Jeff Goldblum as Watson or Crick...
Elizabeth Oyer
played either James Watson or Francis Crick and the film was
about the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Thank you.
wrw...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
The movie was based on Watson's book, "Double Helix," and carried the same
name. Goldblum played Watson. A wonderful film, and I have it on
videotape(copied many years ago) if you cannot find it. It was shown on A&E in
1985 or 1986 (that season, anyway.)
Walter White
WRW...@isc.rit.edu
Greg Bole
(Elizabeth Oyer) writes:
Your friendly neighborhood geneticist/film-buff at your service. :)
The movie is called _The Race for the Double Helix_.
Goodblum does a wonderful job as the American James Watson (who used to
head the Human Genome Project that I also used to work on). From what
I've read his portrayal was pretty accurate, it seems Jim was a brilliant
young American who went to Cambridge to become famous. He decided to work
on whatever was the biggest project possible, and it happened to be the
search for the structure of DNA. He was also very interested in picking
up women. :) Timothy Pigott-Smith played Francis Crick.
It was an excellent made-for-TV movie and I don't believe it is out on
video. My geneticts prof in college used to show a version he taped off
TV. There is one other well known actor in the film. The part of
Rosalind Franklin was played by Julliette Stephenson (prob best known
by American audiences for her brilliant role in _Truly, Madly, Deeply_).
Here's another interesting film connection for you. Erwin Chargaff,
a Columbia University biochemist whose own experimental data played
an important role in the proceedings (and who was featured as another
character in the movie) had this comment: "It is a pity that the double
helix was not discovered ten years earlier; some of the episodes could
have been brought to the screen splendidly by the Marx Brothers." *grin*
And I bet all the original poster wanted was a title. :) But this movie
is so fun I had to shed more light on it. Rarely are films about REAL
science this fun. Check out _The Race for the Double Helix_.
Greg Bole "You're not an assassin." "Look again."
bo...@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu Katherine Hepburn and Anthony Hopkins
in _The Lion In Winter_
Richard A. Schumacher
Juliet Stevenson! A fine movie.
Mark Brader
> > played either James Watson or Francis Crick and the film was
> > about the discovery of the structure of DNA.
>
Wrong. The original title of this TV-movie was "Life Story", while
the title used in the US was "Race for the Double Helix".
--
Mark Brader "Do YOU trust US?"
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto "YES!! Well, we try to."
utzoo!sq!msb, m...@sq.com -- A Walk in the Woods, by Lee Blessing
This article is in the public domain.
Roy H. Gordon
This is a good film, as has been mentioned.
The book is quite exciting and a fast read (written by Watson in a no-holds
barred manner).
Though the sexism towards Rosalind Franklin was blatant in the movie, it
was even worse in the book. At the end of the book, in an afterwards, I
believe, Watson apologized, though Franklin had already died.