On Saturday of this last week I saw a small market but impressive dramatized documentary called "Particle Fever". I was, as a Physics teacher, delighted that the pursuits of scientists (called Physicists) be depicted and highlighted in a largely positive way. How do you entertain movie goers with a 50 year story about the scientific discovery of a sub atomic particle that no one will ever see? No matter how critical the particle is to the structure of our universe this topic would need very special treatment to become "entertaining". The movie does a superb job in humanizing, dramatizing, honoring and even uplifting those people who seek truth in the physical sciences. The movie certainly entertains even with the flaws and imperfections readily highlighted by critics (like myself).
Typically our culture uplifts all sorts of pursuits that are, in my mind, entertaining and trivial. There is the pushing and hitting of people on a field to make a ball cross over a line for points in a 60 minute period (often stretched to 120 minutes) as the most popular single event in our national culture annually (football). In our culture those who may dance and act provocatively will be rewarded with huge sums of money and honors (though I admit this takes talent and training too). I myself am part of this sports and entertainment culture (and recognize the human potential it reveals) but I also see the huge accomplishments of our scientists and engineers who help us understand our world and continuously make our daily lives more comfortable and physically pleasant. Our culture does, in a limited way, support a cadre of people who seek truth and comprehension of our physical world. This movie highlights this cadre of people that we, as a culture, take for granted.
How does one highlight, dramatize and honor the human discovery of an idea like the "God Particle" (also called the Higgs Boson) in an entertaining way? This movie honors and captures the human side of this pursuit (so the technical part of the story which causes eyes to glaze over is left lightly treated). This "Particle Fever" does a profoundly good job at taking a 50 year journey of science and allowing us to see the people who dedicated life and livelihood to this pursuit in a highly entertaining way.
Viewers of this film see an inspiring scientific breakthrough as it happens in the eyes of six very different scientists with the launch of the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. These six people are from different countries, different backgrounds and are in different states of life. They are all united in the search for truth about our phsyical universe. This is easily the most expensive experiment in the history of the planet that probed the edges of what the edge of technical capabilities. Scientists from over 100 countries pursue the goal of recreating conditions that existed just moments after the Big Bang and find physical properties of the "imagined" Higgs boson (a speculated particle 5o years ago) that explains the origin of our universe and the structure of all matter.
So I need to mention the "caveats" that do not do fatally harm and clearly aim to add insight and drama to the story.
The first caveat is an apparent political shot at the Rebublican Party for the termination of the United States version of the particle collider (Super Conducting Super Collider). The real story is not so simple as depicting a single party bringing about an end to financing of this search for truth. While the movie depicts Republican congressman ranting against the project it fails to recognize that the Republican Ronald Reagan presidential administration first envisioned and supported the effort, then George Bush (1st) supported and financed the initial efforts to build an American version of the collider. The project failed to be completed in the United States for a variety of reasons that appealed to both parties. The project was ambitious (eight times the power of the European CERN project) would have consumed far more resources. Democrats saw a need to help the less fortunate with unemployment benefits and what they see as social justice oriented expenditures. When the initial civil contruction of the tunnels ran well over budget and the democratic president faced mounting national debt the program was ended with the help of both parties. Even those in the Physics community (from what I could read in the early 1990's) were split with scientists who needed funds for smaller projects seeing support dry up for that huge "hole in Texas". I understand that the movie needed to simplify the struggle for the sake of entertainment but this particular depiction strikes a blow at the common saying I have heard "Science has friends on both sides of the aisle. Science needs friends on both sides of the aisle."
The second caveat is the use of obsecenties and terms that are offensive to a large portion of the people who would likely support this big effort in science. While I do see that these "snippets" add emotion, drama and diversity it also allows people to draw the wrong conclusions about the effort and the people involved in the effort. I do understand that one could cite the " reality" of verbal expression when the emotion on hearing of catastrophic failure was realized. Even with these recognitions, on my part, I do think the inclusion of offensive language could hurt the movie in the very audiences that would enjoy watching the movien.
Entertaining stories require struggle. The scientist heroes in this film confront all all sorts of huge obstacles. Economic, political, technical and finally philisophical issues arise to challenge the huge effort. Mark Levinson is a physicist turned filmmaker and so this film is quite revealing in terms of framing the technical and scientific issues at the core of the struggle, Particle Fever is a one of a kind fabulous presentation of scientific discovery using big science. Until I saw this movie I thought such effort would be impossible but this movie has proved me wrong. It is a among the best I have ever seen of any type (even with the caveats).
