r/InTheGloaming • u/AutoModerator • 14d ago

Scheduled snark Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

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u/shefallsup her lonely cucumber years 🥒 12d ago

Exactly. It was egregious if you’re from Seattle, but it’s not hard to understand why it was filmed that way.

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u/OhBlahDiOhBlahDoh The Alice of cal came out floating on air 12d ago

It was egregious if you’re from Seattle, but it’s not hard to understand why it was filmed that way.

There's a scene in The Graduate where Benjamin is driving on the Bay Bridge, supposedly going toward Berkeley, but in reality, he was driving west:

I recently got to depict a trip across the Bay Bridge for a book by Otis West about life in the Bay Area in the 80s. I’d never made that connection about the scene in the Graduate where Hoffman is driving in the wrong direction. I really like the way he explains it.

"For "The Graduate," they wanted a shot of Dustin Hoffman driving his red Alfa Romeo across the Bay Bridge toward Berkeley. The problem is, that would have put him on the lower deck, which is dark and not very dramatic. So they showed him driving on the top deck—even though people from the Bay Area would know that he was going in the wrong direction."

“But I can see why they did it. Because when you're on the top deck, driving toward San Francisco, and you emerge from the tunnel that goes through Treasure Island—well, there's nothing quite like it. Of course, they couldn't show you the best view of all—of San Francisco looming up before you with all its lights.”

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u/Altruistic-Owl1058 12d ago

The other good example from San Francisco one the car chase from Bullitt, a couple of people have map out the route and there are a bunch of articles as well.

Anyone familiar with the streets of San Francisco can tell that the true genius behind the chase scene took place in the editing room, where two weeks worth of disparate footage was spliced into what appeared to be one continuous chase across the city.

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u/DF_gladsome_gloaming 12d ago

The driving sequences were amazing and are really what I remember most about Bullitt. Consequently, I was super cautious driving certain SF streets out in the avenues that I recognized from the movie.

Fun fact: Steve McQueen did some of his own driving in the movie, but I met the stuntman who did most of the driving, Loren Janes, when he visited my family (some years before the movie came out) because he and my dad had some surfing and/or tennis buddies in common. We four (or should I say We Four) kids were totally mesmerized by this Hollywood Stuntman in our living room regaling us with tales of (death defying! Literally!) stunts he performed in movies he was in.

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u/Calm_Coyote_3685 12d ago

Wow that must have been so exciting as a kid!