Free-for-All Friday: Gratuitous Destruction of Landmarks in Movies

Last night, my darling husband brought home a new movie; one which he's been chomping at the bit to see: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I'm into guy movies (and no one can deny that it's a "guy movie," there are simply too many explosions and excessively hot chicks in the film for it not to be a guy flick), but I'm game. About 3/4 of the way through, I'm watching as one of the big bad guy robots (I don't know which one, I just know he's up to no good)starts tearing one of the pyramids of Giza to shreds. You'd swear the landmark--nay one of the Wonders of the World--was made out of cheddar cheese, the way this guy was tearing through it.





So it got me thinking: why is it that Hollywood can't (or rarely doesn't) make an action movie without massive carnage to at least one of our national monuments or famous world landmarks?

In no way is this a criticism of the gratuitous destruction of national landmarks in movies, but simply my musings on what this might mean to us, and what it might mean about us, as humans.

This is a common trend in the big, epic, end of the world and action-adventure flicks. Here's one from Planet of the Apes:



And here's the Eiffel tower, meeting her demise in G. I. Joe:



This image is no doubt disturbing for millions of French citizens, but also for the millions of women out there who were proposed to by their boyfriends-turned-fiances from its towering heights.

And here's a pic from Armageddon, which is too eerily prophetic for comfort:



So, why in these, as in countless other films, are landmarks such as these destroyed so violently? I often tease that I would never want to live in a big city if aliens/terrorists/demons/crazed robots attacked...some massive skyscraper would be sure to fall on my head when I least expected it!

The simple reason is this: these monuments are a testament to human greatness, of our ingenuity and superiority here on Earth. To watch a symbol like the Eiffel tower fall is to watch our human technological advances and a symbol of modernity fall (it was, after all a tribute to advancement at its building). It is also a symbol of love, one of those emotions we humans are generally quite fond of.

Watching the Statue of Liberty fall, blow up, or seeing her dismembered head lying on a beach equals the death of democracy and America herself.

In short, Hollywood knows what affects us as humans in a profound way and understands that images of pyramids being shredded, towers burning and monuments crumbling strikes us as an assault against our very existence.

On a lighter note, while there are also the gratuitous images of cleavage in the second Transformers movie (in addition to the destruction of pyramids, etc), there's also a little eye candy for us girls:



That's right, girls! Your hubbies/boyfriends may get to ogle Megan Fox, but we get Josh Duhamel.

And you thought I'd stick a picture of a shirtless Shia LaBeouf up here! I'm sorry, but he'll always just be whiny Cody Maverick to me!

Images from: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009); Planet of the Apes (1968); G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009); Armageddon (1998)