Action Movie Based on Sir Isaac Newton

[stevea]

Does this strike anyone else as not just wrong, but perverse ?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...n-movie-334848

Honoring Gauss on a 10 mark note was cool. Making Newton into IndianaJones-x-Terminator makes me ill.

[nonamedotc]

..... and in the process have stunt sequence which grossly violate Newton's laws explicitly!

[marko]

Looks like a similar rehash to the "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer" movie, also an action movie about a famous historical person (and pretty tasteless imho)

[dd_wizard]

Along those lines, what Hollywood did to Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" was truely sad.

dd_wizard

[smr54]

I enjoyed the book about Lincoln as vampire hunter. I freely admit to lowbrow tastes, however.

[tashirosgt]

How many great scientists signed orders for persons to be hanged? Sir Isaac did. Anybody else?

[DBelton]

Not only hanged, but hanged, drawn and quartered.

But he was a justice of the peace and warden of the royal mint, and the Kings attorney, convicting quite a few people of high treason.

[sonoran]

And he devoted far more time to alchemy than to real science ... who knows, maybe he would have endorsed something outlandish.

Fine example of authentic Hollywood gibberish:

We see this as a real opportunity to redefine the concept from day one, using multiple channels and outlets to more creatively develop and extend the characters and storyline while generating huge excitement in advance of the theatrical release.

[Dan]

You mean alchemy isn't real science!? <....>

Uh, oh. <....>

Aw, Dang. There goes that gubbermint global worming grant I wuz countin' on.

[DBelton]

Sorry Dan...

Grants are ONLY given to meaningful and useful studies.. Like... The sex habits of Japanese quail on cocaine.

[smr54]

http://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/

While I generally have no trust in our government, sometimes there are reasons for strange sounding things getting grant money. I think a few politicians probably looked foolish as the screw worm sex study--yeah, that's what the worm is called--turned out to affect cattle ranchers.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by dd_wizard

Along those lines, what Hollywood did to Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" was truely sad.

dd_wizard

Well those couple of movies were truly awful, the acting was particularly shallow, and wooden. The screenplay/directing was equally simplistic. OTOH Heinlein's story was about a sort of mindless patriotism (nationalism? planetarism ? specie-ism?) meant as political commentary on the 1950/60s cold war schema.. Heinlein was a pro-military "hawk" at the time. My opinion is that this was not the best of Heinlein's stories, and doesn't lend itself to a contemporary movie, particularly when the producers and actors are so inept.

Originally Posted by tashirosgt

How many great scientists signed orders for persons to be hanged? Sir Isaac did. Anybody else?

Francis Bacon comes to mind (I'm guessing, as hee was Atty General for 4 years). He certainly urged execution for Mary Queen of Scots. Of course scientists like Alfred Nobel and Fritz Haber were also indirectly responsible for massive deaths. Several notable scientists served in wars.

Originally Posted by DBelton

Not only hanged, but hanged, drawn and quartered.

But he was a justice of the peace and warden of the royal mint, and the Kings attorney, convicting quite a few people of high treason.

And they say punishment is no deterrent ! Right - but counterfeiting was considered high treason, and at that time Newton estimated 20% of the currency was counterfeit.

Originally Posted by sonoran

And he devoted far more time to alchemy than to real science ... who knows, maybe he would have endorsed something outlandish.

EXCUSE ME - you believe they discovered some day-timer log of his time ? Newton's total published works in religion and alchemy exceed in volume those of science, math, but that clearly does not correspond to time spent. I suggest you try reading 2 pages of 'Principia' and maybe compare that to 50 pages of prose arguments.

The other point - you really have to understand how primitive science was at that point. Galeleo died the year Newton was born. It's not surprising at chemistry lagged behind basic mechanics and math. The man considered the first scientific chemist - Robert Boyle - was born only 15 years before Newton and Newton was familiar with his work. FWIW most of Newton's sci-math work occurred between ~25-45yo, and most of is other work appeared later. In his late years he introduced a lot of bogus ideas wrt science that were roundly criticized. Newton had some psychological issues - cetainly a 'nervous breakdown', possibly Asperger's syndrome. I an not a great believer in these diagnoses from a distance, but the guy had problems from contemporary accounts.

Originally Posted by smr54

http://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/

While I generally have no trust in our government, sometimes there are reasons for strange sounding things getting grant money. I think a few politicians probably looked foolish as the screw worm sex study--yeah, that's what the worm is called--turned out to affect cattle ranchers.

Well I'd rather it wasn't directed by government, but Coburn is a jackass. Studying screw worm, shrimp locomotion and towel folding robots is quite reasonable. I mean who doesn't need one of these ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5g33S0Gzo

No one can predict where basic research leads. The classic example is that a physicists Roentgen was discovering Xrays in 1895 and almost immediately recognized their ability to reveal bones - taking a picture of his wife's hand.
http://reich-chemistry.wikispaces.co...69861/xray.jpg
within 2 years this method was used clinically to set broken bones. Now if you started by searching for methods to set bones better you'd never get around to studying Xrays.

This is not a prescription to study anything at random, but rather to study those things we clearly don't understand. This can lead to great and small revolutions. If the world was populated by Coburns we'd still be waiting to invent the wheel or to domesticate animals.

"If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders." -- HalAbelson
"If I have seen further than others, it is because I was surrounded by dwarves." -- attributed to MurrayGellMann?, possibly maliciously.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by dd_wizard

Along those lines, what Hollywood did to Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" was truely sad.

I disagree. I think what Paul Verhoeven (the director) did with the film was brilliant. He turned Heinlein's militaristic novel on its head, using the film as a way of lampooning the fascist aspects of militarism and slipping in some slyly subversive political commentary (which the average American moviegoer was unfortunately too dim to pick up on), all in the opposite direction of Heinlein's views. Heinlein got the treatment he deserved, in my opinion. Watch the interview Verhoeven gives on the DVD extras. It amazes me how many people didn't see the satirical aspect of the film. Remember the news reports in the film? How could anyone miss that? The actors were mindless and wooden for a reason: fascism (and militarism in general) depends on people like that. Verhoeven was making some points (and not-so-subtle commentary on some recent wars, especially in regard to who the real "bad guys" were). I think it's a fantastic film.

[Dan]

... politics.

... Would you like to know more?


Thread closed.




<....>