Since I can't travel now, looking for movies that might make me feel I'm there...
 

I just watched "The Harder They Come" last night and had a wonderful with the soundtrack and listening to the dialogue. Watching "Countryman" did the same thing for me.

Anybody have recommendations for other films out there that truly evoke a sense of place for the Caribbean? I'm less interested in the "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" variety (that is, movies that showcase fabulous resorts but not so much the islands themselves), but certainly willing to give them a try.

Just looking for another way to keep that cold weather at bay. Thanks!

The Mighty Quinn is pretty good, if you can get past the fake Jamaican accents :)

Another one is "Joey Breaker", featuring Cedella Marley, who was (IMHO) luminous in her role.

Lord of the Flies is a good film. Nice scenery , although not a cheerful film. Filmed on Frenchmans Cove Beach in Port Antonio . Also where The Mighty Quinn was filmed ( Trident Hotel ) etc. And what about Tommy in Coctail .... Fimed at Dragon Bay in Port antonio . This is a hard one , hmmmm.....

Hi EJ,

As always I'm slightly *off-topic*, but what about "Out Of Africa" ? It might inspire you to plan an African adventure. At the very least, it is one of the most romantic movies ever filmed. Quite a nice Saturday night trip for you and your husband :-)

Find your most beautifully fragranced shampoo...or go buy one ;-) The sensuality of that scene haunts me, in a very positive way :-) !

I guess that's enough from the single woman in COLD Maine :-) !

Marion

I do the same thing, when can't get there, I try to watch movies on location. Here are some of my favourites:
Wide Sargasso Sea (Jamaica)
After the Sunset (Nassau/PI)
Pirates of the Caribbean (SVG)
Cool Runnings (Jamaica)
Captain Ron (Virgin Islands/Puerto Rico

Yes, some of these are silly, but they give me my fix.

We really liked "After the Sunset". It was a good movie and had some great views of Paradise Island.

One movie we did watch and now wished we hadn't was "Open Water". It was filmed in the Bahamas and was quite thought provoking.

I agree with Bosoco - there is great scenery from St. Vincent in Pirates of the Caribbean - Walliabou, Tobago Cays, Fort Duvernet (in a view from our heroine's bedroom), and the vistas from Fort Charlotte above Kingstown. I think the Dominican Republic is in there too !

I thought Open Water was filmed in Barbados ? Perhaps both places , they oten do that !!!

For the new Pirates movie , a great deal was filmed in Dominica .... I can't wait for that , Dominica looks amazing .

Wow, I have to say that it feels quite gratifying to check in on my lunch break to see so many responses, especially on a Saturday. Thanks!

Marion, I just LOVE Out of Africa. My mom had loved the movie for years and I finally sat down and watched it with her after having teased her mercilessly throughout my youth for her obsession with it. Well, after the credits rolled I found myself eating crow. Delightful film. One day I'll make it Africa. Everyone seems to go to Kenya or S. Africa for their first trip, but I find that Botswana calls to me.

As for Open Water, I knew I'd never snorkel again if I saw that movie. No, thanks! It was bad enough listening to Bill Bryson narrate the story on which that film was based in A Sunburned COuntry (his books are great, for those of you who enjoy good travel writing with a large dose of humour).

Keep 'em coming. The good, the bad, and the cheesey.

'Wide Sargasso Sea' is possibly the most sensual movie made about Jamaica -- it's the prequel to Jane Eyre.
'The Lunatic', 'Dance Hall Queen' are 2 other little known Jamaican movies in the same vein as 'Countryman'.

'Indochine', 'The Lover' and
'Three Seasons' will also give your armchair travel a wider range. Ditto the old classic 'Tokapi' and the new classic 'The Talented Mr.Ripley'.

Off topic..again ;-) I thought I'd mention to a fellow reader that you might enjoy some of the published works of Karen Blixen (Streep's character in "Out of Africa " :-))..but also might research Isak Dinesen...which was her given name.

Two names, same person...but good reading :-)

Marion

I've not a clue as to where that stupid emoticon came from !

Seems especially silly, because I'm talking about some srious reading.

Marion

It may not be the Caribbean, but after seeing Under the Tuscan Sun I wanted to run out of the movie theatre and visit Tuscany..WE DID LAST MONTH...Orvieto, Pienza, Montepulciano and that's all I want to do now is buy a house and enjoy the bright light, clean air, ambience and food...Our pictures and Parrot Pop took allot of picture do not do Tuscany justice. The cobblestoned streets, the flowers, the homes, the people, the mall-less roads, the orchards of olive trees, grape vines....the scenery, the landscape... oh my...I'm going back one day...to Tuscany...

"The Deep" with Nick Nolte. Filmed mostly in Bermuda, but the underwater wreck is actually in the Virgin Islands.

I looked up "Open Water". The shark scenes were filmed in the Bahamas with the help of Stuart Cove Dive Operation. Those were real sharks. ooooooohhhhh. I'm glad we don't dive and now we will probably never do it. We snorkeled last week in St. Lucia and I keep my eye on the boat. We were close to shore, so that helped.

Thanks for more suggestions. I loved the idea of Wide Sargasso Sea, but I thought the idea was better than the way the novel was executed. Maybe I'll enjoy the movie, though. I'm a sucker anytime someone writes a book from secondary character's perspective--Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Bertha Rochester before she was the mad woman in the attic.

Marion, I'm a reader by calling and a moderate collector, so after I enjoyed the movie so much I bought reading copies and first editions of much of Isak Dinesen's work. I've not read or collected anything under her real name, though.

Keep an eye out for these oldies that air every now and then on TV: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and Swiss Family Robinson.
Both were filmed at Bacolet Beach on Tobago.
We've visited Tobago several times; there's a recently refurbished hotel there (the Blue Haven) that boasts that Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr stayed there during filming. Mitchum supposedly tore up the bar in a drunken rage. Bar has been repaired :-).

The shark scenes from the Open Water movie were indeed filmed in the Bahama's, although I don't know where in the Bahamas. I have a shark phobia to begin with and when I watched that movie, I didn't know the outcome. That fear of not knowing what and where some creature is, shudders... It creeped me out so much that I did some research on the actual circumstances upon which this story was loosely based. Interesting story. The divers actually went missing in The Great Barrier Reef.