Posted on 08/31/2005 1:23:17 PM PDT by DeuceTraveler
Director Steven Spielberg has infuriated the residents of Budapest, Hungary with his disrespect of their daily lives, while filming new movie Munich. PageSix.com reports fuming locals have faced an array of irritations since Hollywood came to town, including having their cars, which were in Spielberg's way, towed with barely any notice, endless traffic jams and severe warnings should they attempt to take pictures of the proceedings. And city-dwellers are particularly amazed by the Americans' arrogant attitude - as they assume Budapest should be honored to be the Oscar-winning director's chosen location. A source tells PageSix.com, "The best part is (Spielberg's people) keep saying, 'This is the biggest thing ever to happen to Budapest,' which is true if you discount the whole Roman and Ottoman Empires, World Wars I and II, the fall of communism and the European Union's accession."
I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard that the Poles and Romanians were actually leashed in a bit by the Germans, because they went overboard on the jew torture and killings even by Nazi standards.
As the son of a Hungarian who escaped during the 1956 uprising, I have visited Budapest several times over the last 20 years.
The most amazing sight is the former Ministry of Defense Building. It is pock-marked with bullet holes and tank fire. Yet the Hungarians have kept this building intact and have denied any efforts to restore it.
They want to keep the building as a reminder of what Communism does to a free people and that they will never, ever allow this to happen again.
I don't have the statistics to hand, but IIRC the Waffen SS units with the highest number of atrocities to their name were the Lithuanian and Estonian ones.
"If they didn't want them to film there they shouldn't have given them permission."
Maybe they didn't give Spielberg permission. That would be real arrogance!
Yes it would! But when I think of guerilla filmmaking (filming illegally withoua permit) I don't think of Spileberg (Quick get the shot of the dinosaur before the cops get here!).
Hollywood? Arrogant? Hard to believe...
Yeah. Ever notice that all the planets visited on "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" look like the woods in Vancouver? More than coincidence? Many productions have fled Teamster gansterism by going to Canada (Stargate, Millennium, X-Files, etc.)
Just like every alien planet in Doctor Who looked like the BBC gravel pit.
Alas, already we seem to have forgotten.
You meant to say was, didn't you?
Television was also a great achievement, but Farnsworth and Baird spin in their graves at 50,000 RPM....
There's a museum now in Budapest called "The Terror Museum" based on Hungarian treatment by the Nazis and the reds. I think it's in that same building.
Well said.
How did you know I was an SG-1 fan? We smell our own?
I actually didn't mean the technology itself but what was done with it. American cinema, now over a century old, is one of this country's greatest cultural achievements and an object of admiration and envy the world over. There was a lot of junk made back then too. It's been forgotten as surely as today's junk will be.
And Farnsworth is probably spinning because David Sarnoff stole his ideas! So they say.
This is the guy who went around touting a movie of his that portrays evil high-tech spying in the future-----AFTER sucking up to the leader of the Carribean Gulag, where in whose country- Big Brother could be your brother!
Walking through film sets pretending I didn't notice/care what they were doing is one of my favorite parts of having lived in NYC!
Yep, and Zworykin got more press than he deserved, thanks to the (then) RCA public relations powerhouse. If there's any poetic justice, it's in knowing that "RCA", at least its consumer division, is now a French company with a dismal quality record (Thomson).
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