Dentists in Film -- Horrible Stereotypes
The dental profession may be the most maligned of any other by Hollywood. Consider the evil dentists that have been featured in major movies over the past couple decades. Sir Laurence Olivier gave a nasty Nazi war criminal an even meaner streak as a dentist molesting the mouth of innocent Dustin Hoffman with the chilling words “Is it safe?” as he drilled into healthy tissue, creating great pain and displaying outright sadism. I’m sure that image kept hundreds of thousands of patients from making their regularly scheduled appointments in 1976 when “Marathon Man” was released.
Dental Horrors?
Then ten years later, we were introduced to Orin Scrivello, DDS, in “Little Shop of Horrors”. Aside from being a really rotten guy who beats up his girlfriend, Dr. Scrivello, played with evil gusto by Steve Martin, delights in using a rusty and dull antique drill on his patient, Seymour, and before the procedure, makes sure he has some laughing gas. Not for the patient, but for himself so that “I can really enjoy this.” Aside from Jerry Seinfeld’s dentist, Dr. Tim Whatley, who irritated Jerry because he wanted to convert to Judaism for the jokes, we haven’t had to deal with any significant dentist references for awhile.
This Summer's Stereotype
Until now. The latest film to throw dentists under the bus is “Horrible Bosses” One of the so-called horrible bosses happens to be a dentist, played by Jennifer Aniston, who sexually harasses and taunts her male dental assistant - in some scenes leaving her patients sedated in the chair while she tries to take advantage of the poor fellow. According to a review by Annemarie Mannion, “Don’t count on a realistic depiction of a dental office to keep your interest. In fact, it might be more fun to count the ways in which it is untrue. I’ve never been in a dentist chair where the office door was closed during treatment and that’s not the only way in which this movie slams the door on believability. For the most part, “Horrible Bosses” is pretty, well, horrible.”
But even reviews like that won’t stop millions from seeing the film. Unfortunately some of those folks will believe that there are dentists out there who act that unethically and unprofessionally. Here we go again, more stereotypes that we don’t deserve! Oh well, enjoy your summer film-going, and remember…”it’s only a movie!”
