Back to School with Realistic Movie Professors
Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 1:11PM by Kyle Stevens
Professor Indiana JonesAfter teaching for years as a graduate student, then as a postdoc, and then as a Visiting Assistant Professor, I’ve finally started a proper position as Assistant Professor of Film Studies. As semesters begin all over the country, I turned to thinking about my favorite on-screen professors. High school movies tend to serve as microcosms of society; they’re all emotional peaks and valleys, in-groups and out-groups, and the goal is to get out. In college movies, from Animal House and Old School to Legally Blonde and The House Bunny, the goal is to stay on the rip-roaring ride of university life.
Not surprisingly, college teachers don’t feature heavily in these movies. And in other genres where professors pop up, they’re not exactly realistic. Think Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor, Natalie Portman in Thor, Hugh Grant in The Rewrite, and so on. (Propriety dictates that I not comment on the realism of Bruce Humberstone’s 1952 Virginia Mayo vehicle She’s Working Her Way Through College.) Television doesn’t fare much better, as the patently absurd characters in How to Get Away with Murder or Transparent attest.
But here are my personal favorites. The Top Five Professors in Film..
01 Emma Thompson in Wit (Mike Nichols, 2001)
Emma Thompson plays Vivian Bearing, an English professor diagnosed with “stage IV cancer.” She has thought about life and death her entire professional life, and now all that theory is being put into practice. It is a movie about the experience of being tested, and she passes. She keeps her wits, in an old-fashioned sense. Thompson—of course—nails how a lecture can feel both rote and urgent at the same time, and how 30 years of drinking six cups of coffee a day and institutional hierarchies lead to a hardness of the personality. Thompson subtly conveys Vivian’s distaste for academic bureaucracy while never diminishing her conviction in the importance of her subject: that understanding even one poem can involve confronting the grandest metaphysical questions as well as considering a single punctuation mark, and that these might be the same thing.
02 Colin Firth in A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009)
This is a potentially scandalous choice to single out as realistic, I know. I don’t mean that professors are typically distracted by blue eyes like Nicholas Hoult’s in the lecture hall (though a fuzzy cream angora sweater will draw the eye). Rather, Ford and Firth get something right about the feeling of lecturing. They capture the arc of a class, the way it starts out bold, on topic, and then meanders a bit—and how time can completely get away from you! Firth nails the verbal gearshift between the “professional” tone of talking about literature and the more personal tone as he tries to explain to the students how their discussion is relevant to their lives. He sounds like a pedagogue who wants to share wisdom either way, but it’s clear which he cares more about. The movie lets the personal come through the performance of the perfectly groomed besuited professor. As for a student fancying Professor Falconer, what college student never crushed on a professor? I did, on my French Lit professor, and I can still vividly picture him writing on the blackboard in the jeans he so often wore.
03 Philip Hubbard in The Blot (Lois Weber, 1921)
Weber’s 1921 gem might be old, but its depiction of the genteel poverty of academics sure is timely. The story centers on the family of Andrew Griggs (Philip Hubbard), a caring and gifted professor unappreciated by the majority of his wealthy students. The family suffers a series of humiliations (including Mrs. Griggs’s moving attempts to steal food from the shoe-selling neighbors), and, eventually, the film offers up a happy ending after a student who woos Griggs’s daughter Amelia not only pays off their debts but writes to his father—the college’s wealthiest trustee—to demand the teachers be given a living wage. If this all sounds too didactic, it is a credit to Weber that she makes the drama feel so very human.
04 Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man (Coen Brothers, 2009)
Poor Dr. Larry Gopnik is subjected to an avowedly Old Testament series of tests. And the dynamic tension holding the movie together is Michael Stuhlbarg’s electrically earnest resolve to find meaning in it all. But what, he eventually has to ask, does meaning mean? That’s a scary question for a physics professor accustomed to knowing the causes and principles on which the universe run. He’s trained to discover new connections, and yet, what if he can’t? To paraphrase one of my favorite professors, science seeks to discover and the humanities explain what’s already there. Gopnik’s predicament is an argument for the value of the film itself.
05 Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile (Mike Newell, 2003)
Okay, so maybe I just have a soft spot for any movie that proves Julia Roberts can’t be outshined, even by an army that includes several of the most talented actresses of the younger generation. Mona Lisa Smile is set in the early 1950s—surely the most transitional moment in American higher education as schools went co-ed and the GI Bill afforded more opportunities to attend. Roberts plays a Minnesota graduate student, Katherine Ann Watson, who lands a position teaching at Wellesley (no, this would not happen today) only to find that her students are extremely resistant. What I like about the film has nothing to do with art, or the rather clunky speeches about the importance of understanding sexist culture. The chemistry between all the women, teachers and students (see it for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s bear hug moment) is the selling point and the depiction of a teacher who doesn’t know how to teach yet. Watson’s lectures are caricatures of teaching—hostile but still effective. And teaching can sometimes feel combative. And sometimes students are hostile to someone with their best interests at heart.
In the end, of course, the students come to appreciate her, and they decide she’s pretty much the best thing ever to grace a lecturn. But it’s really a failure of teaching since she only succeeds “by example,” as Kirsten Dunst’s Betty’s final editorial declares. It’s obvious why, but I like to believe that professors might succeed in spite of themselves.
What are some of your favorites? Still Alice? A Beautiful Mind? Good Will Hunting?
Reader Comments (38)
I like Barbra Streisand's Prof. Rose Morgan in The Mirror Has Two Faces, not for the realism though, but for the sheer teaching fantasy of that classroom monologue about archetypes and love. To hold a huge and filled-up lecture hall in awe is a fantasy. But nevertheless that scene has given me one truth about teaching (and I am a teacher): teaching can be, more or less, theatre.
I love that movie, Ian! I guess because loving it "feels fucking great."
Without a doubt,
1. Mark Thackeray (Sir) - Sidney Poitier To Sir With Love
2. Sean Maguire and John Keating - Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting/Dead Poets Society
3. Jaime Escalante - Edward James Olmos - Stand and Deliver
4. Jean Brodie - Maggie Smith - Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
5. Miss Riley - Laura Dern - October Sky
Runners Up
Mr Chips - Robert Donat - Goodbye Mr. Chips
Severus Snape - Alan Rickman - Harry Potter I-VII
Remus Lupin - David Thewlis - Harry Potter III, V-VII
Katherine Watson - Julia Roberts - Mona Lisa Smiles
Anna Leonowens - Deborah Kerr - The King and I
I LOVE your list, Pam! But only one of them is a college professor! Maybe we should do another list for grade/high school!
It would be hard to beat that top choice, a performance that almost always comes up when discussing Emma Thompson's finest roles, but which also feels strangely under-discussed otherwise.
Julianne Moore's Still Alice is probably the one that's closest to my heart at the moment. At the very beginning of the film, when she forgets the word 'lexicon', her pause and then pivot into the slightly clunky 'wordstock' had the exact right level of confidence of someone who's been teaching so long and is *largely* but not completely able to cover for herself. And, of course, it makes for a good contrast to her speech at the Alzheimer's conference later in the film.
Oh dear. Must have HS on the brain since sending the kiddies off this morning...
I forgot to add Sally Hawkins to the list anyway for Happy Go Lucky
1. Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting
2. Julia Roberts, Mona Lisa Smiles
3. Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
I always think of Jeff Daniels in 'Terms of Endearment' as exemplary of a particular stripe of prof. Indeed, to this day, sometimes I meet faculty dudes of a certain age and think "You were totally a Flap, weren't you."
Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale now we're talking PROFESSORS.
Interesting choices. Emma Thompson was so brilliant in Wit! The Blot sounds fascinating, I'll have to try hunting it down. Silents are so tough to walk into blind so thanks for the recommendation.
Some that come to mind:
Michael Douglas-Wonder Boys-He's a bit shambling but this is my favorite Michael Douglas performance.
Michael Caine-Educating Rita-I guess I like somewhat dissolute professors played by actors named Michael! Caine and Julie Walters have such great chemistry in this.
Henry Fonda-The Male Animal-While he spends alumni weekend jealous of his wife's former boyfriend he also finds himself embroiled in a freedom of speech debate when he reads an anarchist's letter in class.
And though he really doesn't spend much time in the classroom I have to mention Harrison Ford as Henry "Indiana" Jones!
The ones who first come to mind are Colin Firth in A Single Man, Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys, and about 5 seconds of a reaction shot of a tired, annoyed professor (I think played by Noah Baumbach's father) listening to creative writing students make ridiculous comments on Josh Hamilton's character's writing in Kicking and Screaming.
Though if this was opened up to all teachers I'd add Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, who I believe nails a certain type of idealist/zealot.
Unfortunately Moore in Still Alice lost the realism game when this well-experienced expert in her field shared the "we know more and more about less and less!" cliche during a high-level presentation. Academics would not be amused by this observation as they know that this is what everyone thinks about what they do.
Love the choice of Roberts in Mona Lisa--that first day of class scene is my go-to nightmare: the students will already know everything and call me on my fraudulence. I haven't seen A Serious Man in a while but the character's existential crisis and exasperated overwork/absent-mindedness did seem right.
I suppose English is its own discipline but I recently rewatched that scene with Firth and thought it worked as a throw-back but not as a reflection of realistic contemporary college lectures. Half of the students would be irritated by the tangent and the lack of clear "what will be on the test" thread... Especially the bright ones.
Here's a precious trailer for the 1952 film you mention (I looked it up because I was unfamiliar with it)... The "guess what this LITTLE GIRL is doing" moment gave me a real lol: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Tncnesgmc
I'll add that while I hated pretty much everything about Liberal Arts, the professors seemed roughly realistic (the more interesting movie that wasn't made).
Olivia Williams in An Education.
Congratulations on the new job, Kyle, and I wish you well for the coming semester.
This is a lovely post, and I'd only like to add my support for Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys - a great performance.
Sally Kellerman in Back To School. That voice could lecture me all day long.
Maybe not for realism, but I have to say Julianne Moore as Georgette in Maggie's Plan is one of my favorites. I wish I'd had a professor that yelled at me in a crazy accent while wearing fuzzy vests.
Great post and congrats, Kyle!
John Houseman in The Paper Chase
James Mason in Lolita
James Stewart in Rope
joel6: Agreed. Indiana Jones spends maybe 2 minutes in only the first of the four movies in a classroom, so we have no idea how realistic or not his teaching actually is, but those two minutes made it seem like he was performing that job with distinction. Also: Though we never see them teach (not the point of Ghostbusters, so okay,), but Egon and Ray from Ghostbusters probably locked down good classes before they became obsessed with the supernatural.
Maggie Smith Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
hands down...
Matthew Broderick Election
So many good additions! (Though some of you are still thinking high/boarding school!)
Wonder Boys! Rope! Sally Kellerman! Amazing. And how did I forget Educating Rita?
ISABELLE HUPPERT in THE PIANO TEACHER.
In my experience realism would be any movie in which the professor decides that he or she can't be bothered to teach his or her class and hands those duties to a TA.
Sidney Poitier in To Sir with Love
Jon Voight in Conrack
Ryan Gosling in The Half Nelson
I appreciate a list that sets forth rules and actually sticks to them.
Back when it happened, someone on this site pointed out that the Oscar-winning acting group of Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Patricia Arquette, and J.K. Simmons all played professors. I'm still not sure about that last one -- was that music conservatory a form of post-secondary education, and if so, did Simmons' character teach classes in it, or did he essentially coach a competitive team? I would add that Redmayne's version of Stephen Hawking didn't do much teaching of enrolled students, but David Thewlis' character did.
You can find some pretty interesting college professors in some big studio films: Quiz Show, The Da Vinci Code, Spider-Man 2 and 3, even Soul Man.
Paul, absolutely love Houseman in that role! I loved the TV show as well.
KINGSFIELD: "Mr. Hart. Here is a dime. Please phone your mother and inform her you will not be becoming a lawyer."
The thinking man's bad-ass
My favourite primary school teacher... Sally Hawkins as Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky!
brookesboy, Paul. I am late catching up on this post, but was thrilled to see the listing of John Houseman in Paper Chase. We rarely get to see him on screen………..and his performance conjures up all kinds of images of what he may have been like with Welles or The Acting Company. Well-deserved of his Oscar, he is a missed primal force.
very nice thanks for share
amazing article!! love you read
amazing article!! love you read
love this article)
i live his films so musch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones
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