Political scientists on film
It’s Oscar season, and the general consensus seems to the that the actual Oscar nominations mostly suck eggs. So, playing off this Tyler Cowen post about economists in the movies, I began to wonder if the problem is that movies need to have more political scientists in them. After all, how many political scientists — ...
It's Oscar season, and the general consensus seems to the that the actual Oscar nominations mostly suck eggs.
It’s Oscar season, and the general consensus seems to the that the actual Oscar nominations mostly suck eggs.
So, playing off this Tyler Cowen post about economists in the movies, I began to wonder if the problem is that movies need to have more political scientists in them. After all, how many political scientists — as opposed to politicians — have been portrayed on film?
The answer appears to be "not many." Some of the people on Tyler’s list — Carl Kaysen in Girl, Interrupted, for example — qualify for political science as well. Independent of Cowen’s list, however, I could only think of three movie characters who were clearly identified as political scientists:
- Walter Matthau as Professor Groeteschele in Fail Safe (1964)
- Coutney B. Vance as Luke in The Last Supper (1995)
- Kurt Russell as Dr. David Grant in Executive Decision (1996)
This is pretty thin gruel.
Of course, that could be because our jobs are boring, or it could be because political scientists are "incredibly uncool, socially inept, and about as socially connected to high society as Gomer Pyle on crystal meth."
Question to readers: I’m sure that there are poli sci characters in movies that I am missing. Who are they?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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