I took my son to see “Megamind” yesterday afternoon. I already knew that the fictional Metro City government building was heavily inspired by San Francisco’s City Hall — I talked to the filmmakers about it while writing a pair of articles about the movie — but didn’t know the extent to which it mirrored the real thing. Along with the architectural similarities and gold leaf accents, the supervillain Megamind even found an excuse to paint the dome blue.
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Just don’t burn it down again …
I’m adding “Megamind” to my list of films that have made the most memorable use of San Francisco City Hall. The historic structure, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, doesn’t may not appear in films as often as the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars or Alcatraz. But it’s often even more striking, especially when the an interior scene with the rotunda is included. Inspired use of San Francisco’s City Hall in a film is generally the mark of a director or moviemaking team that has ties to the area — all but one of the movies on my list had a strong local connection. And is it a coincidence that the odd film out featured the building engulfed in flames?
I didn’t penalize movies that failed to accurately identify the building or even the city. (See No. 1 on my list.) I did consider the importance of the scene or scenes that feature City Hall, and whether the movie completely sucked. Hence, “The Wedding Planner” and “Bicentennial Man” didn’t make the list …
Please tell me what I missed in the comments.
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6. “Megamind”
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The makers of “Megamind” created a supersized version of San Francisco’s City Hall, which matches the rest of the intentionally over-the-top production design in the movie. But this is definitely a love letter to the government building from the makers of the film, most of whom live in the Bay Area and work out of Redwood City. See the 0:45 and 1:15 mark of the above video for a couple of quick glimpses of the Metro City City Hall. Bonus points: It’s one of the few major buildings that doesn’t get destroyed in the film.
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5. “A View to a Kill”
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The makers of this subpar Bond movie appear to have used snow globes in lieu of a location scout. There’s a fight on the Golden Gate Bridge and the Eiffel Tower. But there’s also an extended scene in San Francisco’s City Hall, where James Bond steals some city records — why not just use the Sunshine Act? — and gets in a conflict with a bleached blonde Christopher Walken who sets the building on fire. But you get to see a lot of unique views inside and outside the structure, and Bond’s escape includes a race through downtown in a San Francisco Fire Department ladder truck. (Which while technically impossible due to traffic/Critical Mass issues, is something we’ve always wanted to do.)
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4. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
filminamerica.com
San Francisco director Philip Kaufman has used San Francisco landmarks not just frequently but artistically, to the point that the Transamerica Pyramid almost seems like a character in his movies. San Francisco City Hall got more than a cameo in Kaufman’s underrated 1977 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” — it seemed at times as if the structure’s dome was following Donald Sutherland around. The movie didn’t end particularly well for mankind, but footage from the Tenderloin suggested that the pod people solved the homeless problem and got Muni running on time.
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3. “Milk”
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It’s hard to find a photo promoting this movie where Sean Penn isn’t standing in front of City Hall. We’ve had our disagreements, but credit director Gus Van Sant and especially Penn for fighting to get this movie made in San Francisco, and then capturing the city so wonderfully and completely. I’ve heard that “Milk” was extremely close to getting filmed in Canada. A CGI rotunda just wouldn’t have been the same …
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2. “Dirty Harry”
filminamerica.com
This classic San Francisco film used one unique location after the other, including the PG&E building and Mission Dolores Park. Even the bison in Golden Gate Park were awarded a cameo. City Hall is featured multiple times — from a distance, from the steps, in the rotunda and in the actual mayor’s office. According to filminamerica.com, Mayor Alioto allowed the makers of “Dirty Harry” to use his office for a three-day weekend.
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1. “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
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I know this will be controversial, but it’s hard to get over the fact that City Hall is in one of my favorite films of all time. I still can’t walk up the grand staircase inside City Hall without saying “Fools! Bureaucratic fools! They don’t know what they’ve got there!” Steven Spielberg filmed just one scene in the rotunda, shot as an afterthought and supposedly taking place in Washington D.C. But I’m still declaring the penultimate scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” the greatest in City Hall history.
You can see the City Hall scene at the 0:50 mark in the above video. Bonus points: The guy sitting to Harrison Ford’s right in the first scene is William Hootkins, who played Porkins in “Star Wars.”
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Honorable mention: “The Towering Inferno”; “Foul Play”
PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.
