MovieChat Forums > Marathon Man (1976) Discussion > This film is insulting

This film is insulting

posted 16 years ago by Skylab23
162 replies | jump to latest

As someone who is from Uruguay I must say this film is completely disrespectful. I was watching this film and enjoying it up until the part where they show Szell's hideout in Uruguay. I was like: 'WHAT?', because apparently we have jungles here and I didn't even notice. I know most of you people don't even know where Uruguay is and don't care about this, but I ask you: if they depicted your country in a film in a completely wrong way, wouldn't you be pissed off?. Filmmakers should do a little research if they are going to put something in a film they know nothing about.
Luckily this mistake is shown in the goofs section for this movie:
"Errors in geography: Dr. Szell is supposed to be living in Uruguay before going to New York. We see shots of what is supposed to be Uruguay which show people traveling in canoes through the jungle, but in Uruguay there is no jungle."

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EDIT (7 years later): Hey guys, good news: I'm over it now.
Calling the film insulting was too much, I admit; I do remember being pretty irritated when I wrote the message above. Of course, that it inaccurately depicts Uruguay's geography is undeniable.
I would delete this post, but hey, many of your responses are pretty funny!

It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.
Indiana Jones, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] alkhmyst-743-479615 11 years ago

You're absolutely right! I am outraged that parts of Spider-Man 3, supposed to be in New York, were actually filmed in Cleveland! How dare they have shot part of Mr. and Mrs Smith in Los Angeles, when the story takes place in New York! Outrage! Outrage, I tell you!

Seriously, is that all you've got? More than 99% of the film takes place in European countries, or New York City.

[–] screenslaver 11 years ago

How about the final scene in the original Point Break? Supposed to be Bells Beach in Victoria, Australia. A building by the beach, some sort of pharmacy, has "Drugs" written on the side in huge letters. We don't have buildings with "Drugs" written on them in Australia! Plus a supposed Australian delivers a line in possibly the worst "Australian" accent to make it into a Hollywood film- and there is quite a bit of competition for that title! (Tarantino, in his "Django" cameo, gets the accent almost right, surprisingly).

Sorry, nothing to do with Marathon Man or Uruguay, really!

[–] musicman_46 11 years ago

Ever see the tv show Dallas? Ever see a plane land at the airport in the show and there're freekin mountains in the background? How about when they drove down to Houston one episode THRU A DESERT? Or when Bobby was holed up at the far end of the ranch for a day as a sudden hurricane had struck? I'm sure Uraguay is a lovely place (not so sure about Australia tho), movie goers in general, just don't care about accurate geographical portrayals that HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT.

[–] mam13143 11 years ago

Well, shooting one city for another is no where close to filming a jungle for a city lets face it. I live in Philly and they used to, and still do to a lesser extent, shoot other cities in its place and it would always piss me off. But they film cities, not jungles. I can see the originators point, they put no effort to even check out Uruguay in Wikipedia for goodness sake.

[–] musicman_46 11 years ago

Lol, you must believe there's a desert between Houston and Dallas and mountains out by DFW airport then as that is as geographically wrong as putting a jungle in Uraguay.

[–] oz909 10 years ago

Maybe because wikipedia DIDN'T EXIST at the time? Nor did the web.

[–] Pervy_Grin 8 years ago

I'm three years late to this but I gotta say I agree with the OP even if he did freak out a bit too much. If they wanted a jungle they should have made it a different country that actually has one. If they wanted Uraguay then don't use a jungle.

[–] quochung91 11 years ago

butthurt for nothing? calm your tits

[–] jjamp48 11 years ago

Considering there's about two hours of this film's run time which don't take place in Uruguay, I think it's safe to say this overly sensitive OP leaves a much worse impression of Uruguay in my mind than anything depicted in Marathon Man. Not to pour salt on your deep wounds but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed that scene - a highlight in this great film. Love the quote from Raiders of the Lost Ark though. I wonder if people from some of the places shown in those films are insulted at the way their country is depicted. That makes for a better discussion in my opinion.

...that's what life was, a long series of things that didn't go down the way you thought they would

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jonchopwood 11 years ago

The novel has Szell living in Paraguay.

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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Generalísimo Alfredo Stroessner