Al's Omniflick: Cosmological Cinema: Particle Fever

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Cosmological Cinema: Particle Fever

Director: Mark Levinson

Johns-Hopkins physicist and now film producer David Kaplan brings the historic search for the Higgs Boson particle to the big screen, which might lead a film-goer to ask: how cinema-friendly is particle physics and why would anyone want to watch physicists from around the world gather to view the results of a particle-smashing experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern? To answer both questions in turn: 1) apparently very friendly and 2) because it's exciting and worthy of the world's attention. If only physicists and scientists received the media attention showered on clods like the Kardashians, films like Particle Fever might be commonplace but unfortunately 21st century America is light-years from that enlightened attitude.

The Higgs Boson particle was first theorized in 1964 by physicist Peter Higgs but it was only in July of 2012 that its existence was confirmed after a test at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. To fully explain the significance of the discovery and its meaning is beyond my reach so I will include a link at the end of this post.

The film is effective in creating the tension and drama leading up to the experiment, which involved physicists from over 100 countries and technicians by the score. We hear from many physicists from the theoretical side and the experimental. The two camps are aware how mutually dependent they are but one detects a mild, almost sardonic regard the two fields bear for one another. Kaplan himself, with colleague and mentor Nima Arkani-Hamed--both theoretical physicists and academics--discuss the implications of the Collider experiment but the film also shows them in more human moments; playing ping-pong by utilizing a wall rather than a net and discussing the randomness of a university campus sculpture consisting of what looks like small slabs of flagstone.

We also meet many of those involved in the experiment as the big day approaches; a moment watched with bated breath by theoretical and experimental physicists alike, world-wide. One such person is Monica Dunford, an American physicist connected to one of 4 sub-experiments attached to the main particle-smashing event. Dunford discusses how she became involved in the experimental side but we often see her outside the Collider complex, running and biking and engaging in mundane, everyday tasks, which forms a sharp contrast with the abstract (but actually very concrete) world she often explores.

The experiment, after some technical setbacks, proceeds and ultimately succeeds, making front-page headlines world-wide and bringing some well-deserved attention to the extraordinary people who are directly or peripherally involved.

It is explained in the film that two contrasting theories of how the universe is structured would be impacted by the Collider experiment: those who support what is called Supersymmetry and those who support a Multi-verse model (Once again, please refer to links for a better understanding of the two theories). The energy the Higgs-Boson contained would mostly determine which theory offered a more plausible, sub-atomic description of the universe we live in. Theoretical physicists around the world were paying close attention to the data. Unfortunately for both parties, the data didn't support or deny either paradigm.

Watching the film made me wish Particle Fever could be seen on prime-time T.V. If the masses are tuning in to the new Cosmos program, might they also be eager to see Levinson's film? As a friend sitting next to me said, "who would have thought particle physics could be so exciting?" The film also has its touching moments, including the scene when a tearful Peter Higgs is recognized by an auditorium of colleagues and media for his theory; its confirmation only established 50 years after its existence was first proposed! It is certain more implications and discoveries related to the Higgs-Boson particle will be revealed in years to come.

I hope Particle Fever spawns more films in this genre. The world needs them. I also hope the world stays tuned.

Link: Higgs-Boson Particle Supersymmetry

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On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.