May 05, 2005

• Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough? (I love this internet thing -- I never have to keep a straight face...)
• The Saint with Elizabeth Shue. I think.
• Maybe bold was the way to go, instead of italics.
• I'll admit it, I didn't read your whole post. I'm sorry. Excuses: really busy day at work. Painful eye sore. Sudden bout of illiteracy. Huge attack of dumb blonde-syndrome (I'm a natural blonde, therefore allowed to say that).
• Kate Reid as Dr. Ruth Leavitt in "The Andromeda Strain"
• I'm stuck -- I can't think of a single one where a woman scientist was critical to the plot. I can't even think of one whose job was incidental to the plot -- I keep going back to women in Woody Allen movies, but they all seem to be Philosophy professors, brilliant actresses, or women who run charity events (although I forget what the American woman did in Stardust). Obviously, it doesn't speak well of me that I can't think of a positive role model AT ALL. Sorry.
• Off the top of my head I can only think of three: Jean Grey in the two X-Men movies was supposed to be a doctor of some sort. There was the asian woman directing the tour in Spider-Man where Peter got bitten, but she was only on screen for something like four minutes. Susannah Harker's biochemist character in the BBC miniseries Ultraviolet was one of the four main characters, but it's TV and not film.
• My first thought was Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Marian Lazarus in the 1981 sci-fi remake of High Noon, Outland.
• Silkwood
• The computer programmer from Goldeneye. (Sorry, can't access imdb from work for more accurate information)
• Does forensic science count? Any episode of CSI is chock-full of women scientists. My movie pick would be Jurassic Park with Laura Dern.
• Oh! and Kirk's love interest who made the Genesis project in Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
• Just remembered Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson and Kelly Preston in Space Camp. Horribly dated, but perhaps a good throwback to our childhood dreams of being Sally Ride.
• I've got an experiment right here PWNED
• Does Ripley in "Alien" count? Her character was a scientist, right?
• More forensic science on TV, but with a movie option: Gillian Anderson in The X-Files. Okay, I'll stop now.
• my best friend is a real-life neuroscientist chick! hurray!!!
• I can't remember wether Mira Sorvino was a scientist in Mimic or not. Mmmm, Mira...
• Jodie Foster's character, Ellie Arroway, in Contact.
• Can't vouch for the + vs - portrayal in these flicks, but they all featured female scientists in major roles: Congo Contact Gorillas in the Mist Jurassic Park The Lost World Medicine Man The Net Outbreak The Saint Sphere Tears of the Sun Twister Volcano IMDB and Drew's Scripts-o-Rama might prove insightful.
• Yentruoc seems to have that one covered, techsmith. I have to say that the pickings are slim. On topic though, I seem to recall that the shark movie, The Deep Blue Sea, the scientist whose experiments led to the superintelligent sharks was a woman.
• in the shark movie.
• ha! writenroll didn't read the whole post, either! welcome to the "we don't pay enough attention" club, writ :o)
• Ah! The Abyss!
• I think the female character in The Abyss was a submarine pilot, not a scientist. But I could be wrong mistaken misinformed.
• Y'all have come up with far more than my female scientist colleagues. Muchos cinco de Mayo margaritas de bananas para todos! I am looking for women researcher roles - like chemists or geneticists. Unfortunately, that knocks out the CSI crime investigator types and the medical doctors - which sucks, because there are plenty of reasonable female roles for both of those jobs. The Ultraviolet miniseries sounds perfect, so I'll have to find a download of that one. I'll definitely check out Outland and Andromeda Strain - those sound great. And I remember Space Camp and Aliens as being great for non-sex-object scientist roles. Keep 'em coming!
• Ohhh my...Big fat F- for writenroll ("did not follow directions, failed to grasp goals and scope of project") Oh hey, how about Life Story. Juliet Stevenson stars as Rosalind Franklin, the molecular biologist who went head-to-head with Watson (oddly, portrayed by Jeff Goldblum) and Crick in the search for the structure of DNA.
• Susan Calvin in I, Robot (though she's nowhere near fleshed out as her literary counterpart)
• Penelope Ann Miller in The Relic? She does some screaming and falling down, but she also saves the day by being sciencey-smart.
• I am looking for women researcher roles - like chemists or geneticists. The only thing I can think of is Kate Beckinsale's character in Laurel Canyon, but that's not really very helpful, because a) her character never actually does any science work in the movie and b) Kate Beckinsale kept mispronouncing the subject of her thesis. might be good for a chuckle though.
• From the looks of it, you're not looking for "documentaries" or films involving real-life women scientists, but I thought I'd throw this out there anyway. There's a great IMAX documentary about a woman I work for who does research on wild dolphins. Appropriately named Dolphins. Dunno if that's helpful at all... On a more on-topic note, Tomb Raider - though granted based on a video game - is pretty awesome in my book. Maybe that's just because I'm in love with Angie. But honestly, who isn't? Oh and The Saint. /utterly useless post
• City of Angels Gross Anatomy Nuffy Professor I and II Blade
• Rene Rousso plays an expert in tropical diseases in "Outbreak". Daryl Hannah plays an astrophysicist in "Roxanne" with Steve Martin. Kelly McGillis plays a physicist in "Top Gun" Mira Sorvino plays an entomologist in "Mimic". Anne Heche plays a volcanologist in "Volcano". Helen Hunt plays a meteorologist in "Twister" Saffron Burroughs is the marine biologist in "Deep Blue Sea". Laura Dern and Julianne Moore played paleontolgists in the Jurassic Park films. Good God, I really should stop procrastinating and do some real work.
• I was going to say that the real challenge would be to find a female scientist in a movie who was not very attractive and larger than a size 8. However, I shall make the challenge only slightly more possible when I change it to significant female role in a movie where the involving a woman who is less than fifty years old, not very attractive, not played for laughs, and larger than a size 8.
• bernockle... women can be smart and pretty, too, ya know. How does it send a positive message that all women scientists are dumpy 65-year-old frumps? Yyyyeah, I wanna be that when I grow up. Sign me up. Less sarcastically, I tried research internships as an undergrad, and the female scientists/students were on the same curve as anyone else, pretty much. Not all foxes, and not all frumps. You know, like people.
• Yeah, I was sort of hoping for women scientist roles not played by the Uma Thurmans and Darryl Hannahs of the world, but they seem to be pretty insanely hard to find. And documentaries are fine - it was one on Rosalind Franklin that set this film-club idea in motion.
• Hollywood is most definitely skewed towards the sensational. Any monkeys out there know any good foreign films with women scientists? Contact was my first thought, Rosalind Franklin my second. Thanks for the tip, writenroll!
• I think that's bernockle's point, wurwilf, that it would be nice if movies reflected the real world, in which not all smart female characters are also knockouts.
• I mean, look at the ages of the women who are supposedly 'experts' in their field. Kelly McGillis is one of the world's top physicists by the time she's 32? Pretty damn impressive considering that's when most people are still doing their post-doc.
• Shit.. you're asking the impossible. That's like trying to find someone that can sing without big boobs. It a physical phenomenon; you can't sing pop songs without 'em.
• My gal is a hot science girl type (toxicologist). I've even seen her in a labcoat, with her hair all in an "up do". Only thing she was missing is/was glasses. Wait, what were we talking about?
• Then rent the aforementioned "Andromeda Strain". The female scientist is 50-ish, not particularly attractive, not a romantic interest, and larger than size 8. Plus it's a fantastic movie.
• Brainstorm sounds to me as if it fits your requirements perfectly. The discovery that drives the plot is made by a distinctly non-glamourous female scientist, played beautifully by Louise Fletcher, and Natalie Wood plays a top-flight product packaging designer.
• Okay, I can see that, I just would try to avoid going too far in the other direction. if I... were you, which I'm not, so I'll shut up now. ahem.
• Raquel as Cora Peterson in Fanastic Voyage. (sorry ladies)
• There's the psychic physist in Murdercycle. Just, you know, so that you can rent Murdercycle. She's an idiot, but everyone in that movie is. There's a young girl who wants to be a scientist in War of the Worlds (the '50s version), but I'm not sure that she ever becomes one...
• Grayson Hall as Dr. Julia Hoffman in The House of Dark Shadows. (I know it was based on a TV soap opera) but it's a movie, and Dr. Hoffman was certainly no looker.
• Not a movie, but Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1 is a physicist, along with being a combat pilot, wears the same frumpy military fagigues as the guys, and out-sciences everyone. My wife's favorite woman in SF by far.
• i second gillian anderson in the x-files (movie version too) madeleine stowe in 12 monkeys jodie foster in silence of the lambs pauline taylor in a clockwork orange (hah!) these recommendations based on perhaps a false presumption that you consider psychiatrists and psychologists worthy of being called scientists.
• Six models of presentation of women scientists in feature films With a qualitative sociological film interpretation of approximately 60 feature films, it is possible to determine the following six stereotypical portrayals of women scientists in feature films: 1. The old maid 2. The male woman 3. The naïve expert 4. The evil plotter 5. The daughter or assistant 6. The lonely heroine 'the male woman'....Dr. Frank-N-Furter, perhaps?
• js: You saw Murdercycle!!! A feather in my cap is that I added the only bit of trivia on IMDB on that piece of crap.
• Ingrid Goude in The Killer Shrews
• Offtopic: the 50's incarnation of The War of the Worlds was really the 1950's answer to Independence Day. Like Independence Day, they had a single special effect which they used, used, and used again. Like Independence Day, the writing was poor, the dialogue unbelievable (3 minutes to bomb time!), and the acting so wooden Gepetto would be crying plagiarism. Ontopic: Women scientists are hot.
• A film I saw recently was The Mafu Cage in which Lee Grant plays I believe an astronomer of some sort. However that is strictly ancillary to the story, which mostly centers around Carol Kane's excellent portrayal of her wacked-out sister. I highly recommend this film, despite its featuring the death of some monkeys.
• Greer Garson as Madame Curie [third one down].
• Yes, for an older, non-romantic femantic female scientist, I would think of the Andromeda strain first. She's also an interestingly complex character in a film that is for the most part more about the puzzle than the characters (I could barely distinguish the male characters by personality). She may still fall into the "bitter/spinster" mode, though I think I remember her being more confident/content with her life than that. But it's been a while.
• 1. The old maid 2. The male woman 3. The naïve expert 4. The evil plotter 5. The daughter or assistant 6. The lonely heroine
  I thought all women in film were whores or madonnas...
• Grover: Hell yes, I saw Murdercycle. And it was SHITTY! I mean, my girlfriend and I have a habit of renting shitty movies, since we're the only ones with a VCR around anymore, and all of the best movies are on VHS, but Murdercycle was unbelievably shitty. Not like Zone Troopers which I heartily recommend.
• Les Palmes de M. Schutz is about Pierre and Marie Curie, is pretty good, and was presented to us in an history of science course.
• What about Eleanor Zissou in Life Aquatic? But I guess that the movie only mentions her being a biologist (if I remember correctly) - "the brain behind team Zissou". It doesn't actually show her doing any science.
• Has anyone seen 'Secret Defense'?
• I am astounded the thread's got this far without mention of film star and real, live female scientist Hedy Lamarr. If you use a cellphone or wi-fi, you owe a thank-you to the co-inventor of frequency-hopping. Films of hers you might show include Ecstasy, a German film from 1933 which is said to contain the first nude scene in cinema, or her 1949 Biblical romp Samson and Delilah, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. And yes, women scientists are hot.