It’s probable that all of us who spend much time watching movies have seen things on film and then seen them in real life, or vice versa. Of those you have seen both ways, which have struck you as being either way too big, way too little, or otherwise out of kilter with the way they are perceived?
One that comes to mind for me is the Mississippi River. We almost drove into it by mistake late one afternoon in northwest Tennessee when we were looking for a road that ran near its edge. the ground just suddenly became river with virtually no warning and with no guard rails, fences, caution signs, or whatever. That is one big river. Wide, muddy, swiftly moving. Most views I can recall from movies are from well above it, often from planes or helicopters, that tend to diminish its vastness.
Another one is Atlanta. It’s way more spread out and urban than most movies tend to show it. The sprawl is much more confining and cramped, too. That may sound inconsistent, but depending on the views shown, they either don’t capture how big Atlanta is or how cramped the streets are.
Nashville is more hilly than most movies tend to show it.
It’s been so far back that I last was in Texas that I can’t call it back from memory, but I get the feeling it’s got way more grass and trees and vegetation in general than most movies show it.
Venice is a lot more human-scaled than it looks in most movies. Can walk across it in an hour or so. Other than that, though, it looks just like in the movies, down to the crowds in San Marco.
When I went to Devil’s Tower National Monument, I was delighted with how much it looked like the Devil’s Tower shots in Close Encounters. I kept remarking on it, and the National Park guy tried to explain that, yeah, they used actual footage of it in the movie. I think he was worried I was a dim bulb who thought Steven Spielberg had constructed it or something, as opposed to being a natural wonder. In fact, I was having some sort of Roland Barthes moment, but without the crabbiness. IT LOOKS JUST LIKE IT!
“Chotchkie’s”, from the movie Office Space, is actually a Cajun restaurant back in Austin, and is nowhere near any office buildings. I used to eat there a lot (until the time the muffaletta that I ordered came with extra GLASS SHARDS in it, but that’s another story).
Well, in the movie “For Love of the Game,” they show the Detroit Tigers’ spring training in Lakeland, Florida (where I live) and show beaches and palm trees. Lakeland is 50 miles inland.
Los Angeles isn’t as sunny as it appears in films; in fact, it’s raining here right now. Also, while some areas are posh (Miracle Mile, Bel-Air, Millionaire Grove, et certera) you only have to drive a couple of blocks off of the main drag to see houses with barred windows. Hollywood, in general, is pretty scuzzy, and inland Orange County looks pretty much like suburban Kansas City; endless developments of identical houses. Yawn.
In the film Heat (set in LA), Michael Mann seems have have had helicopters orbit around downtown LA to give the sense that there are actually more tall buildings than there really are. Generally, though, he maintained continuity (though Pacino and DeNiro seem to have gone out of their way to have coffee at Kate Mantillini’s). In Collateral he had scenes jump back and forth from north to south in a very discontinuous fashion.
There’s no way Tom Selleck could drive around Hawai’i with the targa top left off of his Ferrari 308 all the time; during certain seasons, it rains regularly and heavily in the afternoon. There’s not much room for car chases, either, unless you do the Bullett trick of jumping back and forth between different areas instantaneously.
Alcatraz is scarcely big enough for all the running around they do in The Rock; it’s basically two wings and some administrative buildings. Needless to say, there are no running boilers and other plot devices as seen in the film.
There is no sound in space. Okay, I haven’t been there, but still…
Beg to differ there. I was stationed in Hawaii in the military, and although there is a rainy season, there is also a great swath of months when it hardly rains at all, and when it does it is brief and clears up in minutes. Also, there is plenty of room for car chases, unless you’re caught in the rubbernecking tourist traffic…
Filmed while I was a student at IU Bloomington bears no relationship to anything going on in that town at that time. Try to follow the streets he rode (they don’t connect). Try to find that townie’s/Student’ rivalyry (invented); Try to find the stadium where the race was held (they’ve since torn it down-- may not count).
Not only is it a weak (I find it awful, but am willing to admit it is weak as opposed to just plain bad) movie, but it is a poor representation of a really great town.
I adore the way that he goes from VIrginia BEach through Portsmouth and over the James River Bridge to get into Norfolk to go to the Amphib Base, which is more or less next to Virginia Beach. :smack:
Oh, and Charlie Sheen jumps into the James River <blargh> to swim the long way to the amphib base.
Just look at a good map of Norfolk/VaBeach/Portsmouth sometime …
The Eiffel Tower is HUGE! In movies and pictures it doesn’t look as tall as the Chrysler Building in NYC. You can’t appreciate the scale until you’re standing at its base craning your neck back to see the top. Wow! Slight hijack: take the trip up the tower about 11:30pm. Fewer tourists and you can see why Paris is called “The City of Light.”
Wabasha, Minnesota, where they filmed “Grumpy Old Men” is bigger than it looks in the movie. Granted, it’s no metropolis like Winona but it’s not as tiny as the movie makes it look. The bar they hung out it is much larger and nicer than in the movie, too. The movie used the oldest part of the place. I don’t know if it was enlarged or renovated since the movie.
The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City is surprisingly small compared to the publicity photos. I don’t know when or from where those photos were taken but they’re misleading. I was looking for something towering into the Salt Lake City skyline. The main body of the building (i.e. sans towers) is maybe 3 or 4 stories tall and surrounded by taller structures. It’s an attractive building but just didn’t meet my expectation.
I second Smapti on the Space Needle. It seems tall and towers over other tall buildings in the movies. Driving from the airport north on the I-5 toward Everett, the Space Needle is on your left but you’ll probably miss it.
Also agree with Stranger On A Train on Los Angeles. I had to work “downtown,” driving the couple hours from our office in Irvine. I kept looking for all the skyscrapers. Didn’t see 'em until I was pretty much in town. They’re in, what, a 4 or 6-block radius or so of city hall?
I agree - I was amazed at just how huge, and how beautiful, the Eiffel tower is. I guess the movies I’ve seen just always show it from further away, and I couldn’t really get an idea of its size.
The Statue of Liberty surprised me, too, when I went inside and climbed all the way up. It’s cramped as heck in there! For some reason, I’d been left with the impression that you could fit several people into her head. But no, it’s tiny, and the windows in her crown are barely as big as my head.
Italy, however, was exactly like I imagined it from the movies. God, I loved Italy.
Well shoot. I was going to come in here and mention that one…but go the completely opposite way.
I went to IU much later than the movie was filmed (in the past few years), and I still get a kick of nostalgia when I watch it. The streets don’t connect and the stadium was torn down (it’s now where the Arboretum next to the library is). Ok, fine. But they show the Main Library, the music building, the sculpture in front of the MAC (which I lived across from, so I saw it every day), the Union, and town square, including the courthouse. The highways look exactly as they do (both through the woods and the main highway where he drafts the semi), the houses in town look like some of them still do, and the football stadium is accurate as well. Plus the announcer of the bike race is a familiar voice…he’s the same guy that still does (or did) IU sporting events.
