The Duck of Minerva

Any good academic movies?

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by Jon Western

29 August 2012, 1941 EDT

With the loss of the drinking intellectual stimulation that comes from APSA, I’m in need of some inspiration to kick start the semester that begins next week.

We all know that academic life is full of adventure, comedy, human drama, and conflict. So, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a decent Hollywood movie about academic life.

Lucky Jim should be a shoe-in, but the 1957 film is just bad. Wonder Boys ranks high because Michael Douglas looks good in a pink robe, and in a rarity for this genre, actually refuses to sleep with his student. A Beautiful Mind isn’t really about academic life, but the critique of the movie by academics is close — can you believe that Hollywood simplified the complexities of Nash’s work — oh, the outrage! Most in the genre are too superficial or predictable — Tenure, Mona Lisa Smile, and the more recent Liberal Arts.

My favorite, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, is just too scary to watch again:

Any suggestions?

Jon Western has spent the last fifteen years teaching IR in liberal arts colleges at Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges in western Massachusetts. He has an eclectic range of intellectual interests but often writes on international security, U.S. foreign policy, military intervention, and human rights. He occasionally shares his thoughts about professional life in liberal arts colleges. In his spare time he coaches middle school soccer, mentors the local high school robotics team, skis, and sails.

11 Comments

  1. Erik Voeten
    Erik Voeten on 29 August 2012 at 21.04 EDT

    Footnote is a terrific movie that is full of all the things you mentioned (except perhaps adventure but that may be a more realistic depiction of academic life).

  2. Rodger
    Rodger on 29 August 2012 at 21.08 EDT

    One of the stranger films I’ve seen is “Leaves of Grass,” starring Edward Norton as an Ivy League professor. Another oddity is “Birds of America,” with Matthew Perry. You could also give “Possession” a try, featuring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart.

  3. Stewart
    Stewart on 29 August 2012 at 21.15 EDT

    Educating Rita. A somewhat portly-looking Michael Caine in very good form, as is co-star Julie Walters, long before she became Molly Weasely.

    Less good, but still enjoyable is Smart People, not so much for the rom-com aspects as for Dennis Quaid’s likeably unlikeable professor character.

  4. Chris Lawrence
    Chris Lawrence on 29 August 2012 at 21.16 EDT

    Smart People is pretty decent.

    (Stewart beat me by a few seconds.)

  5. Chris Lawrence
    Chris Lawrence on 29 August 2012 at 21.21 EDT

    If you’re really looking for academics, though, on the order of 50-60% of the mysteries in the Inspector Morse/Lewis franchise involve academics and/or students at Oxford. Not truly movies but at 90-105 minutes they clock in about the same.

  6. Vikash Yadav
    Vikash Yadav on 29 August 2012 at 22.41 EDT

    Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” is not quite about academia per se, but I highly recommend it. Viggo and Fassbender are brilliant as Freud and Jung. Kiera Knightly actually manages not to ruin the film…

  7. Nawal
    Nawal on 30 August 2012 at 01.20 EDT

    At this point, everyone has seen it of course, but Good Will Hunting is worth a re-watch just for two scenes: Robin Williams’ humbling exchange with Will in the park, and Ben Affleck owning a snooty Harvard grad student at a bar.

    • Nawal
      Nawal on 30 August 2012 at 01.29 EDT

      Also, probably doesn’t count, but can’t forget Indiana Jones was technically a professor, as a side job :-)

  8. colinwight
    colinwight on 30 August 2012 at 05.15 EDT

    Higher Learning, even features a Pol Sci Prof. Then the Paper Chase, Houseman was just brilliant.

  10. David Patel
    David Patel on 30 August 2012 at 13.09 EDT

    Not a movie, but there is a novel set amidst Cornell’s Government Department: Lurie’s “The War Between the Tates.”