Hollywood's New York State of Mind

King Kong takes in the sights of the city from atop the Empire State Building.

New York city has been used for the setting of more movies than any other place in the world. From those Broadway Melody movies of the 1930's to Annie Hall in 1977, to Spiderman 2 in 2004, New York has become a supporting character in thousands of Hollywood films.

There are countless classic scenes from movies that take place in New York. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munson filmed the classic "New York New York" number from On the Town around many New York landmarks. Marilyn Monroe's classic skirt raising scene from The Seven Year Itch is caused by a passing New York subway. Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford fall in love in New York and share the classic reunion scene in Central park in The Way we Were.

What makes New York the choice setting for so many films? Is it the logistics of filming in a city that has everything? Could it be the historical scenery and unparalleled skyline? I think all of these could be true, yet what makes New York truly unique is its attitude.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1997) there is a scene that defines the "seen-it-all" New York personality. An out-of-towner is riding in a New York cab when one of the Ninja Turtles rolls over the hood of the cab pursuing someone. "What the heck was that?" the startled tourist asks. The casual New York driver nonchalantly answers, "It looked like some sorta big turtle in a trench coat. You're going to La Gaurdia right?"

One of the best films that uses New York City as a backdrop is When Harry Met Sally. From the autumn leaves of the park to the tree-lined brownstone apartments, this movie shows New York as a warm, friendly place. It almost makes New York City seem like any small town in America. Friends are always getting together for dinner or to go for a walk. Friends get together for a ball game. Friends bump into each other, like when Harry bumps into Sally at the airport or when Harry bumps into his ex wife at a store, or as Harry puts it; "...in a city of 8 million people your bound to run into your ex-wife..." New York certainly has a dark side, but you would never know it from this movie.

For a look at the seamy side of New York see 1957's Sweet Smell of Success. Burt Lancaster is a ruthless columnist and Tony Curtis a morally bankrupt press agent. Much of the movie was shot in Times Square at night. It really gives you a feel for the city at a time when crime and sleaze were on the rise.

1969's Midnight Cowboy is an even darker take on life in the Big Apple. The city had grown increasingly violent and dirty. Drugs and sex were being openly celebrated in a way never before seen in American culture and New York, as always, led the way. Dustin Hoffman's Ratzo Rizzo is an iconic New Yorker. Crossing a street he yells, "I'm walkin' here!" at a driver as he bangs his fist on the car's hood.

Perhaps the single most famous scene set in New York City is from 1933's King Kong. The giant ape holding the beautiful girl as he scales the world's most famous skyscraper is firmly embedded in our consciousness. He gets attacked by biplanes before plummeting to his death. Then comes the last line. "It was beauty killed the beast." This scene has taken on a frightening new symbolism in the post 9/11 world.

When it comes to New York movies, no discussion would be complete without mentioning Woody Allen. More than any other filmmaker, his movies are synonymous with the city. Nearly all of his many, many films have been set in or around Manhattan. Although recently he seems to have lost his cinematic way, during the seventies and eighties, Allen defined the archetypical liberal, intellectual, neurotic New Yorker. Through such films as Annie Hall and Manhattan, Allen wrote love stories to the city he calls home, summed up best by one of the opening lines from Manhattan, "He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Beneath his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. New York was his town, and it always would be..."

Woody Allen is the city's most prolific filmmaker.

Fellow New Yorker, Martin Scorsese has also done some of his best work in the city of his birth, although his films are very different from Allen’s romantic flights of comic fancy. Instead, Scorsese has focused upon the darker and more violent side of the city, as best represented by such films as Taxi Driver and Good Fellas. With his longtime collaborator, actor Robert DeNiro, Scorsese helped create the stereotypical New York mobster.

Both Allen and Scorsese, despite their differences, are quintessentially New York in their attitudes and styles of filmmaking.

So, what makes New York the choice setting for so many films? Perhaps it is because that here more than anyplace else on Earth, anything seems possible. Whatever the reason, over many years and through seemingly countless movies, Hollywood has made New Yorkers of us all.