Natural abhors a vacuum, but it's pretty cool otherwise. And there are some great places caught on film.What film has your favorite natural scenery?
Panelist: AndrewPrice
There are many great examples to choose from, but frankly nothing beats The Lord of the Rings. I could not believe how beautiful the cinematography was in those films. Every single scene is stunning. This put films like Lawrence of Arabia to shame!
Panelist: BevfromNYC
A River Runs Through It – there was nothing more beautiful than the fly-fishing scenes.
Panelist: Tennessee Jed
Last of the Mohicans, particularly Grandfather Mountain. Runners up - K2 & Vertical Limit (both awesome in HD on a big screen!)
Panelist: ScottDS
Barry Lyndon. Director Stanley Kubrick was inspired by the paintings of Watteau and Gainsborough and most of the film's exteriors were shot in Ireland which also doubled for England and Prussia during the Seven Years' War. To quote an article from The Telegraph: "...the film is consciously a museum piece."
Comments? Thoughts?
92 comments:
Dr. Zhivago, especially the frozen dacha.
As a West Texas boy I'm tempted to say the final scenes of Cast Away set in the Texas Panhandle (when he delivers the FedEx package to the ranch)... up near Canadian, TX is some pretty country...
LOTR is the clear best I think of course...
It's a toss up between Monument Valley, Utah in John Ford's westerns (tha cavalry trilogy and The Searchers) and his Ireland of The Quiet Man. They both are advertisements for visiting those. I've been to Monument Valley -- Ireland is on my bucket list (meaning when my bucket is empty of little kids. :-) )
Every choice has beautiful scenery except LOTR. Don't get me wrong, it may have fantastic scenery, but believe it or not, I somehow have managed never to watch that trilogy (at least not in total.) So from what I do remember, I assumed was heavy on CGI. On the other hand, New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth-- kind of like California without liberals or Hollywood. I suppose what I am really saying is, I cannot make a fair comparison.
A River Runs Through It is also a terrific choice. I've been up there and not only is it a beautiful area, the cinematography is a great example of the art of capturing natural beauty on film.
Barry Lyndon also fits that category. It is Kubrick's greatest film. It also blends country and palatial settings in a way you don't get in any of the others.
My choice of Grandfather Mountain is probably due in part to recent trips over to Lake Lure to play golf the last several years. That resort is where the Film Dirty Dancing was shot. It originally bothered me they had to go south to shoot a film about the Adirondacks who peaks I've climbed for years, but I recognize that G-father mountain is probably more dramatic.
Anonymous - I can appreciate the frozen tundra of Zhivago. That is most likely why films including the Himalayas or Kera-Korum have always appealedso much.
Floyd - Monument Valley is kind of the go-to- beautiful setting for westerns. It is one of the few places I have not seen but want to.
Another place I'd like to see in a newer HD film is Maui. It is truly one of the most dramatically spectacular places on earth, and while there have been films shot in the south Pacific, nothing recent comes to mind which does it justice.
I also had considered another spectacularly scenic film; Ryan's Daughter which opens with a pan of the famed Cliffs of Mohr near Lahinch on the western Irish coast. Much of it is filmed on the famous Barrows strand on the site of Tralee golf club. I ultimately didn't pick it because the movie is so darned boring (an unfair reason to be sure given the nature of the question.)
The beauty in Ridley Scott's The Duellists (reviewed at Commentarama Films) cannot be overlooked either.
A lot of it gets torn up, but Twister has some great shots of the Great Plains. (I know, I know, I am biased, but how many people are lucky enough to be born right where they want to be?)
When I read Andrew's choice of LOTR, I admit I raised an eyebrow at first, what with the digital manipulation and CGI... but then I realized there were still plenty of landscape shots where no CGI was used. (Possibly some digital color grading but almost every film does that now). :-)
Jed - Nice to see a fellow Barry Lyndon fan! I'm not exactly known for my love of 3-hour costume dramas but I've been a fan and supporter of the film since I first saw it almost 10 years ago - it was the only film in the Stanley Kubrick Collection that I hadn't seen before buying it. It's probably my favorite Kubrick film, tied with Dr. Strangelove.
I actually haven't seen A River Runs Through It and I haven't seen Mohicans in years.
Anon, Dr. Zhivago is great, so it Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai from that era.
Tryanmax - your question is interesting vis-a-vis people being lucky to be born where they want to be. It may be a slightly loaded question (breathes there a man with sould so dead who never to himself has said . . . ) I've always taken the approach of being with loved ones, then making the most of where you are. Still I would not wish to live in NYC, or L.A. given my druthers ;)
I notice Ireland coming up again and again, and certainly cannot disagree. I'm looking forward to going back in August and will get to explore the eastern coast of Ulster for the first time. Hard to beat the southwest coast, though.
Floyd, I love the scenery in westerns. Film after film just leaves me wishing I was out there. I agree that LOTR is by far the best all around, but a lot of westerns come in an easy second.
Jed, LOTR has a lot of CGI, but I don't think they used the CGI on the landscape -- or if they did, it was very well done. But in either event, it was just stunningly beautiful, and rather unique because no one had really filmed in New Zealand before.
Jed, Speaking of Maui, I keep thinking about films like Mutiny on the Bounty, which make the Pacific islands just look incredibly beautiful.
Monument Valley and Yellowstone are definitely staples of westerns but they deserve to be.
tryanmax, So I assume you would be opposed to moving to New York City?
Scott, I'm not sure how much CGI they use, but I suspect it's not much. I know they used CGI to add things like the statutes. But the scenes were they are just running across the plains, or standing around in Rohan, or the helicopter shots over the mountains and valleys look pretty real to me. Plus, they fit what I've seen of New Zealand on television since then.
Andrew - my first experiences with films shot in Hawaii were South Pacific (Kuawi) and the film Hawaii. They were awesome, and I know many more modern films were shot there such as Windtalkers. I was even amazed at the shots of Lahaina in the Devil at 4 o'clock (my very first guest review at commentarama, l.o.l.) I'd like to see something new that shows off the full range of beauty and not just the jungle or the beach, though.
Jed, I've lived all over the country and I keep coming back to Colorado because it's home. But you are right that it's the people you are with who matter the most -- though I too would not want to live in NYC or LA.
Jed, Ireland is another country with immense natural beauty and filmmakers have realized this.
The country that I think gets underused is Austria. They have absolutely stunning scenery, but you never see it on film.
you are correct on Austria. I wonder if there is some underlying cost issue? As I think about it, the Alps, in particular, are as scenic visually as any mountain range anywhere.
If I remember correctly, New Zealand was chosen for LOTR specifically because Jackson didn't want CGI landscapes. (I know, weird given the amount of CGI in the trilogy.) Structures and interiors, CGI galore, but I believe the landscapes are untouched. Actually, it's amazing how many practical effects are used throughout the film. The size differences between characters were achieved almost entirely through forced perspective, crazy sets, and rigid blocking.
Scott, I would liken digital color grading to the use of filters and darkroom techniques in the pre-digital age. Yes, the possibilities are broader, but the base concept is the same. Raw footage is always disappointing. You might take a picture of a scene full of rich and vibrant color and stark light and shadow only to get back a photo that is bland, washed-out, and greyish. The camera sees differently than the eye, so in order to share a vision, some manipulation is always required to bring back what was originally seen.
Jed, I've seen quite a few films in Hawaii, but nothing (except maybe Magnum P.I.) which really highlighted the overall beauty of the place. It really is stunning.
I recall your first review! :)
Jed, I've been wondering that too? They almost always seem to go to Yugoslavia instead, but it's not at all the same. Yugoslavia looks more like Pittsburgh. Austria is truly unique, especially northern Austria.
Speaking of the Alps, I notice that Sherlock 2 will be running their version of "The Final Problem" tonight. Wonder if we will be treated to great scenes at Reichenbach Falls?
Andrew, et al. I would resist a permanent move to NYC until my fingernails broke off.
Maybe it's a plains thing, but I'm actually surprised to hear you saying that you come back to home because of family. Around here, that's about the last consideration. Everybody wants to leave and, if they do, they rarely come back. Maybe what I mean to say is that it is a rare person who enjoys the beauty of the plains. About the only other parts of the earth I want to see are the plains of the other continents, the Serengeti, the Australian Grasslands, and the Russian Steppes.
maybe Yugo fits better as a fill-in for the stark drabness of the old eastern bloc countries?
tryanmax, That was my understanding too of why Jackson choose New Zealand and that's why I've never felt he used CGI to create the landscapes. Castles, cities, monsters yes, but not the scenery. Plus, like I've said, it looks a lot like what I've seen of New Zealand on television since then.
I agree about filters. Many a time I've taken pictures of deep blue skies or bright colorful leaves and they turned out washed out or weak. Filters help that a lot -- though you can also use filters to make things appear much nicer than they really are.
tryanmax, Colorado is not the plains. Where I live it's rolling hills with Pikes Peak standing 8,000 feet higher than we are (it's 14,000 ft total). And what I miss when I leave here is (1) being able to see forever, (2) seeing the mountains all the time, and (3) the dryness/lack of humidity.
When I'm out east, it drives me nuts that all you ever see is gray skies (even on days they call clear) and the fact you only see to the next stand of trees. In Colorado, you can almost always see to the horizon and the sky really does get dark blue... like in films. Plus, you get these stunning cloud formations. Good luck finding any of that in Virginia.
That said, I do like the flatness of western-Kansas. I can't explain why, but there is something truly amazing about it. I don't think I'd want to live there too long, but it is appealing.
P.S. West by God Virginia was the same. The moment their kids graduate, they leave the state and never come back.
Monument Valley in "The Searchers". There's a part of me (the Texan part) that wishes it would have been shot in Texas, which is where the film is set...but then it wouldn't be "The Searchers".
Jed, I'm not sure why they pick Yugoslavia?
I wonder if they will end the series there? They haven't really been that tied to the stories yet as far as I can tell.
Outlaw, It's hard to beat Monument Valley, even in Texas. Texas does have a lot of neat half-desert half-grassland though, which is excellent for Westerns.
I guess I'm showing my age again, but I loved The Big Sky with Kirk Douglas. It was an amazing film job, considering it's in black and white, but the scenery was breathtaking at times. For a more modern color film, I think I'd go with A River Runs Through It even if we did have to put up with Brad Pitt's terrible acting. I'd also give a nod to the scenes in Return of the Jedi which were filmed in the California redwood forest, although levitating motorcycles did sort of interfere with the serene majesty of the trees. LOL
Andrew, south and east of Colorado Springs towards Oklahoma and Texas it's pretty darn flat, and it's still Colorado.
I hear what you are saying about being able to see forever. In Texas the sky can also get really blue...and when I was in Iraq on a good day even flying up at 3000 feet above the ground you were lucky to be able to see much over 5 miles. It really sucked and was in a lot of ways (to me anyway) depressing.
Outlaw, That's true. Once you get away from the Rockies, Colorado does get flatter and in the south-east it gets very flat. But I've always lived in the front range part, which is the base of the Rockies.
I've been to Texas a couple times and I felt very much at home -- the land and the sky are very similar to Colorado, apart from the Rockies themselves.
Five miles? Wow. I would have guessed the sky would be clear though. Is it humidity or sand?
Lawhawk, Good point about Return of the Jedi. That is one beautiful forest and they used it well.
It's that space that I love. Even when you're in a crowded spot on the ground, all that sky makes it feel like you have all the space in the world. The only place I've seen a bigger sky than at home is in Montana (they earn the name).
I love skyscapes and beautiful clouds, especially when you don't have to look up to see them. The clouds over the plains are unlike anyplace other. They get so massive! They looks so firm and heavy that you wonder how they don't fall right down to the ground.
tryanmax, I feel the same. What used to bother me in Virginia was that you just couldn't see. You saw about 100 yards in each direction where the next bunch of trees where and then up above you saw a pure gray sky. Out west, you can see forever to the horizon and you can see forever up in the sky.
And I love the clouds we get around here. The only place with better clouds was Tampa on the ocean.
Andrew most of the time it was sand causing the problem. I can't recall in the three times I deployed there that I ever saw anything that made me say, "Wow that's really an awesome sight, too bad there's a war going on."
To me Iraq, specifically Baghdad looked like a dirty run-down version of Phoenix.
As strange as it may sound, I thought Deliverance was really pretty.
Jed, I love Tennessee.
Outlaw, I had some friends who were stationed over there and they hated it. They had nothing good to say about the place. The common description seemed to be "a real sh*thole."
I honestly can't think of anything I've seen on television either which makes me want to go over there. It looks like wall to wall sand without any character -- and I'm actually partial to deserts.
DUQ, It was a pretty river they used. Tennessee has a lot of beauty. A lot of the south does.
Andrew - I suspect continuation of "Sherlock" will depend on ratings and production costs. Afterall, "The Final Problem" was Doyle's completely unsuccessful attempt to kill off his character. Many great stories appeared in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes."
Proving that American network television has absolutely no pride, I see where CBS is airing "Elementary" this fall in, surprise, a series about a modern day Sherlock Holmes. It stars Jonnie Lee Miller and, get this, Lucy Lieu as Joan (vomit) Watson, who will no doubt be a martial arts and doctor combo. I don't know whether to scream or shout Khaaaaaaannnnnn! Wither goest thou, Jeremy Britt and Sir Basil Rathbone?
Jed, Barf. Talk about shameless. Oh well, I will be skipping that one.
And speaking of Montana, Legends of the Fall. Filmed in Alberta, I know, but that's not as much of a cheat as you might usually find in movies.
Outlaw - that is an extremely interesting observation. I even wonder if those long burning oil fires impacted. I guess times changed from the whole cradle of civilization thing.
Minnesota had a big sky when you went southwest from the cities. Coming from the east coast, I was duly impressed.
DUQ - Deliverance was shot up near the Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee borders. There is a nice resort there now called Brasstown. I agree, Tennessee is a widely diverse state. Love the rolling outcrops of Middle Tennessee, the Big Muddy in the west, but most of all, the mountains where I am now. I get to hike in some incredibly ancient, almost primeval areas. Between the ridges are areas under the tree canopy where little sunlight penetrates and wild boar roam. Unending variety of flora and fauna :)
Tryanmax - the Canada angle reminded me of Open Range which I happened to watch last night on one of the HD movie channels. That to was shot in Canada in a remote area. They basically built the whole town as their set, but the scenery was fantastic.
I love the snow in films like The Thing.
Kelly - is there a less forgiving place in the world than Antartica?
TEnn Jed... "Fertile Crescent"... 1,500 of a lack of technological and philosophical progress will do that to land. Israel is the green jewel of the region for a variety of reasons.
Dances With Wolves -- especially the buffalo hunt
I was also taken with the western desert scenery in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Asian deserts don't make their way much into U.S. movies... the setting in The Last Samurai was also beautiful.
David Lean... he had a special magic with cinematographers. I saw a movie a couple of years ago called Summertime starring Katherine Hepburn as a single teacher on vacation in Venice. I'm not much for Hepburn or romantic movies, but his filming of Venice... they should have paid him to make that movie. I've never seen a city look so beautiful... FA Young did the cinematography in Lawrence of Arabia... I'm not sure how Lean got the most of his crew, but....
Also agree 100% on Barry Lyndon. I love Gainsborough, Sir John Constable, etc. (Joshua Reynolds is great too) and it is a great marriage of painting and cinematography... and rakishness.
LawHawk -
Good call on the forests in Jedi. I imagine many fans' loathing of the Ewoks prevents them from appreciating the scenery. :-)
Floyd - great calls on all three of those films. In particular, The Last Samurai jumped back into my mind's eye after you mentioned it. I love that film. My grandfather had a wonderful library in the house where I grew up. He had Barry Lyndon. It was a hard read for me at that age, but when I left the theater after it first came out, I was actually speechless. That's how much I liked it.
Ted,
It may have been the cradle of civilization, but as soon as it hit puberty, civilization moved out.
There were actually date palms and green spaces, but all the dust came from the deserts to the west of Fallujah. And Andrew, it was (literally at times) a real s#!thole.
I know it was a TV miniseries and not a film, but the scenery in Lonesome Dove is exceptional.
Speaking of Venice, thanks for the call on "Summertime." I haven't seen that one, and you've peaked my interest. My wife has been to Venice, although I have not. She found it and it's history fascinating. They make beautiful glass that is unrivaled. I don't think Venice has been featured as much as one would expect in film. I think of the Bond films Casino Royale and one other (Moonraker, maybe?) as well as the third Indiana Jones movie, but am hard pressed to pull any others off the tip of my tongue
Jed -
Yeah, I think it was Moonraker where Bond manages to "drive" his gondola on land. Per usual for the Moore films, they turn it into a joke. :-)
Kelly, I love snow as well. Hoth was pretty cool! :)
Floyd, I love the scenery in the film Hero. They go to some incredible places -- deserts, mountains, forests. All of it is very beautiful.
And yeah, David Lean definitely got the most out of where ever he went.
Yeah, I think I would have to go with Lord of the Rings as well. I really wanted to go visit New Zealand after watching those movies.
Although, an unusual runner-up that could be put forward? The early landscape shots in The Shining. Haunting, but beautiful. I can see why some people might want to live in Colorado (or the Rockies in general). Fun fact: some of the unused landscape shots from that movie were later used in the closing scene of Blade Runner.
Speaking of Star Wars, the cinematographers never get any credit for the look of those films, maybe because ILM is a "sexier" subject for the media, not to mention the "wow" factor when it comes to effects.
I always thought Jedi looked a little bland but Empire is a beautiful-looking movie, probably the best looking of all six films. The DP was Peter Suschitsky who later shot (and continues to shoot) David Cronenberg's films.
And while I haven't seen all of his films, it's probably director Irvin Kershner's best looking movie, too. (After this, he did Never Say Never Again which is... bland in so many ways, but that's for another article.) :-)
Jed, I've heard about that CBS remake of Sherlock, and....ugh. I don't dare to watch it, because I heard that Watson is going to be the opposite sex, so you just know, at some point in the series there's going to be that scene between the two characters--and if I see that, I will have a psychotic episode and start smashing my television set while screaming incoherently. Grrr.
Outlaw, True. Lonesome Dove was great.
"as soon as it hit puberty, civilization moved out" -- LOL! Isn't that the truth!
Jed and Scott, I'm surprised Venice hasn't been used more given it's strange set up and it's history.
It was "sort of" used in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but not really.
Scott, It irks me something fierce that they turned everything into a joke in those movies. Grrr.
I forgot about the wonderful scenery of LOTR. When they start the mountain top signal fires, it was just breathtaking.
Also, if we are talking about breathtaking American scenery. Flying across the plains into the Rockies into Seattle takes my breath away. Especially in high winter with the snow everywhere.
T-Rav, The Rockies are beautiful and The Shining captures that well in the intro.
Also, excellent reason for not watching the new Sherlock show!
Scott, Tatooine was really cool too.
Bev, I love the Rockies. The only thing more impressive to me was flying over Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Wow was that impressive!
On LOTR, I love all of the scenery throughout, but yeah, the mountains were super impressive!
Correction to Last of the Mohicans: it was not filmed at Grandfather Mountain. It was mostly filmed at Chimney Rock Park (now Chimney Rock State Park) in the Hickory Nut Gorge. Other scenes were shot at what is now DuPont State Forest down near Brevard, NC, with a few scenes shot near Asheville and elsewhere in the NC Mountains.
And yes, it has some fantastic scenery. So does "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (my choice).
Re Iraq/Mesopotamia: And "puberty" was sometime around 500 BC. That place has never been pleasant. If you read much on ancient Sumerian civilization and how bleak its outlook on life was, that wasn't their natural setting, that was the environment being wildly unpredictable and wiping them out every few years. I'd be pretty broken down, too.
annoyedelephants, Crouching Tiger does have excellent scenery!
T-Rav, Yeah, it seems they started poorly and things went downhill from there.
Best outdoor scenery in a movie? Rush Meyer's "Up Smokey". The natural wonders of Kitten Natividad against the Oregon forest were just awe inspiring.
K, I'm not familiar with that area in particular, but the entire northwest as seen in shows like the X-Files really impresses me, especially the forests.
Yes K, the natural scenery in Monica Bellucci movies is fantastic too.
Floyd, I second that! LOL!
Andrew, I think we've had the "can't see far enough ahead in VA" conversation on C-Rama before :)
Try - I totally understand loving the Plains. People tend to look at me oddly when I saw that WTX is pretty. I will admit that it's not at its best in a mid-drought summer, but spring...ah... I also have a soft spot for mountains, but I don't know if I really want to live there.
And eastern WbGVA is gorgeous for a passing through - straight out of Front Royal, up the mountain, along the itty bitty Potomac - it was a balm on a VERYVERYVERY bad day...
As for movies... what y'all said...
Don't forget the Grand Tetons in "Shane." The filmmakers were famous for waiting until the light and cloud formations were just right, before they'd film an exterior.
rlaWTX, I believe we have had that conversation and we decided that those Easterners are wrong. ;)
WbGVA has some truly beautiful landscape. The problem tends to be what they do with it. It really could be a special place in a good way if they would just learn to maintain things and to stop dumping garbage on their lawns.
If I remember correctly, where you're at looks a lot like Colorado away from the mountains.
Kenn, Very true. Now that is incredible beauty.
rlawtx... I know... I love the Panhandle and people look at me like I'm a retard (I know better!).
Europeans by and large LOVE the Plains -- wide open spaces from Dalhart and Canadian all the way down to the Big Bend.
Annoyed - thanks for your great catch. Mohicans was filmed at Chimney Rock, not Grandfather Mountain. Grandfather Mountain is not too far away, and a cool place as well, but yes, you go right by Chimney Rock as you head into Lake Lure. Some of Mohicans was filmed at Biltmore Estate in Ashville, also an extremely worthwhile trip, particularly if you stay at the Inn on premises. The mind can get confused with old age, and I tend to answers the questions in this series fairly rapidly :)
Kenn - my first trip to the Tetons was in 1958 while camping with my family. Yellowstone was cool, but the Tetons were awesome. Luckily, I just had my dad's old 8mm movies cleaned up and digitized including that trip. They held up incredibly well considering.
I just read that Robin Gibb died. He's the second huge disco star this week. RIP
DUQ, Yeah, I read about that. RIP
Who doesn't love Grand Tetons?
Anti-tetons. ;)
Jed,
That's cool! I've never been there. Even cooler you still have film of the trip!
Kenn, It is kind of neat to run into films and slides from way back. My grandfather took a bunch throughout Europe when he was alive and it is always fascinating to look through those whenever I visit my family over there.
My Mom's slides from living in France in the 1950s are cool. My grandad was stationed there when France would still deign to have us besmirch their soil (besides with U.S. blood of course). Anyway... some war damage still to be seen.
Floyd, I've been through Dalhart!
I have to admit, however painful, that the panhandle area east of Amarillo is prettier than the Permian Basin. The rolling hills and just a smidge more trees - and dark, rich soil... Ahh, when you travel south and you hit the caprock with the ravines and cliffs - beautiful... sigh
Floyd, My grandfather was Austrian/German and a mountain climber, and he has a lot of neat pictures of the 1930-1960s. Unfortunately, my family over there isn't willing to make copies and send them to me.
rlaWTX, It sounds like we have a lot of Westerners here who appreciate the unmatched beauty of the American West! :)
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