The Urban Pantheist

Howsit goin'?
I was just thinking of you, because in "Brotherhood of the Wolf" the monster is based on a period cryptozoological sighting (The Beast of Gevaudan).

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The ship's surgeon (and sidekick) in Master and Commander is definitely a naturalist - there's a whole Galapagos scene. Horrible, horrible movie called Evolution has David Duchovny as a biologist of some sort. I just watched Adaptation last night, which has Chris Cooper playing the Orchid Thief. Oh, and my husband just reminded me of Never Cry Wolf, which if you haven't seen, you absolutely must.

I wonder how many wacky scientists in movies were naturalists of some sort. I suspect you'll find a lot in cheesy horror films. Or weird British period pieces. Funny, my husband (who's a college professor) and I like to collect (mentally, more than actually writing them down) movie versions of college professors. They're all usually pompous jerks, sleazy guys sleeping with their students, or people with no idea of the real world.

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lol. i really liked evolution. never cry wolf is a great movie, too, as was adaptation. wow. i hadn't thought of a single movie. how about that movie 'angels and insects'? i think the lead female in that is a naturalist.

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Oops. I do love David Duchovny, though.
How about Indiana Jones - does archeology count? And I feel like Jeff Goldblum ought to be here somewhere, but I don't know where.

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does steve zissou count? bill murray/life aquatic man? if so, then goldblum certainly does, as the semi-antagonist with the same sort of job. i haven't seen any of the jurassic movies, though, so am unsure about his other roles.

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Steve Zissou most definitely counts (as he is based on one of the most well-known naturalists of the 20th century)--haven't seen it yet, but it's one of the 150 in my queue. As I understand it, Goldblum is his rival, another marine biologist?

Jeff Goldblum seems to specialize in scientist roles.

brush_rat is going to have to help me out one this one, because I'd like to remember what kind of scientist he is in his various roles (from Buckaroo Banzai to Steve Zissou--those are the titles not his roles)but I can't. He was a Jewish Cowboy in Buckaroo Banzai, and some kind of scientist, too. He was some kind of scientist enamored with chaos theory in Jurassic Park, some kind of scientist (physicist?) in the Fly movies, experimenting on himself, and of course in Independence Day he was the computer technician for a cable tv company who happened to have the appropriate skills to save the world (apparently the invading aliens used the same computer language and compatable operating system as the New York City Cable company.)

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i enjoyed independence day right up until goldblum's virus. that was completely moronic.
he does play cerebral types. his character in life aquatic was probably my favorite for him so far, but it's also the most enjoyable movie i've seen in a very long time.
a little frustrating- i know i've seen more movies with naturalist types in them, but i cannot bring a single one to mind. of course, there are movies like gorillas in the mist, but that's completely based on reality, so i don't know if it counts.

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brush-rat.livejournal.com

Okay, if you insist, but I'm mostly going off the top of my head here. I did check his filmography on IMDB and discovered I haven't seen most of his films, but I suspect that has a lot to do with the low key projects he favors when not whoring playing lead geek in blockbusters.

It looks like his first scientist role might have been in The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai. He was a brain surgeon who calls in Buckaroo for assistance when an operation on an Eskimo becomes complicated. He ends up joining the band of musicians/scientists, the Hong Kong Cavaliers as "New Jersey." He plays keyboard and in one scene he's writing the Buckaroo theme.

Okay, too much info, but I really like the film. The book is worth hunting down as well.

He's a scientist again in "The Fly." it's been years since I've seen it, but he must be a quantum physicist or something. He becomes a bit of a naturalist during his transformation as he catalogs his slow and nasty transformation.

He played Jim Watson in "Double Helix." I've never heard of it before, but Watson is one of the scientists who discovered DNA. Probably a bad way of wording it, but you get the idea.

If I remember correctly he was a mathematician in Jurassic Park.

In Independence Day he was the worlds least business savvy computer expert. Goldblum discovers that the aliens haven't yet discovered the firewall and saves the world with a quickly cobbled together virus. Meanwhile, Bill Gates rules the world, has more money than God and Goldblum is working for Cox Communication.

He's probably pretty close to a naturalist in "Cats and Dogs." He's working on a cure for allergies. No wait, now I remember. He discovers a cure for allergies, and that's why the cats are after him. I may have slept through some of that one.

I haven’t seen "The Life Aquatic" yet, but it sounds like you guys already have that one down. I may have missed something there, but now, thanks to a quick perusal of IMDB I know that he can wiggle his ears independently, an invaluable task for any naturalist.

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cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com

That's the movie I was wondering why it was in our queue - Buckaroo Banzai.

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Source of the classic line, "Remember, wherever you go, there you are."

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cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com

Yup - I've seen it about a thousand times - I saw it in the theatre!!

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Oh, good. Not that I know you, but I took that "don't know why it's on our Netflix list" to mean you hadn't heard of it. And that would be sad.

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cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com

Oh, yes, it would be very very sad. It's a great movie.

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We decided that Rebecca should see it again, now that she's older.

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Of all the mad scientists devised in Hollywood, the ones who stay longest in my mind are the reanimators, the cryptozoologists and the vivisectionists.

But wasn't there a zoologist in "Congo"?

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But wasn't there a zoologist in "Congo"?

If I have to watch it to find out, I may never know.

This could get dangerously off-topic (or spawn a hopefully more interesting new topic) but what cryptozoologists do you remember from movies? (of course, in a monster movie, almost any naturalist is going to be a cryptozoologist--Richard Dreyfuss hunting the Megalodon [never named as such in the movie] for example)

Most movies that set out to be cryptozoological really suck. Have you seen the Ted Danson Loch Ness movie? Don't. Any genre where "Harry and the Hendersons" rises to the top is in a dirty bucket indeed.

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How about Tom Slick, Monster Hunter (the hero, Loren Coleman; produced by Nicholas Cage?

Actually, I was thinking about that generic figure in films such as Mothman Prophecy, who always warn of the existence of strange beings, and who are generally disregarded by the townspeople/sheriff/scientist until it's too late to save anyone. You know, the guy who comes up with a way to electrocute the monster using only a pocket knife and an old TV?

(Incidentally, hasn't Hollywood heard of fuses?)

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Holy cow, there's a movie about Tom Slick and Loren Coleman? I'm IMDBing it right now (Netflix drew a blank).

The bad thing about movies like Mothman (which Alexis and I call "the Chapstick movie") is that they reinforce the Supernatural explanations of cryptids.

I liked the lake monster X-files, and the jersey devil one, too.

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Yes, it's due for release any moment. I just read about it...it is a Nicholas Cage production.
If I come across the source, I'll relay it to you.

I've been curious about crypto since as a child in Illinois, I was surrounded by the "apes of the river bottoms" myth. I'd still like to know the upshot of that investigation. Locals bought it completely.

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P.S. Here's the interview...http://dinojoe.8m.com/crypto/inter.html

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it may not be too exciting, since they never found anything. What was the "apes of the riverbottoms" myth?

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Near the towns along the rivers, the areas where dirt had been moved in order to construct levees became filled with swampy brush. Hunters frequently reported seeing "apes" in the bottoms.
These storeies were frequently made the papers, and were shared on the porches at night, where, as a kid, I listened with eyes the size of Buick hubcaps. I never forgot.

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From Cryptozoology.com
"In 1962, Kenneth J. Manship and Jerry D. Coleman discovered a footprint complete with composed left toe (characteristic of the footprint of a mountain gorilla or chimpanzee) in a dry creek bed near Decatur, Illinois. However, the track was later revealed to have been a hoax perpetrated by either Manship or Dave Nichols."

that's all I've found so far.

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That may have been the source, or part of the perpetuation of it. Decatur is in the general area I lived in (from Harrisburg to Meredosia)

I think that wolf hunts were the reason for men to go into the bottoms in the first place. My father was an engineer for CIPSCO, who constructed power plants on the rivers, so I was around the men who went into the bottoms regularly.
If you run across more, let me know!

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brush-rat.livejournal.com

Well, I see just about everyone already mentioned Master and Commander. I have a friend who's perhaps the earthy crunchiest person I know in Las Vegas and she was very excited about the prospect of a Master and Commander film. She wasn't thrilled with the actual film. Turns out she'd read all the books, so I suspect the naturalist in the books gets a better shake than he did in the film, which is based on several of the books. I think people had trouble with the film because it was marketed as a great swashbuckling sea war film, but in reality it was more concerned with human interaction. Not that it didn't have it's share of cannonball amputations and other Die Hard With a Vengeance part III: Final Justice moments. I think the Jeff Bridges Character in the De Laurentis version of King Kong may have been a naturalist. I suspect Peter Jacksons Version will include one. Sherlock Holmes probably counts, but obviously not out of a fascination with nature, only how botany and zoology relate to solving crimes. A lot of old movies feature the stock characters of the African Explorer and the Butterfly Hunter, But the former are too often the great white hunters and the latter comic relief. Jane and her father are naturalists in the Disney animated Tarzan. The list should include anything with Darwin as a character, although offhand I can't come up with any titles. There's a whole slew of biopics out there, including Born Free and Gorillas in the Mist. But you're probably looking for fictional characters.

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The idea of the Peter Jackson King Kong makes me really excited. I like how nerddom can be so specific--it's a perfect match for me.

Sherlock Holmes is an interesting one. He certainly had the knowledge of Natural History, but no love of life--creepy recluse coke addict and all. I seem to remember a lot of telling where suspects had been by the color of the mud on their shoes and stuff.

Yeah, in all the Tarzan stuff, the Jane's dad is a naturalist who needs constant rescue, as I recall.

"Naturalist," as a concept and a profession seems to have come into being at the Enlightenment, and survived up into the turn of the 20th century. Then Biology fragmented from the other natural sciences, and biology fragmented into scores of sub-disciplines. In the 20th century, the myth of the explorer-naturalist changed into the nature-show host. "Naturalist" has an appealing old fashioned ring to it--like "Smith" or "Midwife."

So have you ever written anything about the scientist roles of Jeff Goldblum?

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brush-rat.livejournal.com

I think you're giving short shrift to Jane and her dad. True, Dad is played for laughs, but their science is solid. They're theorizing about the great apes as community creatures and studying them in the wild as opposed to studying their stuffed and mounted corpses.

I posted my Goldblum info elsewhere, BTW.

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