One of my favorite aspects of Chicago is the skyline. And since, most of the time, Toronto or some other city often stands in for Chicago, the skyline is very often used as an establishing shot. So, it gets more than its fair share of airtime. Some interesting views of it have come to my attention lately, and I'm especially enamored with the "capture the frame from the DVD you're playing" button on my computers DVD player, so here's some pretty pictures of the skyline.
The first is from Angels in America, whose opening sequence includes a flight across the country from San Francisco to Central Park in New York City, with dips under the clouds in Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Chicago:
I recently watched I, Robot and in addition to being surprisingly good, I found it to have some interesting depictions of the skyline in 2035, with many of the current buildings still extant, and some nice additions as well:
I especially like the photo below, in which the Sears Tower, AON Center, and John Hancock Building (respectively the first-, second-, and third-tallest buildings in the city, as of now) are visible. Apparently, however, they didn't have the foresight to add the Trump Tower (now under construction--see below). They did add a huge skyscraper (with, I'll admit, some nice architecture to it and a Milwaukee Art Museum-like office on the top), the US Robotics Building, shown center:
Perhaps even cooler is the fact that the plot to take over the world begins on the Michigan Avenue bridge, right near some great shopping which I guess the robots won't need anymore:
Road to Perdition had some excellent shots of Chicago in the '20s, but I don't love you all (or that movie--Jude Law's so creepy in it!) enough to rent it simply to capture the picture to post on the blog.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of buildings, I should mention that the city is collectively smarting from the loss of the Sun-Times building (though I have previously argued that this is not something to cry over). For those who choose to mourn, or who are simply curious about such things, there's an exceptionally well-done time lapse video of its demolition, with good music in the background, too (thanks to Donna Wilson for the link).
(And yes, for those of you who are wondering, the title of this post was indeed inspired by Rufus Wainwright's "Memphis Skyline.")
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