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Swamps on the silver screen mirror our feelings on wetlands, researchers find

Maybe you've seen the meme. Classic film characters up to their necks in muck, with text reading, "As a kid, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem in my life." Quicksand was an uncannily common plot point in the 70s and 80s, but murky wetland depictions in film haven't gone away.

A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at how wetlands are portrayed in film, suggesting they play specific roles in story development and reflect society's collective perceptions of these unique ecosystems and the cultures they conceal. The study, "Wetland portrayal in modern films," is published in Wetlands

"A lot of people today are disconnected from nature, and the way they experience nature is through film or on screen in some way. We were interested in how the portrayal of wetlands in film might influence attitudes about these ecosystems," said study co-author and wetland ecologist Jeff Matthews, an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I.

Learning how Hollywood shapes our perceptions of wetlands

Characterizing wetland portrayal in modern film meant scouring movie databases for 30 wetland-related keywords including swamps, bogs, marshes, floodplains, and more in films released between 1980 and 2019. That search led to 163 movies with at least one wetland scene. The four-person research team then divvied up the films, fired up their popcorn poppers, and sat down to watch.