Movie settings around the world
England's Bletchley Park, the home of the team trying to break Nazi Germany's Enigma machine's military codes, features in two movies: 2014"s The Imitation Game and Enigma 2001), and very indirectl;y in the submarine thriller U-571. Visitors can now see some of the buildings that housed the mathematicians, cryptologists, technicians, typistes and clerks who helped win the war by breaking the secrets of Enigma and revelaing vital German military plans.
The 1961 movie El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann, gains much of its considerable impact and sense of epic spectacle from the fact that most of its locations are authentic and overwhelmingly impressive on the big screen. The movie is about Spain's 11th century warrior-hero Rodrigo Diaz. Its exterior scenes were shot on locations of actual medieval Spanish castles and cathedrals , which tower in the background, framing the action.
The doomed town of Pompeii has featured in at least twelve feature films and TV movies, most recently Paul W.S. Anderson's 3D disaster epic (2014). Images above show restored sections of the twon today, with a fast food outlet above left and a street (right)
The plantation mansions of the pre-Civil War South have featured in many movies about that era. The most famous of course is Tara in Gone With the Wind. Director Steve McQueen [center] is shown at one of the locations filmed in 12 Years a Slave. The opening title of Richard Fleischer's Mandingo significantly shows a run-down, shabby drive and mansion that symbolise the decaying family it houses.