‘Vantage Point’ filmed in Mexico City not Spain
I saw the movie “Vantage Point” this weekend. It is a political thriller, written by Barry Levy, directed by Pete Travis and starring such big-name actors as Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver. I’ll leave the reviewing to the reviewers over at Calendar Live, and focus on the travel element. The movie centers around the Plaza Major in Salamanca, Spain.
One of the points of view depicted in “Vantage Point” is Whitaker’s, who plays an American tourist completely attached to his video camera. I thought Whitaker did an excellent job of capturing the awe and excitement of a first-time traveler to Europe. His character is fully present and his awe of being in the Plaza Major felt authentic to me. On film critic Emanuel Levy’s website, there is a quote from Whitaker saying “The plaza set really blew me away!”
Wait, set? That’s right, the film was actually shot in Mexico City. They built it in and around an abandoned four-story mall in the southern part of the city. In the article “Vantage Point: Choosing Spain, Shooting in Mexico,” we find out that it took more than 300 construction workers 10 weeks to build the set.
So, if upon leaving the movie theater you wanted to jet off to Salamanca like I did, go ahead. Just know that you might want to book your return ticket through Mexico City.
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger
[Image: Sonypictures.com]
12 Comments on “‘Vantage Point’ filmed in Mexico City not Spain”
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February 29th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I just saw the movie tonight and i live in Puebla…so yes i recognized the Mexico city parts…even the buses…but even more interesting to me was that the WHOLE entire car chase scene was shot in PUEBLA. Yes, downtown puebla…i recognized the zocalo and many many other buildings. I guess they used these cities because they look so much like Espana.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
am from baja california mex and i knew this movie was filmed in mexico city only because i saw a bus pass by and i never been there lol good movie!!
March 4th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I went to see the movie with some friends and, other than being bored to death by the merciless repetition of the SAME scene over and over again, we were quite amused to see how they had tried to mix Spain and Mexico as if everything looked the same in both countries. The reproduction of the Salamanca plaza was quite believable, but the shots with tropical palm trees in the streets and the Mexican street markets were just hilarious… Everybody in the our group has been to Spain, so it was funny to see how movie producers must have thought that it didn’t matter that some of the settings did not look like Spain at all, or that all the extras in the movie look, surprisingly enough, 100% Mexican. I wonder why they did not just choose Mexico as the place for their story, they would have had a hard time keeping the plaza as their main setting, but overall the movie would have been much more believable.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Saw the movie today and enjoyed the suspense and the plot. I did not like their attempt to depict Spain and Spanish people as imagined by mainstream America, whose perspective has been fabricated through similar television and movie portrayals. This movie reinforces the erroneous view that Spanish and Mexican people/culture are very similar.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Many scenes in the movie do not look like Spain. It is obvious that the city was made in Mexico.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
My boyfriend Fabian and I just watched this movie and he new right away it was Mexico City. He could tell by the microbus, taxi cab, and the subway. Not to mention having the 2 Mexican actors from Azteca TV in the movie. It was a great movie.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:37 am
DAVE… dont be a bullS…. it was not filmed in puebla the car chasing… it was in Cuernavaca, Morelos. all my family recognized it beacause of the “Zocalo” the little plaza where the blue car comes running down those stairs… that is the plaza “Zocalo” in Cuernavaca were my whole family is from and also the Cathedral we saw it to so dont try to B.S ppl here… it was filmed in Mex City, DF.. and Cuernavaca Morelos..
August 15th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I just saw this movie last evening. I can see that some of you are very well versed in the area that is was filmed in. Can someone tell me about the modern hotel (or the building that was used as a hotel) in the movie?
August 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Wait a minute. I recognized parts of “el Centro” in Cuernavaca, Morelos Mexico. Right on the street where I grew up. There is a shot where they’re outside Cuernavaca’s Cathedral and other shots of the Zocalo. I can’t believe it… It was so not Puebla..
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
again, the car chase was shot at Cuernavaca’s zocalo… not Puebla.
I don’t think you know Puebla that well Dave… are you sure you live there?
February 19th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
hey check out in wikipedia it says that most of the car chasing was filmed in Puebla and I believe it
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I liked the movie.
I noticed it could not possibly be Spain but somewhere in Latin America instead. Because of two main factors first the people in the streets where too dark skinned to be Spaniards, and second there was a Palm Tree! a palm tree! in Salamanca! Europe! come on! and the cars..they tried to use some European looking cars but still! and just to top it off! What that heck was that muslim neighborhood all about, so? Besides looking like Latin America Spain is also a muslim country now?!…Hey no big deal! That’s how most Americans who watch this movie picture Spain anyways…and unfortunately, what a shame. Good movie though.