neither right nor left and certainly not capable of any sort of meaningful reflection, Hollywood has instead chosen the path it always has - the money trail. If we cannot expect Hollywood to give us an honest portrayal of an introverted mathematician - a tame subject for controversy, one would think - what can we expect from this creature regarding the more needful issues of our time - issues like those described above?

If the summer lineup is any signal, don’t expect a peep from these guys on anything of significance, unless a 30 million dollar weekend is as stake. The skyscrapers tumble, and Hollywood responds with talking dogs and war in space.

Abandoning a world of issues, discarding reflection at all costs, Hollywood has spewed its annual batch of trophies on its self-important starlets and lackluster directors and now turns its attention to the pillage of summer. In a world of eligible issues we are instead presented with sequels to sequels to prequels and cartoons and video games turned live action - in short, another batch of derivative movies that actually unlearn us about the world we knew more about before entering the theater.

Like Nash, we are schizophrenic, seeing two worlds at once. Or perhaps we are in even worse shape - labotomized by another year of movie magic.