Manhattan! Manhattan! Manhattan!

[Guest AG/DC]

Why does mankind always have to have our standoffs with Armageddon in Manhattan? How about Indianapolis or Biloxi or Wichita or Leon or Addis Ababa?

[soupcan]

Because the bialys are better here?

[Frayed Knot]

Because first you take Manhattan, THEN you take Berlin.


Whatarrya, stupid or something?

[Guest AG/DC]

I just imagine somebody trying to pitch a $200 million disaster movie to Dreamworks,

"And it emerges, and it's like nothing anybody has seen before. It's alive, but not like any life we know. And it's hungry and remorseless. And there's almost nothing humanity can do when it attacks... Canberra!"

"I've got a crew ready to go and a tentative agreement with the Australian Film Boa... Excuse me, where are you going?"

Edited January 18, 2008 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

New York has the more recognizable landmarks than any other city. It's far more dramatic to see the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, or the Empire State Building destroyed than some unfamiliar skyscraper from Cleveland or Phoenix.

If any other cities want in on the destruction action, I think Washington, San Francisco, and London could be strong contenders. (The White House did get destroyed in Independence Day and Magneto destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge in X-Men 3. If Big Ben hasn't been cinematically destroyed yet, it's time will come.)

[Guest AG/DC]

I'd like to think somebody could find some visual way to make people care that all hell was raining down on Des Plaines or Rabat or Chruistchurch.

Hey, we engaged with stories of Japanese cities getting stomped by monsters back in the day, despite not any recognzeable landmarks going down.

Sure, I was six, but still. The message it sends to the country and the world is that disaster is only truly disaster if it happens to latte-sucking Manhattanites

[Benjamin Grimm]

When we were in Tokyo my son and I both got a kick out of seeing a clock tower that (we think) Godzilla destroyed.

[Vic Sage]

Movies often do serious damage to NYC.

Sometimes, like in CLOVERFIELD, the disaster is from a monster, alien, supernatural being or giant robot:

Godzilla (98)
Ghostbusters I, II
Independence Day
Beast From 20,000 fathoms
Deadly Mantis
King Kong (33, 76, 05)
Sky captain & the world of tomorrow

Sometimes, like in I AM LEGEND, we bring our doom upon ourselves:

The Siege
Escape From NY
Gangs of NY
Daylight
World Trade Center
16 Blocks
Daybreak

Sometimes, its a result of natural disaster:

Day After Tomorrow
Armageddon
Deep Impact
Deluge (1933)

and superheroes are constantly doing damage to NYC:

Daredevil
Fantastic 4
Men In Black
Spider-man
Superman
X-Men, and
My Super ex-Girlfriend

not to mention such other NY disasters as "Hercules in NY" and "Can't Stop the Music"!

[Guest AG/DC]

I'm fed up.

Give me an early sixties movie set in bucolic small-town America, where Johnny and his Chevy lead the resistance as the front lines for the the fight for the salvation of humanity is... right here in Greenfield Bluff!

[Vic Sage]

How about young Stevie McQueen leading his small town of Chester Springs against a blob from outer space in 1958's THE BLOB?

Is that close enough?

[soupcan]

...if it happens to latte-sucking Manhattanites

I'd take offense to that if I still lived in Manhattan.

Sometimes, like in CLOVERFIELD, the disaster is from a monster, alien, supernatural being or giant robot: Godzilla (98) Ghostbusters I, II Independence Day Beast From 20,000 fathoms Deadly Mantis King Kong (33, 76, 05) Sky captain & the world of tomorrow Sometimes, like in I AM LEGEND, we bring our doom upon ourselves: The Siege Escape From NY Gangs of NY Daylight World Trade Center 16 Blocks Daybreak Sometimes, its a result of natural disaster: Day After Tomorrow Armageddon Deep Impact Deluge (1933) and superheroes are constantly doing damage to NYC: Daredevil Fantastic 4 Men In Black Spider-man Superman X-Men, and My Super ex-Girlfriend not to mention such other NY disasters as "Hercules in NY" and "Can't Stop the Music"!

Do you have some kind of cinematic almanac lying around or do you just grab this stuff off the top of your head?

Give me an early sixties movie set in bucolic small-town America, where Johnny and his Chevy lead the resistance as the front lines for the the fight for the salvation of humanity is... right here in Greenfield Bluff!

Close enough?

[Guest AG/DC]

The Blob is definitely what I'm talking about.

Obviously that's not a cinematic masterpiece, but there are only so many times that mankind being brought to its knees can be represented by the Statue of Liberty being knocked about, before the impact is lost. And again, the symbolism to the rest of the world is questionable. These are movies that will have to be marketed aggressively worldwide in order to pay for themselves.

How about the head coming to a rest right on the block of those vapid beauitiful self-documented young folk when they had the camera going? What are the odds?

[metirish]

London works great, some of my favorite movie scenes are of the deserted London streets in that movie, stunning.

I could be totally wrong here but I think a lot of the movie going folk wouldn't know where Canberra is, which is probably half the point you are making.

[Guest AG/DC]

Yeah, half, give or take.

Part of the other half is what most of the movie-making folk know.

[soupcan]

[Guest AG/DC]

Yeah, well I'd rather such movies not be snarky shots at stupid small town yokels getting what they probably deserve anyway, and get pitched with the tragic gravitas of a cinematic attack on Gotham.

Maybe that's impossible. I liked Maximum Overdrive (though Yeardley Smith was as dumb a small-town yokel as there is), but I was young and dumb.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The most recent War of the Worlds didn't show New York getting devastated, but a small New Jersey city instead.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The most recent War of the Worlds didn't show New York getting devastated, but a small New Jersey city instead.

And I think that movie worked better because of that.

[soupcan]

AG/DC wrote: Yeah, well I'd rather such movies not be snarky shots at stupid small town yokels getting what they probably deserve anyway, and get pitched with the tragic gravitas of a cinematic attack on Gotham

You've got a lot of conditions.

I haven't seen it but aren't the disaffected utes in Cloverdale pretty stupid in their own right?

[soupcan]

[Willets Point]

A friend of mine saw Volcano and saw the building she once lived at in Los Angeles (which she hated) get destroyed. She was the only one in the movie theater cheering for the volcano.

[Guest sharpie]

V for Vendetta had London getting whacked.

[Guest AG/DC]

Yes, I've got a lot of conditions.

No, I make no claim that there are no exceptions.

I don't mean to suggest that cinema won't portray New York residents as stupid also.

[Vic Sage]

soupcan wrote: Do you have some kind of cinematic almanac lying around or do you just grab this stuff off the top of your head?

A combination of both. When i do lists like this, first i throw down the titles that come to mind. Then, i do a search on IMDB to pick up some stragglers. I assure you, i didn't know about DELUGE, BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS or DEADLY MANTIS off the top of my head.

[Elster88]

16 Blocks? Really? What was the damage in that one?

[Frayed Knot]

Elster88 wrote: 16 Blocks? Really? What was the damage in that one?

Bruce Willis's career?

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

http://home.blarg.net/~dr_z/Movie/Posters/Cult/Gremlins.jpg
Small town America under siege. No famous landmarks, but the local movie theatre, main street stores, and family cars being ransacked still resonates with most movie goers.

There are numerous other examples, some of which have already been mentioned in this thread. However, Hollywood does seem to buy into the notion that bigger is better and it doesn't get any bigger than NYC. The movie industry tends to like New York City as a backdrop for most genres of movies and not only for disasters.