Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema
- ISBN-10
- 1861898215
- ISBN-13
- 9781861898210
- Category
- Performing Arts
- Pages
- 240
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-06-01
- Publisher
- Reaktion Books
- Author
- Christopher Frayling
Description
From Victor Frankenstein to Dr. Moreau to Doc Brown in Back to the Future, the scientist has been a puzzling, fascinating, and threatening presence in popular culture. From films we have learned that scientists are either evil maniacal geniuses or bumbling saviors of society. Mad, Bad and Dangerous? puts this dichotomy to the test, offering a wholly engaging yet not uncritical history of the cinematic portrayal of scientists. Christopher Frayling traces the genealogy of the scientist in film, showing how the scientist has often embodied the predominant anxieties of a particular historical moment. The fear of nuclear holocaust in the 1950s gave rise to a rash of radioactive-mutant horror movies, while the possible dangers of cloning and biotechnology in the 1990s manifested themselves in Jurassic Park. During these eras, the scientist's actions have been viewed through a lens of fascination and fear. In the past few decades, with increased public awareness of environmental issues and of the impact of technology on nature, the scientist has been transformed once again—into a villainous agent of money-hungry corporate powers. Mad, Bad and Dangerous? also examines biographical depictions of actual scientists, illuminating how they are often portrayed as social misfits willing to sacrifice everything to the interests of science. Drawing on such classic and familiar films as Frankenstein, Metropolis, and The Wizard of Oz, Frayling brings social and film history together to paint a much larger picture of the evolving value of science and technology to society. A fascinating study of American culture and film, Mad, Bad and Dangerous? resurrects the scientists of late night movies and drive-in theaters and gives them new life as cultural talismans.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
By Samira AhmedDiscover New York Times bestseller Samira Ahmed’s romantic, sweeping adventure through the streets of Paris told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, continents, and the lives of two young Muslim women fighting to write their ...
-
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
By Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Bear GryllsAnd now the extraordinary life story of the world's greatest living explorer is re-published to celebrate his 75th birthday, with two new chapters to bring his story up to date - telling of more mountains climbed, including his ascent to ...
-
Mad, Bad and Dangerous - The Book of Drummers' Tales
By Spike WebbThis is truly a labour of love - and somebody had to do it.
-
A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England 1783-1846
By Boyd HiltonBoyd Hilton examines the changes in society between 1783-1846 and the transformations from raffish and rakish behaviour to the new norms of Victorian respectability.
-
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
By Samira AhmedIn Paris, seventeen-year-old Khayyam, a part-Indian, part-French Muslim American, is at a crossroads when a chance encounter plunges her into research about Leila, a girl much like Khayyam who inspired Eugène Delacroix.
-
Mad: A Novel
By Chloé EspositoAlvie jumps at the chance to take over her sister's life--if only temporarily. But when the night ends with Beth dead at the bottom of the pool, Alvie realizes that this is her chance to change her life.
-
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce
By Colm TóibínIn Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, Colm Tóibín presents an illuminating, intimate study of Irish culture, history and literature told through the lives and works of Ireland's most famous sons, and the complicated, influential relationships ...
-
Dangerous to Know
By CHLOE. ESPOSITO*Pre-order now - the explosive third book in the Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know trilogy featuring Alvie Knightly** Praise for Mad and Bad: 'The must-have beach read this summer' Telegraph 'Sizzlingly glamorous' Guardian 'A fast-paced tale ...
-
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know: The Extraordinary Exploits of the British and European Aristocracy
By Karl ShawThe alarming history of the British, and European, aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy, stories of madness, murder, misery, greed and profligacy.
-
Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know Ssb
By Ranulph FiennesMad Bad and Dangerous to Know Ssb