You might think after the castigation of Mr And Mrs. Smith‘s depiction of Bogotá, Hollywood would have checked its facts and made an effort to improve its accuracy. Not so. Enter Colombiana, a new blockbuster about a Colombian woman that witnessed her parents’ murder when she was young. Now, naturally, she’s turned into an assassin and is killing people left, right and center.
Clearly you take these storylines with a pinch of salt, but once again the disparity between Hollywood’s projection of Bogotá and the real city itself is outstanding. In Colombiana, like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Bogotá is shown to be dangerous, with explosions happening wherever you turn your head. I guess violence sells more than general friendliness, but it’s shown to have tropical conditions too, which I can assure you is not the case.
Something needs to be done about these misrepresentations, a message to Hollywood somehow… In the meantime, share with us some links from some films you’ve seen depicting Colombia. We need a good laugh.
