Re: You know you are a geologist if
- From: "George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 03:21:21 GMT
"Jo Schaper" <joschapern4ospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:119sjqrd14q2cc4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> George wrote:
>
>
>> I'm still waiting for Hollywood to produce a film that has any science
>> right, much less geology. Well, to give them a little credit, the only
>> films that come to mind that were correct as far as the science is
>> concerned were "The Right Stuff", "Apollo 13", and "From the Earth To
>> The Moon". Recent efforts have been a scientific disaster ("The Core"
>> is one that comes to mind).
>
> Well, they didn't do too bad with the original Fantastic Voyage, once you
> got past the ridiculous premise of shrinking the people.
> http://web1.caryacademy.org/classes/biology/hollywood/hollywoodscience.htm
>
> We actually saw the film "A Civil Action" on groundwater pollution whilst
> in hydrology class. And the made for TV movie The Day After was pretty
> good.
A civil action gave us a pretty good look at the legal workings of
environmental law. However, I had to laugh when John Travolta showed up at
the tanning factory with two drill rigs, a backhole, a dump truck, and a
handful of 'techies'. I've conducted a lot of environmental investigations
in the last 15 years, and I've only had two drill rigs onsite on two
occasions, and in both of those instances there was a real estate
transaction in progress and a tight timeline to determine if the site was
contaminated. And in both cases, someone had deep pockets in order to
conduct such investigations. And I've never had the need for two drill
rigs AND a backhole onsite at the same time. I'm not saying that it isn't
possible, just that it is unlikely. Since Federal and State regulatory
processes, and well as liability issues are what drives these
investigations, it is unlikely that either Federal or State regulators
would require both a subsurface drilling investigation and an excavation to
occur at the same time at the same site. Usually, the drilling occurs
first, along with soil and ground watyer sampling. Once the zone of
contamination has been delineated, then remedial action occurs, but usually
not until a fully review has been conmpleted by the proper regulatory
agencies. It just thought it was a bit overkill on the part of the
filmakers.
> Hollywood does better with documentaries and non-fiction--but there are
> bloopers even in Imaxes, Discovery Channel and similar science
> docudramas.
I agree.
> There is a reason they call it 'fiction.'
>
> I was actually fishing for some other movies shot on location, worth
> watching for looking at the rocks, not playing attention to the plot. You
> know, where the hero wrestles the heroine to the ground in a mad
> passionate embrace, and as the viewer, you go, "Hey, COOL! Navajo
> Sandstone!" Or movies where the geology is absolutely wrong..."The Jerk"
> comes to mind, where Steve Martin is allegedly in St. Louis, but there
> are palm trees and So. Cal/San Diego style chaparral in the background.
>
> But remember..the first time I saw a picture of Monument Valley in a geo
> book, I said...hmmm, what movie was that in?
Mackenna's Gold (1969: Gregory Peck, Omar Shariff, Telly Savalas, Lee J.
Cobb, Julie Newmar, Candice Bergman, etc) is a great western that was shot,
I believe in Monument valley, and has some great cinematography.
.
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