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One thing that I don't remember being discussed much is the symbolism of Chicago. Among the US's biggest, most important cities, Chicago is one of two that's a long ways away from the coastline. Chicago is also associated with the heartland, the wide open prairies historically and the endless expanses of corn and wheat today. So while TF and ROTF mostly used places physically dissociated from geography (Hoover Dam and Shanghai are the only ones with a concrete sense of place), DOTM decides to set the climax right in the heart of the USA. The Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) was also the tallest skyscraper in the USA, until it was surpassed this year by the new World Trade Center. It stands taller than the original Twin Towers did. So we have this symbolic heart of the USA being invaded and occupied, and 9/11 is invoked, only with a larger scale- now, they're attacking the tallest building in the country! We also have Cabrini Green, the infamous monument to the failures of American public housing, and the 1968 DNC riots, and the notoriously corrupt city politics. While these are not invoked so clearly, the Autobots enter through a burned-out section of the urban ghetto, and then we contrast to the tony apartment of Dylan. The American heartland is also a Heart of Darkness, and it isn't surprising that it has to be assaulted by the red, white, and blue robots in order to clear out the Communists, terrorists, poors and so on. Finally, Chicago is also notorious for being a common destination for illegal immigrants into the USA. Sentinel and Megatron are about to take this to another level by illegally immigrating an entire planet here.
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Sep 25, 2013 19:55
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| # ¿ Apr 16, 2024 10:55 |
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