MrGareth’s Missives

Some friends asked me to combine my passion for movies and San Francisco to help them prepare properly for a forthcoming once-in-a-lifetime holiday there.  I got carried away and decided to make it a blog post.  So here it is...

Have you noticed how whenever San Francisco is in a movie it almost becomes a character in it.  Like only a few other cities, LA, Paris and New York, the streets of San Francisco always features in movies that are shot there like the director fell for the place and is seeking to do more than just film a story there.  I once heard that Hitchcock specifically wanted to do this with Vertigo – but it seems the case across the board.  It is not surprising.  It is the city that most feels like a friend to me.

The absolute best movie to watch about San Francisco, the totally quintessential viewing of this simply super city is of course Bullitt.  This movie does more for the undulating contours of the place than a map in terms of giving you a feel for the landscape of the town.  That car chase is perhaps some of the most excillerating 20 minutes in car chase history.  Every other car chase seeks to build on it or reference it in some way.  Moreover, those 70s sounds can play in your mind as you cruise the streets here. 

(In fact, I knew some people who payed their own tribute to that scene, drunk late at night offering taxi drivers to get up some speed and do the big hills around Russian Hill just as Steve McQueen did; offering double the fare if the driver "got air" and triple to lose a hub cap!)

One movie that seeks to echo that chase more than any other is of course "The Rock" which brings me to the very first MUST DO adventure: Alcatraz.  You can get to know this outstanding landmark and history magical mystery tour in movie alone: The Rock with Sean Connery and Nic Cage, Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, or Birdman of Alcatraz with Burt Lancaster.  but the visit itself will stay with you forever, long after the scenes of the movies have faded.  Allow the best part of the day for it, book in advance and give it your best mood or you will regret not making the most of this thrilling yarn. 

Affer your trip to Alcatraz, one great place to have a drink is the bar at the Hyatt Regency.  OK, so there are better places to go for a drink, but when I popped in here recently I suddenly realized it is the setting for several scenes in the Mel Brooks comedy High Anxiety which is shot all over San Fran.  It's classic Brooks slapstick mostly at the expense of Hitchcok thrillers, most of all Vertigo with James Stewart.  Now this film is definitely one to watch before visiting, and inspired a great trip that I made on my first visit: The Californian Legion of Honor art gallery.  It's a very brief scene where Stewart stalks his obsession to a gallery for the afternoon.  But the setting for it is a beautiful building, nestled in a park right on the coast and allowing a short walk to see the Golden Gate bridge, is a must do I think...and also contains a most memorable collection of Rodin sculptures.

There's lots of movies about San Francisco that touch different parts of the town, including Zodiac with Robert Downey Jnr, which spends a lot of time around City Hall.  Towering Inferno - with Steve Mcqueen, Paul Newman and a hat full of others - offers several amazing sky scapes of the financial district and the Bay, especially from the helicopter flight right at the start.  Not only do a host of Hollywood stars feature in this film but numerous buildings including the Hyatt (again), the Bank of America Building and The St Francis Hotel.  

 Also, Guess who's coming to Dinner - with Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn - is set against the backdrop of the Bay at sunset.  One excursion made by the Ms Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in GWCTD takes them to Mel's Drive-in on Lombard.  Coincidentally, the Mission Street restaurant of the same name is the place where American Graffitti is shot.  (Now the latter does not belong in this post because it's not actually meant to be in San Francisco - is just Sometown, USA.  But is of tremendous Movie significance because it saw not only the early directorial development of George Lucas but also a first major acting role for that other great Director - Ron Howard.)

If all of that isn't enough, an imminent trip to San Francisco is a great excuse to watch Dirty Harry with Clint Eastwood again; while Trekkies will know that Star Trek IV is all about San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge starring regularly.  A film called Tales from the City is also all over San Fran, but I've never seen it so can't comment.

I figure that should be plenty to get anyone so well acquainted with this city that arriving for the first time is like meeting an old friend!

UPDATE: I did learn from a recent trip that Bodega Bay where The Birds was shot is only about 90 mins'drive north from San Francisco.  I always thought it was further north than that.

I must confess that for the last four years i've been conducting a not-so-secret love affair with the city of San Francisco.  During annual visits for a conference, each year I've been lucky enough to take some time to explore a little.  Alcatraz one year, Sausalito another, Berkeley this year.  And every year I find an excuse to pop over to Haight Ashbury quickly (which seems to have become a spiritual home).  

It's a town that excites me tremendously, and with it now feeling really quite familiar, I can feel quite at home there.  In Muslim countries it is traditional to make guests feel more comfortable by telling them it's their "second home".  Well I don't need anyone to tell me that San Fran is mine.  But a good deal of the affection for the place has been a sense of it's almost twinning with my first home, Sydney town.  However, this year's visit revealed a more identical twin than that even: San Diego.

"It's apparently the most perfect harbour in the world" my friend told me, an epithet I'd also heard about Sydney.  It's assembled around a beautiful body of water just like Sydney (and San Francisco) and is "held together" by a beautiful bridge (again like Sydney). It's a working port with a large student population and a thriving CBD (San Francisco too). But from there on in, the similarities with SF diminish but with SD they continue in uncanny fashion.

The climate is remarkably similar.  I was blessed by a beautifully sunny weekend in the late Twenties/early thirties.  The summer peaks in the region of 40 degrees while the winter rarely dips below 10 degrees during the day and the sky is always blue. 

There are countless beaches, although i think Sydney has San Diego quite beaten in both quantity and quality (but then Sydney does have an embarrassment of riches in that department).  Sydney's Bondi is mirrored by Ocean Beach: a grungy, vibrant and groovy area with a terrific cluster of bars and apparently one of the best burgers in the US.  

On the northern side across the massive Coronado Bridge is Coronado which while not physically similar to Manly, fulfils a similar role as a laid-back get-away spot.  It's the home of the Hotel Del Coronado, famous for hosting Billie Wilder, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon and Marilyn Monroe while they shot "Some Like It Hot" in it's grounds.

San Diego also shares with Sydney a passion for the art of fireworks, as this video - of the KGB sky show to celebrate 100 of radio I was lucky enough to attend at the Qualcomm stadium - demonstrates rather well.  (The sense of parallel made all the more profound by driving on the wrong side of the road and entering “fall” in one and spring in the other.)

It certainly felt like a parallel universe in so many ways, and I urge those of both cities to consider the other an attractive destination option for a glamorous holiday that while at first glance might appear merely "more of the same"; in actual fact delivers at once so many new experiences as well as a validation of the everyday ones.    After all, travel is as much about what you learn about your home as your destination.

[BTW: Many, many thanks to my gracious hosts - Simon, Launa, Matthew and Ryan - who ensured a delightfully relaxing and enjoyable excursion!]