Visual misconceptions in movies

Movies and other media can often be a subconscious source for how we perceive travel destinations, giving a somewhat different view than reality provides. When the hero arrives in a city, there is no sign of pollution, poverty or rain clouds. As the Norwegian band a-ha once sang, “the sun always shine on TV”.

Apart from these easy and obvious manipulations, there’s also the trick of a green screen, allowing “on location”-scenes without the actors even leaving the studio. This used to be an obvious trick in earlier productions, but these days it’s getting more difficult to discover any traces of it. For example, have a look at the movie in my earlier entry The magic of green screen.

But sometimes the misconceptions are handled with humor. One of my favorite deliberate misconceptions is the depiction of Bratislava from Eurotrip. Four friends accidentally arrive in Bratislava instead of Berlin, which is portrayed as a war zone and comically feeds on all possible kinds of prejudices against Eastern Europe.

The prejudice can be quite close to reality, as in the movie Snatch from 2000, where shady character Avi arrives at the US customs after a trip to London:
“Anything to declare?”
“Yeah. Don’t go to England.”

This is later followed up by “Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup ‘o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins…” which caused chuckles from the three Swedes at a cinema in London, and embarrassed silence from the rest of the audience.

Reality can also exceed fiction on rare occasions. Have a look at this tourism shot for Cleveland. It’s probably the worst travel inspiration I’ve ever seen since the Bratislava pun. They shot it in midtown during a dull and gray day and even though it’s meant as a joke, Cleveland doesn’t really get my attention.

Bratislava for real.

Another classic scene is from Rules of Attraction where Victor plunges through entire Europe. It’s like a collection of the best and worst of Europe put on fast forward.

That scene is of course pure fiction, but if you like the concept, check out these videos where it’s made in real world: Denver to Singapore (and back) in 5 minutes by David DAngelo and Melbourne To London with a Wideangle Lens by Tom Blachford.

When you arrive at a new location, have fun and don’t be discouraged if it’s raining!