The period between 1945 and 1970 was critical for the public reputation of British science. It was also a golden age for British cinema. Feature films of this period are used in this paper as a tool for investigating the public image of the scientist. Three main stereotypes are identified, but one of these, which I have called `the Boffin' forms the main focus of the paper. `Boffins' are scientists working with the government and/or armed forces in wartime. An analysis of the portrayal of Barnes Wallis in The Dam Busters provides the main characteristics of the stereotype, and fictional Boffins from other films are compared with this. The origins of the stereotype are traced to the actual situation of scientists in the British war effort, and to class and cultural divisions in post-war Britain. The persistence of the stereotype is also discussed. The implications of this analysis for our understanding of public attitudes to scientists during this period are considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Hennessy, P. , 1992, Never Again (London: Cape), p. 325.
2.
Marwick, A. , 1990, British Society since 1945 (2nd edn), (Harmondsworth: Penguin), p. 21.
3.
See Goldsmith, M., 1986, The Science Critic (London: Routledge), p. 67.
4.
Richards, J. , and Aldgate, A., 1983, Best of British: Cinema and Society 1930-1970 (Oxford: Blackwell), Chap. 1.
5.
Shortland, M. , 1987, Screen memories: towards a history of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the movies. British Journal for the History of Science, 20, 421-452.
6.
Lambourne, R. , Shallis, M., and Shortland, M., 1990, Close Encounters? Science and Science Fiction (Bristol: Adam Hilger), p. 26
7.
Elena, A. , 1993, Exemplary lives: biographies of scientists on the screen. Public Understanding of Science, 2, 205-223.
8.
Perilli, P. , 1983, Statistical survey of the British film industry. British Cinema History, edited by J. Curran and V. Porter (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson).
9.
See, for example, Murphy, R., 1992, Sixties British Cinema (London: British Film Institute).
10.
Brosnan, J. , 1991, The Primal Scream: a History of Science Fiction Films (New York: Orbit).
11.
See, for example, Haynes, R. D., 1994, From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), which, despite its title, covers films as well.
12.
Wolpert, L. , 1992, The Unnatural Nature of Science (London: Faber).
13.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 67.
14.
Gifford, D. , 1986, The British Film Catalogue 1895-1983 (Newton Abbot: David and Charles).
15.
Haynes, R. D. , 1994, From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), p. 3.
16.
The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary, 1993 (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
17.
Contained on the Warner Home Video release of the film.
18.
Garland, B. , 1987, War Movies (New York: Facts on File).
19.
Morpurgo, J. E. , 1972, Barnes Wallis (London: Longman), p. xi.
20.
Morpurgo, J. E. , 1972, Barnes Wallis (London: Longman), pp. 200, 236
21.
Morpurgo, J. E. , 1972, Barnes Wallis (London: Longman), p. 375
22.
Dennis, J. , 1995, Class and gender in the British war film. Open History, 56 (September), 17-23.
23.
Haining, P. , 1987, James Bond: A Celebration (London: W. H. Allen), p. 188, from an interview with Desmond Llewellyn.
24.
Film poster, quoted in Howe, D. J., Stammers, M., and Walker, S. J., 1992, Doctor Who: the Sixties (London: Virgin), p. 50.
25.
Howe, D. J. , Stammers, M., and Walker, S. J., 1992, Doctor Who: the Sixties (London: Virgin), p. 24.
26.
Quoted in Haining, P., 1988, Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years (London: W. H. Allen), p. 94
27.
Haining, P. , 1988, Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years (London: W. H. Allen), p. 38
28.
Morpurgo, J. E. , 1972, Barnes Wallis (London: Longman), passim.
29.
Cathcart, B. , 1994, Test of Greatness (London: John Murray).
30.
Zuckerman, S. , 1966, Scientists and War (London: Hamish Hamilton), p. 9.
31.
Haynes, R. D. , 1994, From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), p. 187.
32.
See Collini, S., 1993, introduction to the Canto edition of Snow, C. P., 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press).
33.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 4.
34.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 9.
35.
Collini, S. , 1993, introduction to Snow, C. P., 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. xi.
36.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 11.
37.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 61.
38.
Green, M. , 1964, Science and the Shabby Curate of Poetry (London: Longman), p. 22.
39.
Midgley, M. , 1992, Science as Salvation (London: Routledge), p. 171.
40.
Snow, C. P. , 1993, The Two Cultures (Cambridge: Canto/Cambridge University Press), p. 2.
41.
Lambourne, R. , Shallis, M., and Shortland, M., 1990, Close Encounters? Science and Science Fiction (Bristol: Adam Hilger), pp. 125-129.
42.
Powell, D. , 1989, The Golden Screen: Fifty Years of Films (London: Pavilion), p. 200.
43.
Haynes, R. D. , 1994, From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), p. 199.
44.
Marwick, A. , 1990, British Society since 1945 (2nd edn) (Harmondsworth: Penguin), particularly Chaps 8 and 9.
45.
Halliwell's Film Guide, 1989 (7th edn) (London: Longman).
