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Those of us who choose the construction sector as the place to stoke our careers do so partly because we like the excitement of seeing something new being built. There’s high drama to be found in erecting an artistic edifice to catch the eye and hopefully last the centuries.
No doubt, Hollywood agrees. The instances of construction playing a key role, often as a character unto itself, in a major film or TV show are numerous and fun to note.
In the silent movie days, it was Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd precariously walking across a steel beam high in the sky, somehow eliciting laughter from their flirtations with danger.
Going much further back in history, the movie The Ten Commandments features a stunning scene where the old Pharoah opens a curtain onto a construction site where one of the great pyramids is being built. Even today, there is controversy over the technology that was used to create such a massive structure with incredible mathematical precision. I’d like to think it was a turnkey project and that the GC was a genius at protecting his trade secrets.
Unfortunately, construction is often portrayed in a villainous role, although it must also be acknowledged that movie villains are often highly proficient at stealing scenes. Maybe the most obvious example is when shoddy workmanship, and use of below-grade building materials, led to The Towering Inferno.
An evil developer planning a new residential community in old Los Angeles plays a pivotal role in the Jack Nicholson classic, Chinatown. Much of the plot turns on the machinations being conducted by the John Houston character, never mind his other nefarious activities, too sordid for spelling out in this article.
As a counterbalance to these misdeeds, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) in It’s a Wonderful Life used the finances made available through his family’s bank to roll out affordable housing for many of the less well-off members of his community, thereby winning their respect and affection, which served him well at the end of the story.
Residential construction has long had a starring role on celluloid, with cost overruns heightening the on-screen pyrotechnics. Such was the case for Cary Grant when Mr Blanding Builds His Dream House reached projectors. It was even more prevalent for the Tom Hanks and Shelley Long characters in The Money Pit. Those guys should have consulted a quantity surveyor early in their planning stage and insisted on a fixed-price contract.
Reconstruction has sometimes been featured to stunning effect on screen. I’m thinking of the rebuilding of Atlanta in the second half of Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett O’Hara comes to realize the monetary advantages to marrying someone in the lumber business.
And then there are certain professions embedded within construction that are given showcase treatment in some movies. Gary Cooper played the part of an architect in The Fountainhead. As written by Ayn Rand, in the source book, being an architect can be the most individualistic and noblest of endeavors. Who can argue with that? Well, maybe a brain surgeon, or a rocket scientist, or dare I say, an economist.
A single individual construction project is often the whole focus of a cinematic tale. Such was the case in the mini-series Pillars of the Earth, based on the best-selling novel by Ken Follett. Watching a monumental (but also fictional) cathedral take shape in 12th-century England served up much of the viewing pleasure.
How wrong is it of me to look back on the Star Wars saga and feel regret when the rebel forces attacked and blew up not just one, but two Death Stars that had been built by the Imperial forces. I can’t help but fret over all the planning and hard work that went into seeing those megaprojects reach fruition, only to vanish in a few seconds’ worth of mayhem.
Speaking of Star Wars, the actor Harrison Ford began his working life, before his Hans Solo emergence into celebrity fame, as a carpenter.
My favorite line in any James Bond film came in Diamonds are Forever when Sean Connery was placed by the bad guys in large piping to be buried in the Nevada desert. He eventually emerges, dressed immaculately in a tux, and says to some startled on-site workers something to the effect that he was just taking his pet rodent for a stroll.
So, these are just some of my construction-related film and video reminiscences as a cinephile over many decades. Please feel free, dear reader, to correct me if I have made any wrong attributions and/or to offer your own recollections. Connect with me below.
Before signing off, though, there is one other movie I should mention as the quintessential construction-related adventure. I’m referring, if you haven’t already guessed, to Bridge on the River Kwai. But it’s a bittersweet tale. It took a heroic effort to build the bridge. It also took a heroic effort to blow it up. On the screen, there are some magnificent shots of the bridgework as it is being carried out.
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