They have a certain amount of license, given that the city is made up.

Yeah but... palm trees in Illinois?
-Jeremy

That's not as glaring as when films taking place in IL have mountains. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMountainsOfIllinois

Maybe their homes had whimsical contractors.

Who come back and replace the palm trees every summer after the cold months kill them off.

Be that as it may, it's still pretty funny to accuse a movie of screwing up a city that doesn't exist.

I'm not sure I understand your post. If New York, Chicago, and Seattle all came up, how does Seattle being one that came up rule out the eastern US any more than New York being one that came up rule out the western US?

Oh I'd be remiss if I forgot to mention the fucking hatchet job The Five Year Engagement did to Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor's like a mini-Portland, full of liberals and tons of restaurants and culture. In the movie it's a redneck-filled culinary backwater, and it pissed me off.

It has a sweet arcade, too. There, I played Capcom Vs. SNK 2 against some of the local experts, and I was subjected to abuses to which I still haven't come to terms.

Ahhhh Pinball Pete's! I spent some good times there

Well I was referring to an earlier comment mentioning "generic city located in the Eastern US" (very likely including New York and Chicago). Seattle rules that out. It is obvious that the movie is NOT supposed to be set in L.A. even though it has been filmed there (complete with special FX rain).

This reminds me of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A small part of the film is set in the city of Ica, in Peru, which happens to be where I was born. And I'm guessing Spielberg assumed that since they speak Spanish, then it must be Mexico, hence why almost everyone either has a moustache or is wearing a sombrero, and there's mariachi music played everywhere. Also, the Nazca lines are not located right next to the Machu Picchu ruins, and they're not guarded by ninjas. And it's funny how, according to the film, you'll find a Mayan-style temple if you travel up the Amazon River. Really, Steven, was it that hard to spend some time reading Wikipedia?

Actually, a lot of overtly patriotic Peruvian film fans made a huge deal out of this, even trying to boycott the film in some cases. Me, I just laughed it off as Spielberg and Lucas being geographically ignorant. Besides, you can't ask for realism from a film where a guy survives a nuclear blast inside a fridge or falls down three consecutive waterfalls without a scratch.

Good stuff Neco. I didn't know you were born in Peru

I would venture a guess that this is a matter of being faithful to the movies they're trying to emulate, which--among other things--tended to mash together different historical culture under the vague heading of "exotic".

That actually makes sense. That's probably why I brushed it off and just laughed my way through the entire scene. But some people did get offended by it... probably people with nothing better to do.

There was also an outcry about a bit of dialogue in that same scene, when Indy claims he learned to speak quechua (a local dialect) from Pancho Villa and his men. Of course, Peruvian audiences made a huge fuss about that and called it an insult... and I bet no one took the time to find out that it's actually a reference to the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show.

Temple Of Doom actually got banned in India over the dinner scene with Indy being served things like chilled monkey brains(monkeys are considered sacred in India)