Question about movies

[urbpan]

I watched the first 10 minutes of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (we'll watch the whole thing tonight, I think), and, in addition to the "kung-fu taking place in 1764 France" scene, I was struck by the fact that the hero was a naturalist. (Hey, I'm a naturalist!)

I may take this next thought somewhere, or I may ponder it into a dead end. I'd like to compare and contrast different naturalist characters from films. First I must compile a list of these characters. What movies can you think of that include a naturalist character? (A naturalist, in case the term is new to you, is a person "versed in natural history, especially in zoology or botany." (dictionary.com)

I suppose this means that Sam Neil and Laura Dern in Jurassic Park were naturalists, but that stretches the meaning for me (they were paleontologists).

Did the petroleum company in King Kong bring a naturalist? For that matter, were there any naturalists on the crews of the ships that encountered the Alien or the Aliens? Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws was a naturalist (marine biologist?) but the brains of the operation in Tremors was a geologist (seismologist?). I suppose I can let go of my biocentrism for a moment to accept the plain fact that geology is Natural History.

Lake Placid, my favorite Jaws rip off after Tremors had a great naturalist character in (leaves room to check name of actor--yes, I own it) Oliver Platt. Angels and Insects' hero was a naturalist (not a very good movie, but it contained a good moth "attack" scene), oh! and isn't the sidekick in Master and Commander a naturalist as well as the ship's doctor? (I haven't seen it.)

So anyway, the question in bold above is my point. Anyone?

Comments

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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"?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

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.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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?)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

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.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

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

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

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.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

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!