The City that Hollywood Loves

This is an easy one. By far the city that Hollywood loves the most has to be New York.
Just think of the films you have seen by now. How many of them are set in New York? As I write I'm going to make the exercise of remembering at least five in less than a minute (can you do the same?):
Gangs of New York
Cloverfield
Home Alone 2
Spider Man (all of them)
Oedipus Wrecks
These came to my mind randomly, but I'm pretty sure I could mention many more given more time. 
How can this interest be explained? The answer should be obvious since New York is by far one of the most iconic cities in the world. Heck, when somebody says the words United States instantly most people picture in their minds an image quite similar to the photo I have added to this article. Of course those are usually people who know what they know about the United States thanks to what they see in the movies or on TV. See my point now?
New York has so much to offer: Manhattan, Central Park, the Empire State building, the Rockerfeller Center, Liberty Island, Soho, Broadway, the Fifth Avenue, Times Square and so many other places or things to do. People have sung to it, people have written about it and peopla have made countless movies about it like Woody Allen, a New Yorker who has openly confessed  his love to his hometown more often than not.  And the truth is New York is a compelling city, so much that is hard not to fall in love with it or dream with it. 
And that is perhaps at the same time a blessing and a curse. Quite often  when Hollywood makes movies of the apocalyptic type, one of the first cities to be destroyed or the first to be destroyed is New York precisely. This poor city has been wrecked in the silver screen more times than anyone can remember, in fact, if you are going to make a disaster movie and do not take apart New York then that is not a good disaster movie. Certainly this is all fantasy but precisely when fantasy becomes fact we have something to fear and that happened to New York on September 11. 2001. 
New York and its citizens have proved they have quite a spirit, one  that can endure a lot and that will always lead them to keep on being the vital and energetic place New York is. In the meantime, Hollywood will continue loving this city and making as many movies as they can, romantic movies, action movies, or disaster movies, just because New York is the best possible setting for a city anyone can ask for. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading...
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more