Monday, November 23, 1998
New York, New York
FILM: Not only is
New York one of
the greatest cities in America, but it is also the setting
of
some of the biggest, most improbable disasters in
Hollywood’s
blockbuster films
By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Contributor
"Godzilla:" A giant lizard surfaces from the ocean, terrorizes a
city and scatters people like roaches.
"Armageddon" and "Deep Impact:" A huge ball of fire drops from
the sky and destroys Earth.
"The Siege:" A mob storms through the city, and chaos and
destruction ensues.
Yes, moviegoers have paid billions over the last few months to
watch films with plot lines which resemble blurbs in Saturday
morning cartoons. But alas, there’s another connection in addition
to the bad acting, overdone special effects and bad science. Each
of these movies is set in New York.
So why New York? Why would Godzilla take a detour from Tokyo to
Manhattan? Do the interplanetary celestial bodies have a vengeance
against the Big Apple, too? Perhaps it is the retaliation of those
Hollywood filmmakers who hold the fate of New York in their hands –
well, at least in the movies.
"Most filmmakers live in L.A. and probably like the idea of
wrecking New York City," says Bob Strauss, film writer for the
Daily News.
"Never underestimate peoples’ resentment of New York. It’s a way
of those movie people sticking (it) to those superior-sounding New
Yorkers … I’m sure no one thinks of this consciously. When
they’re working out their movie and going, ‘let’s have a giant
lizard wreck some place,’ (They’re going) ‘Where? Oh, wouldn’t it
be cool to wreck New York?’"
And wrecked it they have. Where the Empire State Building once
stood there is now a rubble of concrete at the mercy of the mob in
"The Siege," a flaming ball of inferno from "Deep Impact" and just
another anthill after Godzilla’s romp in the city. As if that
weren’t enough, the Statue of Liberty is also knocked over by a
huge tidal wave.
If moviegoers are still thrilled by seeing aliens reduce the
ultimate symbol of the United States, the White House, into
smithereens in "Independence Day," (admit it or it wouldn’t have
made about $200 million), then this past season has yielded the
ideal crop of films to indulge one’s cynicism.
"If you were to blow up Omaha, who would care?" says Kim
Williamson, editor in chief of Boxoffice Magazine.
"Well, I would. I’m from Omaha. The thing is, it just doesn’t
have that iconic quality. If you blow up Omaha, Wichita, Sioux
Falls … you have a vague image in your mind of what that place
looks like. But everybody knows New York … so if you can’t blow
up the White House (which nobody can do anymore because ‘ID4’ did
it so well), the next thing you want to pick on is New York."
Even though New York is knocked down like lego buildings,
Williamson doesn’t believe any real animosity is directed toward
New York itself.
"I have a sense that (Angelenos) and Californians like New York
better than New York people like Los Angeles and California, so I
don’t think there’s any source of vengeance going on. But maybe I’m
just a nice guy," Williamson says.
Ann Godfrey, manager of communications of New York Tourist
Information, seconds the notion that the rest of the world doesn’t
really want to see New York in ruins, especially with tourism
reaching its highest numbers in recent years.
"New York is a very nice city," Godfrey says. "It’s the safest
largest-city in America with a population of a million or more
people, and I think people know that. New York has been definitely
becoming so much more popular as a destination overall."
According to the movies, however, New York is far from, uh,
safe. After "Deep Impact," it isn’t exactly the perfect destination
for your next vacation unless you’re a fish. Not only do filmmakers
portray New York as dangerous, but the most extravagant
impossibilities eventually find their way into this absurdly
vulnerable city.
But with all the films grossing about $450 million collectively,
expect to see more disasters next summer or even movies that
combine multiple disasters. For the time being, one can wonder if
"Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" were combined as one movie, which
universal body would do more damage?
According to Alan Rubin, a research geochemist at UCLA, "It
doesn’t matter if it’s a comet or an asteroid that hits the
Earth.
"What matters is the mass. How much energy (an object) deposits
in the atmosphere is just a function of how big the object is,"
Rubin adds. "It doesn’t matter if it’s a comet made mostly of ice
and dust or if it’s an object made mostly of rock and metal. It’s
the mass that matters."
Rubin reassures moviegoers that an "Armageddon"-type meteor
shouldn’t be a big concern, as its odds of actually occurring even
surpasses the possibility that "Godzilla" will win a Best Picture
Oscar.
As the "Godzilla" slogan points out, it seems that size does
matter, not only in terms of big comets splitting the earth into
rock deposits, but in terms of audience appeal for people around
the world.
"Since the box office for explosion-type movies is even better
overseas on average than it is domestically, if you want to get the
Japanese people interested (along with) the Germans or the Slovaks
or whoever out there in the world you want to sell your movie to,
you want to blow up the Empire State Building or something they
know as opposed to the stockyards," Williamson says.
According to Strauss, there’s another pragmatic reason behind
pinpointing New York for senseless mass destruction.
"There’s a bunch of islands you could cut off," Strauss says.
"There’s not really that large of an area to seal off if you need
to."
Strauss continues, "Having the same type of movie in Los Angeles
(would be difficult because) how are you going to find every member
in Los Angeles? Of course, New York is spread out, but there are
very distinct ethnic communities throughout the city that are very
easy to locate and isolate. That just serves the purposes of the
screenplay in New York."
That’s not to say that every movie in or about New York will
showcase cosmic or mutant disasters destroying its Statue of
Liberty, its Empire State Building or its Brooklyn Bridge. There
are still filmmakers such as Woody Allen and Martin Scorcese who
recreate more accurate portrayals of the great cultural city, with
films in which New York is not one enormous disaster.
But, just as drivers like craning their heads to see a car
wreck, New York provides moviegoers with the perfect setting to
serve America’s voyeuristic tendencies.
"I think that the fact that there’s such a concentration of
large structures in New York makes it an attractive target,"
Strauss says. "There’s a lot of stuff that can be wrecked and
wrecked spectacularly. It’s spectacular to wreck a tall building,
and New York has more of that than any other place in the
country."
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