I interviewed a college president recently who liked "Lucky Hank" better than "The Chair." There were so many ridiculous aspects of "The Chair" (Bill Dobson is a completely preposterous character) but it did strike pretty close to the mark occasionally. I've not seen "Lucky Hank," though I did read Russo's book years ago, so I'll have to give it a look :). One pet peeve about film versions of academe...they never seem to be able to capture what teaching is really like. Classroom scenes are always just before the bell or little fragments of things--there's never a way of capturing the feeling of a really great lecture or discussion. I listened to David Blight's Yale class on the Civil War a few summers ago while cycling on Iowa backroads, and there are really electric moments in it. Film can capture that magic in music, in art...do you think it's ever represented the magic of the lab well?
I can barely even think of examples where lab work is represented on film--all that comes to mind (other than police procedurals and Sci-fi shows) is The Dropout and the X-Files! I'm sure there are other examples that I'm not remembering or haven't seen . . .
I interviewed a college president recently who liked "Lucky Hank" better than "The Chair." There were so many ridiculous aspects of "The Chair" (Bill Dobson is a completely preposterous character) but it did strike pretty close to the mark occasionally. I've not seen "Lucky Hank," though I did read Russo's book years ago, so I'll have to give it a look :). One pet peeve about film versions of academe...they never seem to be able to capture what teaching is really like. Classroom scenes are always just before the bell or little fragments of things--there's never a way of capturing the feeling of a really great lecture or discussion. I listened to David Blight's Yale class on the Civil War a few summers ago while cycling on Iowa backroads, and there are really electric moments in it. Film can capture that magic in music, in art...do you think it's ever represented the magic of the lab well?
I can barely even think of examples where lab work is represented on film--all that comes to mind (other than police procedurals and Sci-fi shows) is The Dropout and the X-Files! I'm sure there are other examples that I'm not remembering or haven't seen . . .