Temperament and the Movies

What movies show the temperaments in an interesting light? The following is an index and sometimes guide to good movies that should give you some insight into the temperaments in the extreme (but in complex depth, too). On the other hand, there are many movies that combine the temperaments or give their heroes/villians more positive or negative traits that are in the real world. Great movies often come from having protagonists with a definitive temperament in interesting circumstances, where the individual can show his strengths and weaknesses of character.

Artisans

Obviously, most of the movies are about Artisans -- they dominate life, literature, and the movies. They are the most exciting, the most visible: they are where the action is. The action heroes of numerous action films are cardboard version of Operator Artisan, par excellance. Obviously, there are so many movies that involve Artisans, I can only point to a few which serve as icons or serve to highlight the complexity of the Artisan temperament.

Crafter Artisan

Rounders, 1998 [Internet database] [Reviews]
One of the most interesting movies implicitly dealing with temperament I have found is Rounders: This movie contrasts two characters of the same temperament variant, the Crafter Artisan, but implicitly contrasts the "good" and the "bad". Matt Damon plays the "good" Crafter, and Ed Norton plays the "bad" Crafter. Both interested in having impact: being wizards at their craft (either good or bad), where the game "poker" is their Crafter tool.

Promoter Artisan

Patton, 1970 [Internet database] [Reviews]
George C. Scott got his infamous Oscar for playing Patton. Ok, its a more of a documentary of a real person-- but what a documentary about an over-the-top, brilliant, Promoter Artisan: General George S. Patton -- one of the best SOBs, who had a signficant role in making World War II less costly in human lives by being a great general -- smashing and slashing across Europe as the spearhead of the allied effort.

Composer Artisan

Amaedeus [Internet database] [Reviews]
Tom Hulce, as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Performer Artisan

Life is Beautiful [Internet database] [Reviews]
Robert Benigni

Guardians

The Guardians are, of course, the opposite of the Artisans: in the movies, they often serve as the foils of the Artisans, often created as minor or cardboard characters to help or hinder the Artisans. But there are several movies which can show the Guardians as interesting and sometimes sympathetic characters, despite their bad press.

Supervisor Guardian

The Bridge over the River Kwai, 1957 [Internet database]
Alex Guinness, in his Oscar winning role as the unbending, determined, by the book, British colonel in a Japanese concentration camp, shows the tenacity and strength of character that the Supervisor Guardian can possess, and that they can lead their minions to accomplish great things.

Inspector Guardian

The African Queen [Internet database] [Reviews]
Katherine Hepburn

Provider Guardian

Places of the Heart,1984 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Sally Fields

Protector Guardian

High Noon, 1952 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Gary Cooper

Idealists

Teacher Idealist

Dead Poets Society,1998 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Robin Williams, as English professor John Keating inspires his students to a love of poetry and to seize the day.

Counselor Idealist

Gandhi, 1982 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Ben Kingsley, Oscar winning performance as Mohandas K Gandhi, is the iconic example of the Counselor Idealist in action. By sheer use of "soul power" Gandhi battled the British Empire and his own people's religious hatred to bring peace and freedom to his countrymen.

Champion Idealist

The Way We Were, 1973 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Barbara Streisand

Healer Idealist

The Grapes of Wrath, 1940 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Henry Fonda as Tom Joad

Rationals

Rationals are not well represented in movies, given that the other temperament do not understand them in meaningful matter. Either they are portrayed as gawky nerds, absent-minded professors, or diabolical mad scientists. Not often subject to biographical movies that are popular, for most of their lives are not very interesting to the other temperaments.

Fieldmarshal Rational

MacArthur [Internet database] [Reviews]
Gregory Peck as General Douglas MacArthur.

My Fair Lady [Internet database] [Reviews]
Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins.

Mastermind Rational

Contact [Internet database] [Reviews]
This movie is pretty special in that it was based on a story written by a famous Rational, and scientist, Carl Sagan. Even more unusual, it had two Rationals, as featured characters, one being the main character, a female, Dr. Ellie Arroway: played by Jody Foster and the other, Dr. David Drumlin, played by Tom Skerritt. It also featured a subplot, a small debate about a subject of interest to Rationals (big science versus small science), which, of course, does not interest the other temperaments.

A Beautiful Mind [Internet database] [Reviews]
This was interesting movie in that hit the mark in one way and completely missed the mark in another. Played by Russell Crowe, John Nash, a real person and brilliant mathematician, was not particularly likable Mastermind in real life [he was truly arrogant, egotistical, and very much a loner]. But Nash did become crazy, and the film tries to convey it in dramatic terms. The film takes liberty with the truth, evident by the fact that a Mastermind would not have acted crazy in the way portrayed in the film. Call it artistic license. At least Ron Howard, the director, did a brilliant job in trying to visually convey the gist of Nash's thesis work, the Nash equilibrium, to a lay audience. I wish they would have chronicled Nash's meeting with John Von Neumann, which was recounted in the book which the film was based on, and illustrated the classic case of a older brilliant mind (Von Neumann) missing the significance of Nash's work, of which Nash received a Nobel Prize. Not surprisingly, the movie is interesting if not at all accurate, but the book is more interesting, more accurate, although also too speculative in psychology.

Inventor Rational

Tucker: The Man and his Dream [Internet database] [Reviews]
Jeff Bridges as Tucker

Architect Rational

The Story of Louis Pasteur, 1935 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Paul Muni as Louis Pasteur

The Fountainhead, 1949 [Internet database] [Reviews]
Cary Cooper is poorly cast ( he a nice wooden Artisan actor), and Ayn Rand is melodramatic in her script, but at least you get a glimpse of the complex thinking of an Architect Rational (a small glimpse, which of course, few are interested). On second thought, the Fountainhead is terrible as a film. Its shows you how desperate I am to find a film which gets near the Architect Rational. Maybe there never will be good film that lets people understand the Architect. Just as Good Will Hunting misses the point, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck authors of the movie, used Ramanujan as inspiration of their character, Will Hunting. Ramanujan, The Man Who Knew Infinity, even if you imagined him as not a devote Hindi, would not abandon his mathematics for a girl. Sorry, Matt and Ben, you Artisans might put girls before theory, but a genius Architect Rational is compelled by his theory. It DOES matter to him: he would not abandon it -- for anything. Matt and Ben: please stick to playing and writing about Artisans, nice entertaining try though.