…in the time and place of your childhood that is anything close to what you remember of that time and place?
I’m having trouble thinking of a single one.
I’ve not seen any movies set in 1960s and 70s rural Western Pennsylvania. What few movies set in PA duriring that time period that I have seen generally have an urban setting. So, no.
American Graffiti, the high summer of 1962, when I was seven.
On television, the first half of the first season of Crime Story. Took me back to the summer I spent in Joliet and Chicago in 1963.
Night of the Living Dead
Early '60s Cleveland? No. Cleveland itself rarely makes it into the movies.
Major League could have been set in any American League baseball city. Cleveland is one of the triumvirate of shit-holes occupied by the leads in Stranger than Paradise. American Splendor certainly doesn’t portray the town as a garden spot, either.
Major League was set in Cleavland, but filmed in my hometown of Milwaukee.
Also set in Milwaukee was Dahmer (and any other Dahmer based movies), American Movie, part of Bridesmaids, Mr 3000, and while I don’t recall it, wiki says Dogma was set in MKE.
Also A League Of Their Own, at least partially, focused on a team called the Racine Belles. Racine is very close to Milwaukee. When I was in college (in the next county over from Racine), I lived in Racine and every day drove past where the Belle’s home stadium would have been. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it and really don’t remember how much, if any, of it was set in Racine or Kenosha.
Wiki also says Contact was set in Milwaukee, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t speak to that, but we do have an astronaut that came from Milwaukee (Jim Lovell), maybe that played a part in it.
Certainly. The Gathering, a 1977 TV movie starring Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton. Set in New England, but filmed in the little northern Ohio town of Hudson, where I grew up. Some of the extras were brothers and sisters of kids I played with.
Okay, yeah, I just reread the OP and noted it asked for a movie set in your hometown. But The Gathering very much takes me back to my childhood.
The Goldbergs does a pretty fine job getting the time right, but the place is off. Also it’s a TV show, not a movie.
Movies like Graffiti, which was inspired by Lucas’s teen years in California, could take place in just about any American community.
The Wonder Years comes closest, but it lacked showing the kids riding all over on Stingrays, constantly; so maybe a mashup Wonder Years/Tarras Bulba’s Ride to Dubno would be more accurate.
I got you all beat, but I have to reveal my age.
Dazed and Confused is about people exactly my age, going into senior year in August 76, and of course every person in it was on display at my high school too, at the time. It’s cool to have a movie like that, and have it be so good.
One “r”: **Taras **Bulba. Unless you have a book different from the one I read. :dubious:
That’s as close to one that would fit the intent of the OP as far as I’m concerned. Wrong setting but the timing is about right.
Boogie Nights, set in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970’s. Undoubtedly there are others.
In fact, Jack Horner’s pool & cabana looks almost exactly like my grandparents’ pool & cabana where I’d spend every weekend. No porn was ever filmed there, though (as far as I know.)
Madsircool already said Night of the Living Dead. But Also Dawn of the Dead. I learned to ice skate, and ate at the Brown Derby, in Monroeville Mall, which is just a few miles from where I lived until I was in 4th grade. My sister and I got caught by Mall cops fishing for coins in the fountains. We also used to pretend to be hunting Wumpuses (Wumpii? Wumpum?) in the fake gardens/jungles they used to have there as seen in the movie.
But also for western PA, let us not forget Deliverance. Hill Billies are scary.
A Bronx Tale gave a pretty good image of the Bronx in the 1960s.
Marty and Raging Bull were also good for the Bronx in the 1950s.
Dazed and Confused.
Perfectly nailed the time and place.
I was born and grew up in the suburbs/rural Western Pennsylvania during that same time period, and while Dazed and Confused doesn’t take place in that area, the characters all look and talk nearly identical to the way we did in school during that time. (well, we didn’t do that stupid paddling freshmen crap, but everything else was dead on). I know, it doesn’t fit this thread…
Wait, I just thought of one. The Deer Hunter was pretty dead on to the area and people that I grew up with in Western PA in the late 60’s early 70’s.
Deliverance takes place in Rabun County in northeastern Georgia.
I’m pretty much the same age as Don Draper’s son Bobby, and Mad Men rang very true with my vague memories of the sixties when I was 2 through 12.
I also graduated high school in 1976, but haven’t seen Dazed and Confused. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks!