New York, Evolving in Front of the Camera

With its Art Deco spires stretching up to the sky, New York has been iconic since the turn of the century. New York’s early front-runner status has made it the standard for the modern city. In pop culture its almost been type-cast, "New York is a bustling metropolis rife with crime," but over the past century New York has constantly evolved. Contrasting You’ve Got Mail with Tootsie, we can see the difference in the way the city is shown in just 15 years. Both are light-hearted films yet the general mood or ambiance differs with the time. The way New York has been expressed and utilized has changed through its history. The change has always been subtle and slow and as a result we haven't really changed our ideas about the city.

Unfortunately because the city’s urban planning had gone into full swing by the 1930’s its transportation design has notoriously been stagnant. Streets are throttled by over dominating buildings and had no room for advancement. With this taxi cabs and subway trains became the dominant mode of transportation in a city that defined the fast urban epicenter. In fact taxis have become such an icon of New York that if a movie character doesn’t hail a cab once in a film it might as well be any other city in the world. In this case it only has to happen once, both You’ve Got Mail and Tootsie merely imply taxi rides without the standard conversation scene taking place in the backseat of a cab (as seen in many a film). In the more modern You’ve Got Mail walking is the main method of transportation; everyone strolls about no matter the time of day. Conversely, in Tootsie walking is considered secondary or almost slumming it. Teri Garr has a wonderful quote when asked if she’s going to take a cab at night, “nah, it’s cheaper getting mugged.”

Big scary and dangerous, New York has always been synonymous with crime. This sort of pre-conceived notion can usually be overblown, a result of early stigmatisms. You’ve Got Mail touches briefly on crime, it never happens to its characters but it is mentioned briefly in a newspaper, their version of New York is very friendly and safe. By contrast the New York of 1982 (in Tootsie) is livable but also has a dark and dirty side. The change takes place not only in the movies but is also a reality. Between 1982 and '98 crime in New York and its bureaus had dropped nearly 45%.

The general feel of New York has become cleaner and more friendlier. Current New York can be filmed during the day while Tootsie takes place either under darkened grey skies of autumn or at night. An afternoon in the dead of winter can seem like the most radiant day in You’ve Got Mail. Both are feel-good movies yet the New York of You've Got Mail permeates a sense euphoria; it seems more pleasant than most fairy-tale lands

New York has changed with the times. Not long ago it was the toughest city in America yet now the majority of films about New York are romantic comedies. No longer is New York about hustle and bustle, but instead a place where you can stroll down to the shop around the corner.

A Corrupt and Just American Icon

Washington DC stands out in so many American's minds as an icon. A the capitol of the free world it probably the most scrutinized city in America. In each of our subconsious's we know what the city looks like, what it has going for it, and what it has against it; so much so we don't really have to see DC to understand. We all have ideas about what really happens in DC, but what is Washington DC really about?

“Coke and whores.” Iposed the question “what is conjured when you think of Washington DC,” before we sat down to watch Charlie Wilson’s War. We all laughed at the remark and I neglected to write it down on my list. The films starts and about 30 seconds after the credits start to roll my jaw drops, I decide to write down coke and whores as the titular character engages in some leisure activity in the company of… well coke and whores.

Drugs and prostitution have always meant corruption and anytime you have power corruption is nearby, especially in fiction, especially in Washington. A Few Good Men utilizes corruption expertly by making it the status quo. If a military Colonel lies or commits a crime it is seen as their prerogative. The government is run by powerful people and they were put in charge for a reason, who are we to judge? That right there is the foundation of democracy and thus when we freely see corruption of government, and its purification, it is almost symbolic of the patriotic freedoms we are granted as U.S. citizens.

Washington DC has the peculiar position that in being the capital of the U.S. it stands for democracy and all it’s governing forms. Justice is personified in DC by the fact that it contains the capital branches of the Secret Service, the FBI, and the whole of America’s armed forces (well across the river anyway), as well as the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court. So with corruption you always have balance, an idea that the good guy is going to win. In A Few Good Men it’s the upstart lawyer taking on the corrupted U.S. Military. Charlie Wilson’s War has the Senator fighting against communism’s corruption of Afghanistan. The little guy versus the corrupt power, again an iconic image of this country's founding. Tom Hanks sits in a white room at an enormous well-finished oak table with several other well dressed men and several other well-finished oak tables, and it might as well be Tom Cruise asking for the truth because the message is the same, "justice and democracy."

Decorated with statues and memorials, DC has itself become the popular icon for America, so well known that A Few Good Men smartly chooses to show some lesser known DC-centric images. Many films feel compelled to retrace Jimmy Stewart’s footsteps (and Frank Capra’s lens) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. How often have we seen the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? (They should really consider putting up a “no contemplating” sign to curb loitering.) The images of Washington have become so etched in the public sub-conscience that it begs the question, “can the average student tell the difference between the Parthenon and the Lincoln Memorial?” In Charlie Wilson’s War Tom Hanks (who already visited a good portion of DC's icons in Forrest Gump) merely stands on a balcony gesturing towards the off-screen location of monuments and we get the idea. In fact we get the idea so well, we don't get to see any of the city itself. Washington DC is after all such a recognizable image of America that we already know what it's look like, warts and all.

Las Vegas -- as seen through the eyes of Martin Scorsese's Casino

Upon viewing a standard list of films based on or taking place in Las Vegas it becomes overwhelmingly obvious what the context Las Vegas brings to a picture. It seems that to be a Vegas movie you either have to be a happy-go-lucky romp, or a twisted and dark descent into hell. Casino might be about as middle of the road as you can get with a Vegas picture. Scorsese fashion is that the director shows you the good parts of a story then remind you that in real life there are consequences to living a life of sin, let alone a life in Sin City.

Money, delicious money; in Vegas it comes and goes. In Vegas movies it’s always going into the pockets of the protagonist. At least in 50% of the films it flows that way unless the protagonist is blasted on drugs or alcohol, and of course they could be earning it the most lurid way possible… Regardless, Las Vegas is about money, and Casino takes the cake for best money montage out of all films made about Vegas. Set to Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” this is the second time Scorsese uses this song for a montage in a film. Initially you can't help but ask, "Marty did you forget you'd already done that in Goodfellas?" After the Departed, however, it's obvious that he's linking all three films with this song and using money and success as a common thread. The concept behind this montage is that living a life around money can be both enticing and dangerous. Mad-cap comedies like Ocean's Eleven make Vegas' money very enticing, but even there they utilize the thrill of danger.

Danger surrounds the city in the form of the desert. Las Vegas is choked off at its border by the Mojave, which according to many a film has a deceased population rivaling that living in the city. In fact the only time the desert ever gets shown in a movie happens during events surrounding the unwilling passing of one of the film’s characters. The message is that leaving Vegas is deadly.

In fact, according to film, outside of the strip there are no safe places. Very few outer Vegas locations are ever shown in any movie. Ocean's Eleven ventures away from the strip a minor amount of times, and those times we might as well be in the ritzy part of L.A. In the case of Casino we get to see the occasional motel. These motels exemplify Las Vegas’ worst aesthetics. Seedy, cheap, and dated; the world off the strip is where old Vegas goes to die.

What are we missing in these films? How about “normal” life in Vegas. I would like to imagine that not everyone who lives in Las Vegas is a hooker or mobster. With 500 thousand people living in the city and another million in the area around it, some of those people must earn an honest living. We never see any of these people except when they're dealing cards.

Like a bit actor stealing a scene, Las Vegas steals a picture. Vegas is never just a backdrop, it is the movie, it takes over, becomes a character of its own and all the other characters in the movie have to compete with it. Hard competition, very few are strong enough to stand next to Vegas, most happen to be mobsters. Just imagine one day we might actually see a film about a family raising their children within the backdrop of Vegas, hopefully their children won’t be strung out on coke or their selling their flesh.

A Serious In-Depth Essay on Japanese Cinema

As a test-post I present an essay I completed some time ago as a detailed overview of Japanese cinema from a historic and contemporary view: