The Quadrangle

Issue date: 12/6/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Brother Jasper's legendary creation of baseball's seventh inning stretch is not the only pop culture trivia to engage Manhattan College students. The campus is featured in several major motion pictures.
Academy Award Winner Russell Crowe plays mathematician, genius, and schizophrenic John Nash in the 2001 biographical drama A Beautiful Mind. The story follows Nash's life from college through adulthood as he makes many feats in the fields of mathematics eventually earning a Nobel Prize.
The scenes at Manhattan take place on the quadrangle. The college is the stand-in for Harvard University where the movie is supposed to take place. The first scene shows Crowe portraying John Nash as a calm Ivy League student. Crowe exits Miguel Hall via the doors closest to the arch and walks towards the green benches in front of Memorial Hall. He then proceeds to have a conversation with his old roommate from college about his upcoming lecture. A second scene has Crowe portraying Nash during a psychotic breakdown. Nash runs out of a lecture he is giving at Harvard University trying to escape government officials that he believes are after him. Crowe runs down the steps outside of Smith Auditorium, up the Senior Walk, and down the steps under the archway between Miguel and Memorial. The two scenes total less then ten minutes on screen but the college is clearly recognizable in the film as well as in trailers.
Manhattan can also be seen in the 1993 drama Six Degrees of Separation staring Will Smith, Stockard Channing, and Donald Sutherland. The film tells the story of man named Paul who seeks shelter with a rich couple in NYC after being robbed in Central Park.
Manhattan also has cameo appearances in the 1998 romantic comedy Object of My Affection starring Jennifer Anniston and Paul Rudd. This is the story of two friends living in NYC that would make a perfect couple, except that George (Rudd) is gay.
Scott Silversten of Manhattan's College Relations department acts as liaison between interested production companies and Manhattan College. He explained the process that occurs when someone wants to film on campus.
First, a location scout contacts Silversten to ask permission to visit campus. Sometimes scouts have particular scenery in mind, while other times they wish to tour multiple areas to obtain the feel of the campus.
"I get phone calls to see anything from classrooms to dorms to the quad. There's no reason to not [let them] take a look," says Silversten.

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