Has the place where you grew up ever been in a movie?

Cafe Society
61

I have a friend that was a manager at the Denny’s that was used as a location in Buffalo 66. I’ve spent quite a bit of time there during my college years.

Not necessarily the movies: several scenes from Buffalo episodes of COPS were filmed a block or two from the house where I grew up, if that’s any indication of how the neighborhood is sliding downhill. “Look, that’s Pankow’s old market! They’re at Suffolk and Dartmouth!”

Hayes Hall at SUNY Buffalo, the home of the school’s planning program and a place where I spent two years of my life, was the setting for the campus clinic on the TV show Jesse. The show also used lots of scenes from the Kensington and University Heights area for segues.

62

Dardenelle, in Yell County, Arkansas?

63

the ‘every sperm is sacred’ song in monty pythons meaning of life was filmed in part just round the corner from where i used to live in bradford, N england. specifically the gardens they are dancing in in front of a nice looking building, which is Cartwright hall in Lister park. i could see this from my house.

ive been through the parts they filmed the yorkshire moors scenes in american werewolf in london too, but the village with the slaughtered lamb pub in doesnt actually exist. mmm, scenic.

64

Not a movie, but the made for TV movie “The Woman Who Loved Elvis,” starring Roseanne and Tom Arnold was set in Southern Iowa and a couple of scenes were shot in my home town, Albia.

I hadn’t heard about that before the movie but I watched it because I knew it was primarily filmed in Ottumwa, 23 miles away where I went to college for 2 years, and which is the fictional home of Radar O’reilly. Imagine my surprise to see my old barber’s shop in a background shot.

It wasn’t very good. (Surprise!)

65

My folks live in Clairton, PA, where The Deer Hunterwas set. I’ve lived there off and on over the years as well. Parts of the film were filmed there and in nearby Duquesne, as well as Mingo Junction, Ohio. The mountain scenes were filmed thousands of miles away - there are no mountains that high in Pennsylvania.

66

The movie Ruby in Paradise was filmed in Panama City (or, more accurately, Panama City Beach).

It was one of Ashley Judd’s first films (I think her first major starring role), and not half bad. What’s more, my brother-in-law was responsible for the musical score.

Also, a TV-movie, Condominium, was filmed at the Pinnacle Port condo out on the eastern edges of Panama City Beach. This was one of those generic disaster genre films–the condo is the setting for a horrific hurricane (featuring quite a few “big” names, including Barbara Eden).

My favorite “local” film, however, would have to be Frogs. Maybe this one doesn’t count since it’s not actually in Panama City, but it was filmed at Eden State Gardens, where my family used to go every year for Easter. It’s a great low-budget flick, classic MST3K fodder.

67

Yep, that was released in 1980. In fact, Bakunas’s death is mentioned on iMDB’s trivia page for the movie:

68

The opening scenes of The Hunter was filmed in Herscher, IL, where Dad and I got our haircuts after our town barber shut down his shop. The payphone scenes later on were filmed in Bonfield, IL, my hometown until I was eleven.

I haven’t seen it but the IMDb says the documentary Green Chimneys was filmed in Brewster, NY, the town in which I went to middle school and my first year of high school.

The listings for Crossroads and Runaway Jury include locations within Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, where I spent the rest of my high school years.

69

Although at that time it was a separate town from where I grew up, Niles (now part of Fremont),CA was once home of the Essanay Film Co. Several silent movies with Charlie Chaplin and Broncho Billy Anderson were made in town; The Tramp is probably the most famous.

The exterior of Cyberdyne (when it blows up) in Terminator 2 was shot near my house.

Not a filming location, but the place broken into in Sneakers is implicitly most likely in Fremont (by dint of the fact that they crossed the Dumbarton Bridge, train tracks, and were near a hillside).

As a vague connection, the events River’s Edge was based on took place close to where I lived, though just south in the town of Milpitas.

70

Well, growing up in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, I got watch them film… ummm… oh, and all my parents’ friends still talk about inviting Orson Welles to a picnic when he was in town making… uh… OH! I almost forgot! We skipped out of an entire morning of Junior High to hang out at the Gilles’ Frozen Custard stand to watch take after take as Ron Howard and the entire cast of…

          darn.
71

Well, the American Pie movies are based on a high school and surrounding area in my city, although it wasn’t filmed here. It’s funny to see all the names of places in the movie that are so close to actual names of places here. The scenes on Lake Michigan were filmed there, though. That was the same summer that part of Road to Perdition was filmed on Lake Michigan too, so that summer there were a lot of people out looking for celebrities.

72

I grew up on the coast of Washington state. John Wayne did a movie in the early 70’s called McQ, in which he played a Seattle cop. In the climax of the film, he chases the bad guys all the way to the coast (about 150 miles) and guns them down on the beach.

The film crew was in the area for a couple of weeks. At the time, my Aunt Joyce owned the only Mexican restaurant west of Olympia. For over half of the evenings during their stay, the filmmakers paid her to close to the public so the actors could eat there without being bothered. One of those nights, they allowed her to invite the family to eat with them. Yes, I ate burritos with the Duke when I was 9 years old!

Actually, Mr. Wayne didn’t really speak to us, though his stunt double sat at our table and chatted. It’s probably a good thing the star didn’t get into a conversation with us–my family’s always been pretty liberal and I’m sure my mom would have brought up the John Birch Society or somesuch.

73

I remember when Top Gun was being filmed at the Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. My house was really close to it.

That was trippy.

74

Out on a Limb was filmed in Boulder Creek, CA, where I grew up. (The film crew repainted some of the buildings on the main street, and they stayed that way for a few years.)

Benny & Joon was filmed in Spokane, WA, where I live now.

75

I guess it’s a shame that you can’t tell if it’s going to be a legendary movie, or a bomb.

76

They never actually filmed there, but in Taxi Driver, there’s a scene that has Travis saying that his hometown is Fair Lawn, NJ (and then he gives a 6 digit zip code).
Love Story and Quiz Show both featured my college (Fordham) prominently.

77

The first part of Save the Last Dance was filmed at my high school my sophmore year. I wasn’t old enough to be an extra in it, but some of my friend are there.

78

Who Has Seen the Wind (W.O. Mitchell’s growing-up-on-the-prairie book) was set, but not shot, in my home town, Weyburn, Saskatchewan, called ‘Crocus’ in the book. Weyburn was too big and too modern by the time the movie was made, so they shot most of it in a town called Arcola, fifty or sixty miles east of Weyburn.

The book was better.

79

Well the exterior shots 1992 Kevin Kline stinker “Consenting Adults” were filmed in two Atlanta locations - my neighborhood (including my parent’s house) and a neighborhood about 2 miles away. Unfortunately, the director decided to use the footage from the other neighborhood instead of mine. It would have been really cool to see Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio walking out of my front door on the big screen! My mom had lunch with Kevin though, so it wasn’t all for naught.

Link to pic of Kevin Kline and Alan J. Pakula outside my parent’s house:
http://www.jimcofer.com/photopages/greatness.htm

IMDB link to the movie:

80

I grew up in Los Angeles/Hollywood. Need I say more? :wink:

When I was a kid, my house was 1 block from ABC studios. I watched them line up for Let’s Make A Deal and attended a taping for the Newlywed Game. My high school, John Marshall High, has been the site for many movies and tv shows.

Because of its spectacular Gothic architectural style, the school has been the background for many films and television shows, from “Mr. Novak” in the early 1960’s to “Lucas Tanner” and “Grease” in the 70’s to the 80’s with “Cheers,” the remake of “Splendor in the Grass,” and “Zapped” a campus comedy.

Tom Hanks appeared in a movie called “Bachelor Party,” portions of which were filmed at Marshall. Mollie Ringwald appeared in “Pretty in Pink” and Sarah Jessica Parker starred in “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” a film in which Marshall doubled as a private Catholic school, complete with crosses on the tower. (A neighbor called the school to find out why a public school had crosses on the roof!)

The original “Nightmare on Elm Street” was filmed there. In the 90’s, Jessica Tandy appeared in “The Story Lady,” which was filmed in the Sniffen Auditorium, Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron made a film there, “Like Father, Like Son.”

Sidney Poitier directed a movie there, and the rock group Van Halen staged their “Hot for Teacher” video in the library. In the 80’s, a teen soap opera, “Tribes’” was filmed on campus. In 1994, country-western signer Garth Brooks filmed a concert in the auditorium.

The very popular television shows “Wonder Years” and “Who’s the Boss” filmed there, as did “Boy Meets World.” In 1995 Michael Jordan played basketball in our gym as part of the animated/live action comedy “Space Jam.” Also, in 1997, John Cusack starred in “Grosse Point Blank,” about a professional hitman attending his high school reunion. In 2000, “Boston Public,” filmed on campus.