So as the summer starts to head toward the dog days of summer with regard to the major releases, perhaps it's time to get out to the real world, take a vacation, see the sights. Then again, there's something to be said about the movies. Part of the appeal of movies is to take us to places we've never been or perhaps never imagined, and so off we go to the movie locations that I'd love to visit.
First off, I'll offer up a few locations where the real-life location is all but the same as that shown on the screen.
Wally World - National Lampoon's Vacation
As most people familiar with Southern California will recognize, the location used as the destination for the Griswolds' trip is Magic Mountain in Valencia. While the Colossus remains a signature ride (the wooden roller coaster), these days it has been dwarfed by newer and taller rides. I understand about using environmentally friendly landscaping and keeping away from needing constant watering but from a guest viewpoint, when it's consistently 90 to 100+ degrees in the summer months, having the place look like a desert with succulents galore just seems like cruel and unusual punishment as one wilts wandering around the park. And walking uphill, no less. Whose brilliant idea was it to build a theme park on a slope? With the layout of some of the rides, it seems like one is always walking uphill since the rides seem to always let you out at a lower point than where you entered.
The Ice Hotel - Die Another Day
On the flip side of climate conditions there's the Ice Hotel from the most recent James Bond flick. Of course, though the plot line dictates that it's impossible to visit that exact hotel, there are a couple of real life hotels that one could visit in Canada or Lapland at the appropriate time of year.
Waterloop - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Switching back to summertime destinations, the water park where Napoleon has the time of his life in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is still in operation and one could certainly go and visit. Raging Waters is actually in San Dimas (dude) and is indeed a most excellent water slide park.
For a couple of transition locations (could be real but the real fantasy would be to visit exactly the place in the movie), we have:
The Beach
I believe that it actually had a name, but my quick research has yet to turn it up. This one is kind of in between real life and only in the movies, as while there is a real life location where some of the scenes were shot, I wonder if it's really that blue and that idyllic.
Jack Rabbit Slim's - Pulp Fiction
I'm sure (I'm hoping?) that one of you will write in and tell me that there is a theme diner that approximates the setting for the triumphant return of John Travolta to dancing on screen. However, I was pretty crushed when I read that the wonderful exterior architecture as well as the interiors were nothing more than facades and a set. Eating in cars, served by the stars of the period…and hey, these days a five dollar shake isn't all that bad a price. I still want to be pleasantly surprised by having my food waiting for me having been dropped off by Mamie van Doren.
Now, on to the truly fun part. I understand that one can't visit these places because they simply don't exist, and part of the fun would be visiting them with the population from the movies.
Space Station V - 2001: A Space Odyssey
The inner child in me is at heart a frustrated astronaut. Add to that an adult who can only cynically look on at our current space program which seems to be going two steps back for every one forward and voila, out of all the possible cinematic space destinations, the grand rotating wheel of 2001 is what I've always thought is the point where our space program should be. It's not a complete fantasy depiction, just annoyingly correct enough to make one wonder what the heck happened to the program given that it's already 2003.
Toontown - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
A world where the "laws" of toon physics apply - or maybe just a town, but it's still a place where every great animation character lives and interacts without fear of copyright infringement. Sure, the animation purists will argue that it's only American characters but those are the characters from my childhood and the movie did such a wonderful job of realizing the world and integrating the live action actors into the world that it seems like a place that one could potentially visit. Not to mention that the penguins from Mary Poppins are among my favorite characters in cinematic history and wishing to visit Toontown should cut down on some of the mocking that I would incur if I suggested that I'd spend a day with Mary Poppins to meet them.
Rick's Café Americain - Casablanca
Coming to same conclusion for this week as our DVD specialist, Noah Schuchman (you might want to check that all your affairs are in order as our agreeing is one of the signs that things are coming to an end), Casablanca is the pick of the week. Out of all the gin joints in cinematic history, this is one that I'd most want to visit. Since it's a wish list, I might as go all the way and say that not only do I want to order an drink from Sasha and gamble with Louie, but I also want to sing La Marseillaise. Since nobody in the movie actually utters the words, I want to tell Sam to play it again. But above all, I want to be there on one of those fateful nights when Ilsa is present. Even if Ingrid Bergman didn't think that Casablanca was among her best movies, it didn't prevent her performance from being captivating. Though since I consider her to be among the most beautiful actresses of all time, she'd probably hold my interest just by being there.
There were several other places that came up in discussions with other BOP staff members that just didn't quite make my own personal list: The Wizard of Oz's Emerald City, Young Frankenstein's Castle Frankenstein, Monsters, Inc.'s Monstropolis, Monty Python and the Holy Grail's Castle Anthrax, The Princess Bride's Florin, the Moulin Rouge in the musical version by the same title, the hotel on the French Riviera in To Catch a Thief, Club Obi Wan in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the diesel bar in Bound (apparently other BOP staffers prefer grittier water holes than myself).
Finally, in a back-to-school vein, there were the suggestions of Ridgemont High (good) and then the more general setting of Shermer, IL. Shermer, IL is where John Hughes set the majority of his films. I can see how some would want to visit that locale, but I personally cannot endorse that selection as I have problems with both Molly Ringwald and the majority of the John Hughes teen films in general. Westerberg High from Heathers is more my style (not that I really want to visit, though).
Looking back to my recent column on the end of the world, I did have a reader write in and suggest that The Quiet Earth was missing from my list. This New Zealand film opens with what appears to be the last man on Earth but eventually other survivors are found and they examine why they were spared. Unfortunately, I have not seen the film but it seems to be right up my alley, so I will be looking for it.
