# What is the best movie about your profession? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787 "2002-12-24T23:51:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/21 "2002-12-25T11:30:47Z")
_Clerks_ Not that rude to the customers though, but I always get the “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” bit. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/22 "2002-12-25T11:34:12Z")
Some days it feels like _Dumb and Dumber_. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/23 "2002-12-25T12:12:58Z")
All I’ve got is “Armageddon” alas ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/24 "2002-12-25T14:07:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tapioca Dextrin \* > \*\*All I’ve got is “Armageddon” alas \*\* So, does that make you an oil driller asked by our gov’t to save the world, or a shuttle pilot asked by our gov’t to help out misfit oil drillers who were asked by our gov’t to save the world? Or do you go around _asking_ misfit oil drillers to save the world? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/25 "2002-12-25T17:28:30Z")
hmmmm, that’s a tough one! Can anyone think of any movies about cops? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/26 "2002-12-25T18:38:04Z")
All I’ve got going for me is _The Rock_, and I can’t remember the last time I shot more than three people on any given day… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/27 "2002-12-25T18:56:51Z")
Most of the movies I know of that feature molecular biologists at all are hideously unrealistic. An example that springs to mind is _Jurrasic Park_, in which ONE SCIENTIST secretly sequences the entire genomes of several loooooong extinct animals, including “filling in” missing pieces(!), then somehow gets the DNA into chromosomal structures, finds compatible oocytes and figures out the incubation conditions… I mean, its taken international teams of scientists years to sequence single genomes of living species. As for reconstructing even, say, something as simple as a fruitfly just from the DNA sequence, well you’ll hear about it when it happens. My guess is we are at least 10 years away from soemthing like that, and again it will require a massive team effort. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/28 "2002-12-25T19:17:43Z")
I can’t think of any movies about supermarket deli schlubs, but I wanted to say that this was a great OP, **Sampiro**. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/29 "2002-12-25T19:21:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chandeleur \* > \*\*So, does that make you an oil driller asked by our gov’t to save the world, or a shuttle pilot asked by our gov’t to help out misfit oil drillers who were asked by our gov’t to save the world? > > Or do you go around _asking_ misfit oil drillers to save the world? > 😃 \*\* Nah, he’s the Greenpeace guy that gets golf balls chipped at him. ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/30 "2002-12-25T19:59:21Z")
Stand and Deliver. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/31 "2002-12-25T20:26:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Laughing Lagomorph \* > \*\*Most of the movies I know of that feature molecular biologists at all are hideously unrealistic. An example that springs to mind is _Jurrasic Park_, in which ONE SCIENTIST secretly sequences the entire genomes of several loooooong extinct animals, including “filling in” missing pieces(!), then somehow gets the DNA into chromosomal structures, finds compatible oocytes and figures out the incubation conditions… > > I mean, its taken international teams of scientists years to sequence single genomes of living species. As for reconstructing even, say, something as simple as a fruitfly just from the DNA sequence, well you’ll hear about it when it happens. My guess is we are at least 10 years away from soemthing like that, and again it will require a massive team effort. \*\* Stop making excuses and find that prehistoric mosquito blood you lazy slug! I want my Tyrannosaurus Rex by Chrismas of next year or else! ---
**Author:** ![arachnidlove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@arachnidlove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arachnidlove)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/32 "2002-12-25T21:12:04Z")
Well since I’m a delivery driver for a pizza place…i’d have to say…[Loverboy](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0097790) 😃 😛 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/33 "2002-12-25T21:13:56Z")
I’m an urban planner. There has never been a movie made about my profession, and the few that depict planners or the bureaucreatic processes that we often deal with (variances, rezoning, etc) usually have it dead wrong. I’ve heard that a movie which comes frighteningly close to dealing with land use issues in a realistic way is _Sunshine State_. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/34 "2002-12-25T21:53:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chandeleur \* > \*\*So, does that make you an oil driller asked by our gov’t to save the world, or a shuttle pilot asked by our gov’t to help out misfit oil drillers who were asked by our gov’t to save the world? > > Or do you go around _asking_ misfit oil drillers to save the world? > 😃 \*\* No, I’m a misfit oil driller who bangs Liv Tyler on a nightly basis 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/35 "2002-12-25T22:31:39Z")
Well, my current job is working with the developmentally disabled, and the TV movie [The Boys Next Door](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0115743) didn’t seem too bad from what I remember. I also am an artist and potter, and I can’t think of any movie that accurately depicts either of these things. I’m sure there’s an art flick that’s good, but I can’t think of one right now. One thing that I will say—as a portrait artist, I want to _cringe_ so often at the way portrait sketches are portrayed in TV and movies. The obligitory “police sketch” usually sucks. It’s either an obvious sketch from a publicity photo of the actor, or an abysmal drawing that is obviously a traced photograph (hard deep lines over the main outlines and contours of the face, a few sketchy “shading lines”). Very very bad drawings. These don’t look like a real police sketch, because (obviously) no photo reference would be available! (Plus, a real police sketch artist would have to be able to draw for real, instead of just trace.) And pottery—yikes. Some movies make it look so _clean_. Someone wearing a smock with a smear or two, and their hands are all clean as they gently touch the pot on the wheel as it gently spins around. Bah! Pottery is sloppy, wet and messy. Your hands are usually slimy with clay, as are your clothes. And different stages of throwing on the wheel require different wheel speeds, and different positions for the potter (leaning forward more to bear down on the clay near the beginning of the forming of the pot, etc.). And then there’s the trimming process, where the pot is upside down and you are trimming off the excess clay. (That’s less sloppy and messy.) Rarely do movies or TV get any of this right. However, one show, “Grace Under Fire”, got it right. The actor who did the pottery (the character’s name was Wade—next door neighbor) is a potter in real life, so he actually knew what he was doing. It was always a treat to see him at the wheel. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/36 "2002-12-25T22:58:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \* > \*\*I can’t think of any movies about supermarket deli schlubs, **Sampiro**. \*\* **Repo Man** and **Evil Dead III** spring to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Skerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Skerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skerri)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/37 "2002-12-25T23:17:12Z")
**One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest**? Nah. No Nurse Ratched. **Crazy People**? Maybe. **Girl, Interrupted**? Well, kind of. My job is very **Office Space** , since I spend most of my time avoiding doing work. My social life used to be very **Suburbia** , but now it’s more **Singles**. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/39 "2002-12-25T23:56:34Z")
I’m a prison guard and the only movie I’ve ever seen that came even close to accurately depicting my job was an obscure 1983 made for TV movie called _Women of San Quentin_. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/40 "2002-12-26T03:56:03Z")
They don’t make movies about bakers, mores the pity! ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787/41 "2002-12-26T04:52:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > \*\*Stop making excuses and find that prehistoric mosquito blood you lazy slug! I want my Tyrannosaurus Rex by Chrismas of next year or else! \*\* Dude, I’m not even starting on the T. Rex until I get the Dodo sequenced and un-extincted. I’m currently on the lookout for the biggest pigeon eggs I can find. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-movie-about-your-profession/144787.md?page=3)