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Religion & Law

: Thoughts in a Haystack

The Day the Argument Stood Still

By John Pieret

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Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum are in Time humping their book Unscientific America (nothing wrong with that -- good ol' American free enterprise) when they just about ended any chance I'll like the thing.

Part of your book talks about the depiction of "mad scientists" in Hollywood films. Do you think film and television producers can realistically portray scientists considering they have to sometimes use stereotypes or exaggeration to get people to watch what they produce?
I don't think that we can demand incredibly high levels of fidelity to what scientists actually do. What I think we can shoot for is positive role model figures who are scientists. That's what really leaves audiences with a positive outlook on the scientific world is if the smart character is actually heroic for being smart. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jennifer Connelly is a scientist. It definitely cuts against stereotypes in a lot of ways. First of all, she's a woman and not an old man. She's not nerdy. She's a hero.

Who? I remember Professor Barnhardt. He might have been old and nerdy but he was someone a pre-teenager could look up to. I remember the brave Helen Benson, who was a hero. Mostly, I remember an antiwar, anti-nuclear-weapons message that was pretty gutsy in the paranoiac America of the early 1950s.

Oh! ... Mooney and Kirshenbaum are talking about an incoherent remake of a minor classic starring a third-rate actor and carrying no discernible message other than "special effects are fun." And they are touting it for no better reason than it has up-to-date stereotypes rather than the ones that seem as creaky as the original black and white film and primitive special effects. If we can't even demand thoughtful film making, can we hope to encourage a thoughtful appreciation of science?

If this is the best we can do, we'd better hope Gort isn't still in orbit.

Klaatu barada nikto!
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Full post as published by Thoughts in a Haystack on July 27, 2009 (boomark / email).