NYC in Films - My Personal Favorites
New York City. The most famous metropolitan city in the United States, quite possibly the world.
My wife and I just recently visited the Empire State, along with taking the train into the city for the day. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate at Carnegie Deli, searched for spooks at the New York City Public Library (as well as a clean restroom and free water), watched children dance with joy on the "Big Piano" inside FAO Schwarz, walked around Rockefeller Center (which was surprisingly smaller in person compared to how it looks on TV), visited the 9/11 Memorial, and charged my dying iPhone at the Apple Store inside Grand Central among many others.
Thousands of movies have been filmed here. Below I'll list my personal favorites, where this enormous city is the backdrop, practically becoming its own character.
"Nobody steps on a church in my town."
It's hard to imagine Ghostbusters taking place anywhere other than in New York City (even though a fair amount of its interiors were filmed in Los Angeles). From the iconic firehouse, to the NYC Public Library; from Columbia University, to the destruction of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Manhattan becomes a distinctive character throughout the entire film.
"I didn't say Park Drive. I said through the park."
In Die Hard with a Vengeance, John McClane races around New York City trying to prevent terrorist bombings, while creating a destruction path all of his own. While the entire city is on display, it is Central Park that takes the main stage when McClane decides to drive a taxi cab through it in an attempt to beat the clock and the detonation of another bomb on the number 3 train.
"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms."
The first of three Tom Hanks films located on this list is NYC Native Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail. A remake of The Shop Around the Corner, Hanks and his co-star Meg Ryan light up the screen in several Upper West Side locales throughout Manhattan.
"Welcome to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a gift from French citizens and has come to symbolize hope for naked women everywhere. Bocce balls!"
In Tom Hanks' second entry on my list, he shares the screen this time with Daryl Hanna in Splash. A mermaid who has come to New York City to find Allen (a man she encounters while on Cape Cod), she arrives completely in the buff on Liberty Island, spends all day shopping on Allen's credit in Bloomingdale's, sees a Madison Avenue sign and chooses her name, and goes ice skating at Rockefeller Center Plaza.
"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me."
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver oozes the worst things about New York City, yet I can't take my eyes off of it. Loner Travis Bickle, a Vietnam Veteran who was recently discharged, copes with his insomnia by becoming a taxi driver, driving passengers between boroughs at night. His depression and disconnect with society eventually reaches a boiling point, becoming a vigilante with extremely violent tendencies. The iconic political rally -- where Bickle's mohawk is revealed -- was filmed at Columbus Circle.
Penny Marshall's sophomore film Big, made Tom Hanks a household name, garnered him his first Academy Award nomination, and made every adult and child want to visit FAO Schwarz, just so they could play chopsticks on the giant piano.
In Spike Lee's 25th Hour, Monty Brogan is just 24 hours away from going to prison for seven years. He decides to spend his last day of freedom with his girlfriend and close friends in the city. While most of the locations don't particularly stand out, the one that does is ground zero. It's been less than a year since 9/11 and the wounds and emotions of the missing Twin Towers is still very raw. It's powerful, and it still hurts every time I watch it, but it's also a great and necessary reminder of our freedom and lives lost and sacrificed that day.
"I was a stand-up tomato: a juicy, sexy, beefsteak tomato. Nobody does vegetables like me. I did an evening of vegetables off-Broadway. I did the best tomato, the best cucumber... I did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their ass."
An actor's life is never an easy one, and it's no different than with Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Michael Dorsey in Tootsie. His difficult reputation has made it impossible to find work. So he disappears underneath Dorsey's female alter-ego, Dorthy Michaels, finds fame and learns how to be a better man when he gets a starring role on "Southwest General."
"No room in this city for big hearts like hers."
One of my favorite Brian De Palma's films, Carlito's Way shares with its audience a 1970s New York City that was high on disco, cocaine, violence, and ethnic stereotypes. The film's climatic chase sequence that takes place in Grand Central is one not to be missed.
"Brooklyn is loaded with guys that own candy stores, two cars, and like to go to nightclubs!"
In The French Connection, we follow Police Detectives 'Popeye' Doyle and 'Cloudy' Russo around NYC who follow a hunch that leads to one of the largest real-life drug busts confiscating over $30 million in heroin smuggled into the city. It's a brilliantly gritty film and its documentary-like realism captured a look and feel of New York City that had not really been present on the silver-screen before. It also has one of the greatest car chase sequences ever put on film.
"The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
Wall Street was Oliver Stone's commentary on Capitalism: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The film embodied America's perception of the 1980s New York yuppie stock trader during a Reagan-era economic boom. Once you're walking around Lower Manhattan among the gigantic skyscrapers, it's hard not to imagine Gordon Gekko surrounded by them high up above in his office.
"On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company - Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top five companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of uhh... Natchez, Mississippi. I work on the 19th floor. Ordinary Policy Department, Premium Accounting Division, Section W, desk number 861."
CC Baxter lends out his Upper West Side apartment to upper executives for their extramarital liaisons in order to climb the corporate ladder in The Apartment. It was the first film that I remember -- even with its dated statistics -- that really opened my eyes to the enormity of New York City. Once Baxter mentioned in his narration that the floors had staggered hours so the elevators could support the 31,259 employees without causing a serious traffic jam, I was hooked.
"Chapter 1. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion...no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin."
I'm not the biggest Woody Allen fan. In fact, I'm not the smallest Woody Allen fan. I'm more of an impartial or indifferent fan of his films. I do, however, appreciate the contributions he has made and their place in cinematic history. So, every once in a while, one of his films jumps out and grabs me. Annie Hall was the first one to do this. Manhattan was the second, just pay no mind to the 40-year-old in a romantic relationship with a high school girl. Only recently seen for the very first time -- not too long before taking our trip -- it has since become one of my favorites and how majestically he represents his home town of New York City.
 |
| No, I did not take this picture, but honestly wished I had. |
My wife and I just recently visited the Empire State, along with taking the train into the city for the day. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, ate at Carnegie Deli, searched for spooks at the New York City Public Library (as well as a clean restroom and free water), watched children dance with joy on the "Big Piano" inside FAO Schwarz, walked around Rockefeller Center (which was surprisingly smaller in person compared to how it looks on TV), visited the 9/11 Memorial, and charged my dying iPhone at the Apple Store inside Grand Central among many others.
 |
| Here we are on our way to New York via Connecticut taken at the Baltimore Int'l Airport. (Confusing, I know.) |
 |
| Ahh... the real New York City. And yes, I took this picture. |
Thousands of movies have been filmed here. Below I'll list my personal favorites, where this enormous city is the backdrop, practically becoming its own character.
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
"Nobody steps on a church in my town."
It's hard to imagine Ghostbusters taking place anywhere other than in New York City (even though a fair amount of its interiors were filmed in Los Angeles). From the iconic firehouse, to the NYC Public Library; from Columbia University, to the destruction of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Manhattan becomes a distinctive character throughout the entire film.
DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (1995)
"I didn't say Park Drive. I said through the park."
In Die Hard with a Vengeance, John McClane races around New York City trying to prevent terrorist bombings, while creating a destruction path all of his own. While the entire city is on display, it is Central Park that takes the main stage when McClane decides to drive a taxi cab through it in an attempt to beat the clock and the detonation of another bomb on the number 3 train.
YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998)
"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms."
The first of three Tom Hanks films located on this list is NYC Native Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail. A remake of The Shop Around the Corner, Hanks and his co-star Meg Ryan light up the screen in several Upper West Side locales throughout Manhattan.
SPLASH (1984)
"Welcome to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a gift from French citizens and has come to symbolize hope for naked women everywhere. Bocce balls!"
In Tom Hanks' second entry on my list, he shares the screen this time with Daryl Hanna in Splash. A mermaid who has come to New York City to find Allen (a man she encounters while on Cape Cod), she arrives completely in the buff on Liberty Island, spends all day shopping on Allen's credit in Bloomingdale's, sees a Madison Avenue sign and chooses her name, and goes ice skating at Rockefeller Center Plaza.
TAXI DRIVER (1976)
"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me."
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver oozes the worst things about New York City, yet I can't take my eyes off of it. Loner Travis Bickle, a Vietnam Veteran who was recently discharged, copes with his insomnia by becoming a taxi driver, driving passengers between boroughs at night. His depression and disconnect with society eventually reaches a boiling point, becoming a vigilante with extremely violent tendencies. The iconic political rally -- where Bickle's mohawk is revealed -- was filmed at Columbus Circle.
BIG (1988)
Penny Marshall's sophomore film Big, made Tom Hanks a household name, garnered him his first Academy Award nomination, and made every adult and child want to visit FAO Schwarz, just so they could play chopsticks on the giant piano.
25th HOUR (2002)
In Spike Lee's 25th Hour, Monty Brogan is just 24 hours away from going to prison for seven years. He decides to spend his last day of freedom with his girlfriend and close friends in the city. While most of the locations don't particularly stand out, the one that does is ground zero. It's been less than a year since 9/11 and the wounds and emotions of the missing Twin Towers is still very raw. It's powerful, and it still hurts every time I watch it, but it's also a great and necessary reminder of our freedom and lives lost and sacrificed that day.
TOOTSIE (1982)
"I was a stand-up tomato: a juicy, sexy, beefsteak tomato. Nobody does vegetables like me. I did an evening of vegetables off-Broadway. I did the best tomato, the best cucumber... I did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their ass."
An actor's life is never an easy one, and it's no different than with Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Michael Dorsey in Tootsie. His difficult reputation has made it impossible to find work. So he disappears underneath Dorsey's female alter-ego, Dorthy Michaels, finds fame and learns how to be a better man when he gets a starring role on "Southwest General."
CARLITO'S WAY (1993)
"No room in this city for big hearts like hers."
One of my favorite Brian De Palma's films, Carlito's Way shares with its audience a 1970s New York City that was high on disco, cocaine, violence, and ethnic stereotypes. The film's climatic chase sequence that takes place in Grand Central is one not to be missed.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
"Brooklyn is loaded with guys that own candy stores, two cars, and like to go to nightclubs!"
In The French Connection, we follow Police Detectives 'Popeye' Doyle and 'Cloudy' Russo around NYC who follow a hunch that leads to one of the largest real-life drug busts confiscating over $30 million in heroin smuggled into the city. It's a brilliantly gritty film and its documentary-like realism captured a look and feel of New York City that had not really been present on the silver-screen before. It also has one of the greatest car chase sequences ever put on film.
WALL STREET (1987)
"The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good."
Wall Street was Oliver Stone's commentary on Capitalism: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The film embodied America's perception of the 1980s New York yuppie stock trader during a Reagan-era economic boom. Once you're walking around Lower Manhattan among the gigantic skyscrapers, it's hard not to imagine Gordon Gekko surrounded by them high up above in his office.
THE APARTMENT (1960)
"On November 1st, 1959, the population of New York City was 8,042,783. If you laid all these people end to end, figuring an average height of five feet six and a half inches, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company - Consolidated Life of New York. We're one of the top five companies in the country. Our home office has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of uhh... Natchez, Mississippi. I work on the 19th floor. Ordinary Policy Department, Premium Accounting Division, Section W, desk number 861."
CC Baxter lends out his Upper West Side apartment to upper executives for their extramarital liaisons in order to climb the corporate ladder in The Apartment. It was the first film that I remember -- even with its dated statistics -- that really opened my eyes to the enormity of New York City. Once Baxter mentioned in his narration that the floors had staggered hours so the elevators could support the 31,259 employees without causing a serious traffic jam, I was hooked.
MANHATTAN (1979)
"Chapter 1. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion...no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin."
I'm not the biggest Woody Allen fan. In fact, I'm not the smallest Woody Allen fan. I'm more of an impartial or indifferent fan of his films. I do, however, appreciate the contributions he has made and their place in cinematic history. So, every once in a while, one of his films jumps out and grabs me. Annie Hall was the first one to do this. Manhattan was the second, just pay no mind to the 40-year-old in a romantic relationship with a high school girl. Only recently seen for the very first time -- not too long before taking our trip -- it has since become one of my favorites and how majestically he represents his home town of New York City.
Comments
Post a Comment