Reel Oncology: How Hollywood Films Portray Cancer

Abstract

Art imitates life, we are often told, but occasionally, we also observe that life imitates art. Hollywood movies may fulfill the definition of art in both of these adages. Movies evoke our fantasies, fears, loves, and hates, and therefore they reflect our lives. However, the necessities of good storytelling-dramatization, plots, character development, romanticism-often dictate that film concepts diverge from reality. Thus, films often are imperfect reflections of our lives. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "There are no second acts in American lives." Movies have been blamed for creating disturbed or profane cultural images that lead to societal ills such as violence, sexual deviancy, and isolation. Whether art imitates life, or vice versa, it may be instructive to study how movies depict medical themes, and especially oncology, in order to understand how cancer and medicine are perceived in popular culture. Medical themes have always been popular in movies; one author claims that Hollywood studios released more than 100 films with medical or surgical themes in the 1930s and 1940s. 1 How films portray medical themes may tell us a great deal about how we perceive our medical care and our mortality. In the end, movies are written, produced, and directed by people who often use their own experiences as creative inspiration. As those experiences change, so do films. The purpose of this paper is to review the American films of the 20th century that have depicted themes related to cancer, to analyze the manner in which patients, physicians, and oncology are portrayed, and to relate those portrayals to the realities of oncology and American medicine at the time of the films' release. If art imitates life, we would expect movies with cancer themes to reflect contemporaneous perceptions, oncology practice, and public policy. If, on the other hand, art does not imitate life-for example, if the necessities of fiction and storytelling force film depictions to deviate from reality-we would expect films with cancer themes to be divorced from oncology practice and policy. If the truth is somewhere in between the two extremes, the analysis will demonstrate mixed findings. From this analysis, we may better understand the perceptions surrounding cancer and its medical care. I have been an avid moviegoer for almost 50 years and a physician involved in the care of cancer patients for more than 25 years. I am always fascinated with the way medical themes and technology have been presented in film. There is no question that this paper is subjective and influenced by my own experiences. However, in an attempt to make this study more objective, I used the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to supplement my own movie experiences. The IMDb contains detailed information on more than 180,000 films that are searchable by title, actor, director, theme, dialogue, quotes, and topics. I searched the IMDb for films with medical and oncology themes using specific search terms (eg, cancer, tumor, malignancy, hospital, illness, sickness, doctor, physician, medicine, medical). I also reviewed previously published literature about movies with medical themes. 1-8 I found no prior reports about films with oncology themes. My review is limited to American feature films made for theatrical release. I excluded documentaries, shorts films, pornographic films, movies made for television, and movies with psychologic or psychiatric themes. Of more than 150 films released between 1930 and 1999 with medical themes, only 20 had topics that related to cancer (Table). I then viewed each of these films to see them in current context and related them to contemporaneous oncology policy and practice.