Whenever a big Hollywood movie has a few scenes set in the Netherlands, it’s good fun to try and spot the differences between reality and what ends up on screen. For example, Ocean’s Twelve from 2004 had a scene at Amsterdam’s Central train station, which was actually shot at the train station in nearby Haarlem. International audiences won’t notice the difference, but it’s obvious to anyone who’s ever been at either station.

In the recent spy thriller Body of Lies, a terrorist attack takes place at the Noordermarkt (North Market) in Amsterdam. This scene was filmed in Washington D.C. and little effort was made to have it resemble Amsterdam. In one of the first shots, there’s a car in the background with the letters “POLIC” visible on the side and blue lights on the roof. It’s clearly a police car, but it’s got the wrong colours for a Dutch police car. Also, the letters on the side don’t match the Dutch word for police: politie.

An ambulance and a fire truck appear in two later shots. This time, it’s even more apparent that we’re not in Amsterdam or anywhere else in the Netherlands. The ambulance is more or less the right model, but the colours are wrong. The fire truck is completely off in both model and colours.

So, Hollywood, next time you set a scene here, spend a few bucks more to get right, okay?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:12 and is filed under Movies/TV/Theatre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.