This New York Times article about the U.S. military trying to get Hollywood to write scripts with sympathetic characters who are engineers or scientists doesn’t seem too realistic about how tought this will be.
Let’s consider a recent work of fine art cinema: Flight of the Phoenix. The pilots are fun-loving incompetents who pile all kinds of heavy but worthless industrial equipment into the back of an early 1950s cargo plane (C-119). They seem to be able to get off the ground with their passengers and all of this junk but somehow don’t bother to climb to a cruising altitude higher than 500′ above the ground for a trip of many hours over the Gobi desert (filmed in Namibia, actually). A big sandstorm kicks up and they lose one of their two engines and control of the plane and crash in the middle of nowhere. They were all angry with each other to begin with and spend most of their time squabbling until a peculiar little guy named “Elliott” suggests building a one-engine airplane out of the wreckage of their two-engine airplane. He claims to be an aeronautical engineer.
Elliott turns out to be a prima donna. He has a Che Guevara-like desire to be the one who gets to execute prisoners/traitors/etc. and shoots a captive Mongol smuggler in the head. Elliott is devious and drinks more than his fair share of the limited water. He generally abuses everyone and reminds them of how screwed they would be without him.
So at the end of the film people would say “Wow, if I actually thought about engineers I’d realize that I needed them for some of the things that make my modern lifestyle possible but on the other hand wouldn’t it be more pleasant never to meet or think about an engineer?”
Can anyone think of a movie where a character could have had any old job but they chose to make him or her an engineer or computer programmer? And then they showed some of the work in a flattering and/or exciting light?
[Don’t see the movie if you’re not willing to suspend a lot of disbelief about aviation and physics. None of the flying bears any relation to a plausible in-flight emergency. At the end of the movie they are trying to get off the ground while being chased by angry Mongols on horseback. The horses are able to run nearly as fast as the plane, which is a rather small remnant of the C-119. So we’re asked to believe that the plane, despite its Wright R-3350 engine (over 2000 horsepower), can’t go faster than a horse and can’t fly even in ground effect. Yet after it runs off the edge of the cliff it somehow manages to fly and develop a good climb rate in free air.]
Apollo 13
The Matrix
No Highway (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043859/)
From a novel written by Nevil Shute (an engineer).
Apollo 13: this is not a movie where Hollywood had a choice about the characters’ jobs. I haven’t seen Matrix or No Highway.
We’re looking for a movie where Hollywood picked “engineer” or “programmer” as a job when the producers and writers had a choice. In One Hour Photo, for example, they made the husband of the yuppie couple an architect. He could have had any job that generated enough income for a nice lifestyle.
Can’t think of any positive ones but at least two come to mind where some other profession could have worked (like accounting) but chose engineering/programming: “Falling Down” from the early 90’s and of course “Office Space” where the portrayal wasn’t negative but just terribly (and realistically) depressing.
Phil, did you see the original The Flight of the Phoenix? The engineer was portrayed accurately as a introverted smart guy (surprise there) who operated from the expert action logic — he was willing to discuss anything as long as he preceived that the other person has the same technical competence or raw intelligence. Trust me, this kind of people are very common in the engineering world. Could Hollywood make engineers sexier? Yes, but that wouldn’t be an accurate portrayal of most engineers.
I do recall that one of the other characters said, “It is people like him (referring the to engineer) who are going to inherit the Earth.” The movie was made in 1965, and judging by the past 40 years, that character’s comment wasn’t too far off.
I haven’t seen the original “Flight of the phoenix”. So, the engineer was portrayed sympathetically in that one? Mmmm… interesting.
Next group assignment: the different portraits of engineers in a 1965 movie vs. its 2005 remake and how they relate to the attitudes of american society towards science/engineering back then vs. now.
There was a short-lived evening soap on Fox called Hyperion Bay in which the lead character was a computer programmer. He was shown as a young, hip millionaire who made it big in the dot-com boom and subsequently went back to his hometown to start up a new e-biz in a converted cannery. He was vigorously pursued by the ex-homecoming queen/cheerleader. Good enough for you? Unfortunately, the show, the dot-com boom, and engineers/programmers’ day in the sun were all short lived.
PatW: “‘It is people like him (referring the to engineer) who are going to inherit the Earth.’ The movie was made in 1965, and judging by the past 40 years, that character’s comment wasn’t too far off.”
It was VERY far off. Real wages for engineers of all types have been falling. Respect for engineering professions is very low. Students somehow have gotten the idea that engineering jobs will be outsourced at the earliest opportunity, so they are staying away in droves. The money managers have inherited the Earth. Just thought you’d like to know.
The late, great James Doohan comes to mind, with his great Montgomery Scott. C’mon…when an engineer comes to mind, he should’ve been the FIRST one anyone thought of! Show some respect.
The Matrix – the Programmer is the ultimate hero messiah, can’t think of any other popular movie where a engineer/programmer geek is revered as much…
Too often, programmers are portrayed as in Jurassic Park like greedy, whiny, fat evil persons (played by the Seinfeld Newman character) or young, know-it-all, bratty kids…
However, lawyers are frequently tarred too, again Jurassic Park is a good example – where the movie portrayal of the attorney morphed from a decent, noble guy to a weasil, cowardly, less than sympathetic victim of a dinosaur munching…
Philip, you really need to see The Matrix (you only need to see the first one to get all of the benefit from the entire series).
PatW: “Could Hollywood make engineers sexier? Yes, but that wouldn’t be an accurate portrayal of most engineers.” Who needs an accurate portrayal, Hollywood sexes everything up. Compare portrayals on “CSI” compared to the civilian police employees that you have seen before.
There’s a whole site http://www.tcnj.edu/~rgraham/whatare-movies.html dedicated to this topic.
God bless the interweb.
Last year’s Primer was excellent. It has some engineers doing a startup out of their garage and doesn’t make it seem like a cliche. They do constantly wear ties throughout the film, which seems strange to me but gives it a cool look. Who knows, maybe people still do wear ties in Texas. The dialog sounds real, even though it’s obviously about fake science. I think the key to that is the characters know the subject they are talking about, so there are a lot of unfinished sentences where they don’t need to go into detail. It always sounds fake in movies where two people have a conversation that’s really to explain something to the audience, so it comes across like they don’t even know the subject themselves.
Anyway it’s out on DVD so for sure worth a watch, it won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance.
http://www.primermovie.com/
In this year’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie plays a sysadmin… kinda. She is really a killer for hire, but “I’ve got to go downtown to fix some company’s server” is apparently a good enough cover. On the other hand, you could argue that this was chosen as the most unremarkable job possible.
I think I when I saw the movie in the theatre I actually asked myself what Philip would think. 🙂
I have to differ with PatW about the engineer in the original “Flight of the Phoenix.”
I saw the original version of “Flight of the Phoenix” last year.
In this movie made soon after WW II he is the only character who’s
a German national, he has a relatively unlikeable personality,
and he commits at least one significant offense against morals and
“fair play”, claiming that he needs to do it to help save the several
stranded main characters from death.
In his defense, by the end of the movie he does succeed in saving nearly everyone,
even if he still seems something of a self-centered ass.
Matt: I saw Primer with some friends recently. Considering the budget ($7,000) we thought it was a pretty impressive movie. It doesn’t qualify as a positive portrayal of engineers though because (1) the characters had to be engineers because the movie was about something being engineers — the filmmakers didn’t just choose to make them engineers, (2) a few times the characters talk about how when engineers turn 40 they get put out to pasture (with Americans living longer and longer not too many college-age students would want to invest nearly $200,000 in training for a short-term career).
Shimon: I didn’t see Mr. and Mrs. Smith but it sounds like the same sort of deal as True Lies, a fairly bad movie that I remember fondly because I saw it with the fabulous sparkling Susie out in Sante Fe many years ago. Arnold S. plays a secret agent. His cover is that he is a complete and total loser with the maximally boring life but a requirement to travel. What did Hollywood choose to make him? A software salesman.
[Now that I have my flight instructor rating and some Cirrus experience I really need to track down Angelina Jolie and offer her a little dual in her SR22.]
just weighing in on the Matrix… the movie is about how reality actually turns out to be an elaborate computer simulation. So I’d say that guy had to be a programmer… (fun movie, but the next two got pretty lame).
just thought of another one. In an episode of sex and the city, miranda goes out with (or was it just home with?) a civil engineer. I can’t really remember what happens (though I’d bet it goes like: they sleep together, something stupid happens, and they break up). Not sure how remarkable the CE thing is – they go through enough guys on that show to cycle through all the professions at least once 😉
Real Genius. One of Val Kilmer’s first starring roles. Excellent portrayals of scientits/engineers.
Hi. Movies such as The Manhattan Project and
Hackers put engineers / programmers in
admired roles. In Independence Day, the
scientist-programmer helps save the day by
using a computer virus.
Then, of course, there’s Star Trek, where
Jordi is an amicable character. Ditto for
the title character in the TV show MacGyver.
Real Genius and the Matrix, mentioned above,
are also in the mix.
To make a general comment, maybe
engineers-programmers should be put in
deliberately exaggerated funny roles (such
as the lawyer in My Cousin Vinny) or
action roles (such as making archeology in
Indiana Jones) – roles that use the concept
of competition in humor or action. Think about
it – a movie about two rival engineering
start-ups, where there’s corporate espionage
or something.
Instead of tinkering with movie scripts, how about making engineering attractive by paying better? Also, make engineering a career rather than a series of jobs culminating with being forced out of the profession by age discrimination. When was the last time you saw a retirement party for an engineer?
(Mental note: apply for a DoD job)
Are there any movies that portray proctologists in a favorable light? Of course not. Yet, there is no shortage of proctologists. It’s all about money and job security.