Hollywood Vs. Colombia IV: Colombiana

If you’re a frequent reader of the Colombia Travel Blog you’ll have seen our series highlighting the crimes of Hollywood against Colombia. We’ve looked at the comical (Romancing the Stone), the absurd (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), and the meta-fictional (Entourage). Today we’re looking at the latest edition in the canon of misrepresentation: Colombiana.

From the get-go it’s obvious that Colombiana is going to be a film that’s likely to upset Colombians (and it has), since the story follows a Colombian girl that witnessed her parents murdered at birth and goes on to become a ruthless killer under the watchful guidance of her Colombian family in the States.

The obvious offence here is that the violence depicted in the film all seems a product of her having been born in Colombia. Indeed, all Colombian characters in the film are violent or at least permissive of violence. There could, I’m sure, be an interesting article written about the use of Colombia as a symbol of violence but, frankly, the film is so ridiculous (a 9 year old girl managing to escape an armed mob?) that you quickly forget the potential damage the connotations of violence could cause and begin focusing on how implausible everything is. Nonetheless, there’s a few things that should be pointed out:

Bogotá isn’t tropical. Far from it. Here we’re high up in the mountains, experience a fair bit of rain and generally enjoy temperatures of around 18 degrees. Bogotá is also a city full of high-rise buildings and is, for the most part, flat until you get to the very outskirts. In other words, nothing like how it’s depicted in the film.

Colombians don’t have Mexican accents, nor do they sound or act like Italians (we’re looking at you, Cliff Curtis). When will Hollywood realise this?

The mistakes of the film could be easily overlooked as frivolities of Hollywood action films (this is, afterall, the work of a man who directed Transporter 3), but the fact that it’s actually called ‘Colombiana’ suggests the protagonists identity is crucial to the film. And if it’s crucial, do a little research, please.

Any more gross misrepresentations? Let us know please!

Paul