The Race for the Double Helix (1987)
Bekkah:
So we watched this movie over two weeks because apparently there were two movies/shows of THE SAME NAME released in THE SAME YEAR on THE SAME TOPIC though one was a documentary and one was a film. We started watching the documentary without Jeff (MY BAD) and then had to quit to watch the right thing. What the fuck happened in 1987?? Anyway I wrote the rest of this last week and honestly I have nothing new to add except that I would watch 105 minutes of Jeff playing tennis and whoever chose the music for this movie was doing the lord’s (Rosalind Franklin) work! Also I got the teeniest TEENIEST bit emotional because I love science and this was honestly such a gigantic deal. Too bad about all the sexism! So anyway… My barometer for how good these older Jeff movies are is basically, was this compelling enough for me to really pay attention? If that is a yes, it will get an automatic minimum 5/10 Goldblums. This one… did not pass that test for me. I was distracted by the sexism, racism, and narcissism in this movie (the first half at least). Was this better than the 20 minutes of the BBC NOVA special of the same name released in the same year on the same topic that we accidentally started watching? Honestly not sure. How could cutting edge science be so dry. Bring me some damn Jurassic Park.
Danya:
So I really wanted to be able to follow this because SCIENCE! and also FEMINISM! Instead, it was a weird collection of random scenes, with the soundtrack oscillating between jaunty carnival and ominous train whistles. And I just kept waiting for them to say “double helix” but it took the whole damn movie. Jeff is as fresh faced as it gets, but his character sucks. Rosalind Franklin 4eva.
3 / 10 Double Helixes
Watson and Crick race to find the structure of DNA before Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins, or Rosalind Franklin can find the key to unlocking the secret.
Director
Mick Jackson
Writers
William Nicholson James Watson(book "The Race for the Double Helix")
Stars
Jeff Goldblum Tim Pigott-Smith Alan Howard