Hollywood seems incapable of making a movie about super smart or talented people without saddling them with emotional or mental problems. TIME looks at the best.
For most of the film, the genius composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has no troubles at all. In fact, he’s so pleased with his success and unmatched musical acumen that the sheer thought of how good he is repeatedly manifests itself in a ridiculously amusing laugh crafted by actor Tom Hulce, in his Oscar-nominated role of a lifetime. But troubled waters begin to stir in Mozart’s life, at least according to this artistic account, once he becomes associated with the Italian composer Antonio Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham). Salieri spends the entirety of the film — adapted by Peter Shaffer, who also wrote the original play — cursing God for having skimped on the talent portion of his genetic makeup and hating Mozart for his giftedness. In a sense, Salieri plays Mozart’s polar opposite, reserved, pious and classy, and once he joins Mozart’s inner circle — and becomes his shadow — makes the master’s demise inevitable.
And so, despite Mozart having been one of the most talented composers of his time, the late 18th century brought a decline in his stream of commissioned work. In the film, Salieri seizes the moment, befriending Mozart and basking in as much of Mozart’s excess fame as he can. Mozart’s untimely demise in 1791 at the age of 35 has widely been credited to poisoning by Salieri’s hand, though no historical evidence supports the rumor.
Perhaps the biggest feat of the film, which took the Oscar for Best Picture and Director, was Ron Howard’s exquisite depiction of what life may be like for those suffering from schizophrenia. By the age of 22, gifted mathematician John Nash, played by Russell Crowe (nominated for an Oscar for his role), had already completed a doctorate at Princeton and went on to join the staff of MIT. His seminal thesis “Non-cooperative Games” was an influential part of his work on the mathematics of game theory, for which he would receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 — but not before his illness became too much to deal with and forced him to resign from his professorship in the 1950s.
Nash continues to work on mathematical theory and in a 2005 interview described his recovery from the delusional episodes he suffered: “I began to tire of certain types of irrational thinking. I was doing things at the time, studying or doing some calculations. So it may be that the delusional thinking began to become unsatisfying. I think people become mentally ill when they’re somehow not too happy — [it's] not just after you’ve won the lottery you go crazy. It’s when you don’t win the lottery.”
Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes” and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show “Family Feud” has died. He was 79.
As we prepare for the Game of Thrones finale, we recognize Joffrey and nine other baddies who showed us that terrible, horrible things can come in small packages
