Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » ‘Land of the Lost’ Ridicules False Scientific Consensus Claims

Marshall’s theory has brought him nearly universal derision among scientists and the media, which the film amusingly conveys through bookend scenes in which Marshall appears on NBC’s Today Show to talk about books he has written, and is abused by host Matt Lauer as a charlatan and a fool.

Lauer’s reaction perfectly represents the media’s reaction toward, say, those who claim that the scientific evidence shows that anthropogenic global warming is not occurring and the current temperature trends of the earth show the very opposite of a crisis. Instead of actually engaging the scientific evidence, the media whores simply claim that all reputable scientists agree that there’s a crisis requiring the absolute destruction of Americans’ civil and economic liberties, and that anyone who disagrees with that premise is the equivalent of a Holocaust denier.

Lauer vividly recreates that approach in his scenes with Ferrell. The great irony is that Marshall turns out to be correct, and Lauer remains both abusive and now openly wrong, physically attacking Marshall in the second interview at the end of the film.

My guess is that this aspect of the film was not intended as direct satire but instead simply reflects something the filmmakers picked up in the contemporary zeitgeist. However, its presence in the central story of the film and the bookend scenes–which are in very important places in the film, the beginning and end–gives it great prominence and suggests that skepticism toward such claims of consensus has entered the culture as a real phenomenon.

YouTube - MidAmerican Chairman's Testimony to Congress

MidAmerican Chairman David Sokol testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the costs his 6.9 million customers will face if the Waxman-Markey global warming bill becomes law.