The whole film is premised upon Freeman being a stranger is a strange land, stranded in some isolated working class, dysfunctional neighborhood. In reality, the exterior shots, most of the film really, was filmed in and around Terminal Island and the hills in & just outside San Pedro. Lots of containers (the shipping kind) and cranes, and the stark, industrial landscape is supposed to be a million miles distant from Freeman's upscale world in Brentwood. The reality is that Palos Verdes Estates, every bit as upscale as West LA, is located not two miles from where those shots were made (just on the other side of the hills) and Freeman would have been quite familiar with that neighborhood and not isolated and stranded in some working class wasteland as the actor in the film. He was almost within walking distance of other wealthy actors, just like himself.
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