Val Verde (fictional country)

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Val Verde is a fictional country or city used by Hollywood writer and producer Steven E. de Souza when his stories require a South or Central American locale that will not cause legal or diplomatic problems. [1] The location first appeared in his 1985 film Commando .

Contents

The name translates as "Green Valley", as val means valley in multiple Romance languages (Portuguese, [2] Italian, [3] Spanish, [4] old-fashioned French, Galician and others) and verde means green in many languages.

Appearances

A fictional country carrying the name of Val Verde has appeared in a number of films, television programs, and comics by de Souza:

Outside of de Souza's own work, there are other appearances, either linked by shared personnel, or as a direct reference. For example:

Origin

Steven de Souza explained his reason for using Val Verde in his Sheena comic: [9]

It's something like Guyana, a country which encompasses lush Caribbean resorts popular with tourists, an unexplored mysterious rainforest, and a mix of Anglo, Spanish, African, Creole and indigenous cultures. This is a country of the imagination I've used in several films and TV programs, which I thought was my little inside baseball joke, but Eric Lichtenfield, the author of 'Actions Speak Louder,' recently sent me a Wikipedia page on it! Seriously, my Dad's family is from that part of the world and it's something I can write about with some familiarity.

Portrayal

Val Verde has principally been used as a plot device or location in place of real Latin American countries in action and adventure movies, as a particular result of the United States' rocky relations with many nations in the region during the 1980s.

When glimpsed in Commando, it appears to be a poor nation, where subsistence agriculture (i.e., livestock) is side-by-side with military propaganda and constant military presence. Inhabitants appear poor but happy, and there is evidence of a trade embargo reminiscent of that placed on Cuba in the presence of battered but functional vintage 1950s cars.

Locations

As well as studio shots, other locations have been used to portray Val Verde on film:

Legacy

The spider genus Predatoroonops , named after the spiders' similarity to the Predator himself, has a species named Predatoroonops valverde. [11]

See also

Notes

  1. Baldwin, Daniel. "Val Verde: Exploring Fox's Secret $5 Billion Cinematic Universe". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  2. S.A., Priberam Informática. "Significado / definição de val no Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa". www.priberam.pt. (Word in Priberam Portuguese dictionary)
  3. "Traccani, la cultura italiana" (in Italian). Treccani. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  4. "Diccionario de la lengua española" (in Spanish). Real Academia Española. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  5. "Commando". fast-rewind.com. 1985-10-04. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  6. "Plague Ship of Val Verde". Adventure Inc.
  7. Williams, Owen (January 2012). "Predator: The Complete History". Empire.
  8. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor Summary.
  9. Return of the Queen: de Souza Talks "Sheena", Comic Book Resources, January 7, 2008
  10. Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films (footnote 34, page 148, by David A. McIntee, Telos, 272 pages, 2005, ISBN   1-903889-94-4)
  11. Brescovit, Bonaldo, Santos, Ott & Rheims, 2012 : The Brazilian goblin spiders of the new genus Predatoroonops (Araneae, Oonopidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, n. 370, pp. 29-31. Page accessed on January 12, 2013

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