Mad, Bad, and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Cinema

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Cinema. By Christopher Frayling The University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois, 2005. ISBN 1-86189-255-1. 256 pp. Hardcover, $35. It's no secret that scientists are often poorly represented in films. For every film like Contact, Outbreak, or The Dish--depicting working scientists trying to expand humanity's knowledge or save lives--dozens of others show scientists as lab-coated madmen wreaking catastrophe.

Christopher Frayling, author of books on vampires and cinema, examines the scientist role in the history of film. Drawing on dozens of examples ranging from Metropolis to Dr. Strangelove to The Nutty Professor, Frayling argues that the cinema's (and therefore much of the public's) view of scientists has been shaped by cultural fears and anxieties. An interesting and thorough (if at times pedantic) analysis of the origin of this caricature.

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