The lights, skyscrapers, and cultural hub have always drawn producers and directors of famous movies to use the streets of New York City as their setting for their award-winning movies. New York City has been popularized for one reason by the exposure it has in so many famous movies. Visitors and tourists to Times Square are almost always there because they’ve seen it in a movie or TV show. For New Yorkers, this may just be another Avenue of The City, but for others it’s the visual representation of what they have fantasied New York City to be all along, the bright lights, the crowds of people and the excitement in the atmosphere. From Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and even the Grand Central Station, New York City has been the home multiple popular movie sets for ages. Overtime, it is important to note that as the years passed, the landscape of New York City also began to evolve. This evolution is what enables us to see the classic landmarks of New York we’ve seen on famous classic movies from generations ago.
The changes in the New York City urban landscape has been documented through blockbuster movies over the past years. From 1900 to 2017, movies have been able to capture the change in urban landscape as well as the social and cultural change of The City. One great example of a New York City Landmark that has appeared in many films is the Empire State Building. Although I see the amazing landmark everyday on my walk to Baruch, I often take for granted the amount of movie scenes that have been shot with the Empire State Building.
Current View of NYC Skyline
From romantic films using the overview from the landmark, to movies like King Kong (1933) and Independence Day (1996) where the beautiful building gets destroyed help to show the versatility of the Empire State Building as a movie scene. One of the most famous movie scenes occurs when King Kong scales the side of the building. As Kong reaches the peak of the building, an overview of the City can be seen, as it was visualized in 1933. Independence Day also has multiple scenes of the overview of the City, as it was visualized in 1996. However, when comparing the scenes of these two classics, one can quickly realize how much the City of New York has continued to develop. Between the years of 1933 to 1996, there were approximately another 50 skyscrapers built in New York City.
NYC Skyline via King Kong (1933)
NYC Skyline via Independence Day (1996)
These changes not only go to show the importance of looking to movies to see the change in our major cities, but it more importantly shows that New York City is constantly evolving, physically and culturally. These changes to the landscape also had vast changes to the economic and social aspect of the city. Many of the new buildings that were built between 1933 and 1996 are financial institutions used by thousands of people and workers every day. Tourists now have more places to stay as multiple luxury hotels were built and the need for jobs in these new buildings have strengthened the New York local economy. Overall, we realize that as New York City continues to build new buildings, it is also building new cultures all while strengthening the traditions held by previous generations of New Yorkers before it.
– Abishek Johnson
