# Movies/shows that have presented your location faithfully **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806 "2008-04-03T15:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/61 "2008-04-05T17:16:27Z")
[QUOTE=Yookeroo] I did a bit of research. According to the [HBO](http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/episode/music/episode34.shtml) “In Azusa, Carmen, invites Claire to stay awhile to escape the desert heat.” In the Six Feet Under universe, Azusa is in the desert. [/QUOTE] Holy crap. That doesn’t even make sense. Why not just name a town that’s actually in the desert? Or at least one that’s not just a quick drive down the 210, nestled between green hills? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/62 "2008-04-05T17:50:18Z")
OP’s question should allow for movies/shows where the location is integral to the story line. Often productions just have an establishing shot done by the second unit and then the rest is done with the talent on sound stages. Where the establishing shot is done is often unimportant to the story. In “Pulp Fiction,” for example, you can identify some of the exteriors, but it’s not important for them to be “faithful.” On the other hand, there was a movie called “Falling Down,” where a guy gets stuck in traffic on the bottom level of the four-level interchange next to downtown L.A. He freaks out, abandons his car, and determines to walk to Santa Monica. In the beginning, the movie is faithful to the geography of the city, as he goes through Angelino Heights, Echo Park, and then Silver Lake. But then all of a sudden he winds up in the Beverly Hills Country Club. ? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/63 "2008-04-05T20:00:12Z")
[QUOTE=fiddlesticks] It was filmed the summer of 1988 which featured a terrible drought in the Midwest. The producers had to spend lots of money irrigating the hell out of the cornfield to keep it green and to get the corn to grow tall enough so the ball players could properly appear out of it. It was the only healthy cornfield in the area. But they still had to paint the grass on the ballfield green after the sod they brought in didn’t take. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I didn’t know that. I remember that drought though. I was living in Seattle but came back to Iowa for a high school reunion. The drought was so bad that there were no mosquitoes. Fish were dead and stinking in the creeks. Man, it was hot. We went to Dyersville a few years ago. The grass on the ball field is like a carpet – really thick and soft. The owners said they spend $300 a month on water and fertilizer, and that’s without drought conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/64 "2008-04-05T22:10:08Z")
[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl] Holy crap. That doesn’t even make sense. Why not just name a town that’s actually in the desert? Or at least one that’s not just a quick drive down the 210, nestled between green hills? [/QUOTE] It was bizarre. How difficult would it have been to have her go to, say, Indio? ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/65 "2008-04-06T01:56:53Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Wasn’t that in Reading Terminal, back when there still was a Reading Terminal? [/QUOTE] Pretty sure it was 30th Street. [IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090329/) lists “30th Street” and “Philadelphia”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/66 "2008-04-06T06:46:23Z")
_The Game Of Their Lives_ was filmed (partially) on The Hill, with some of the signs changed to be 1950s. And the signs were _all_ they changed. Before my time, and not my hometown, but I recognize it NO problem: _Any Which Way But Loose_ with Clint Eastwood was filmed in Georgetown, Colorado. If you go there, you can actually pick out the individual addresses where they’re beating each other up! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/67 "2008-04-06T13:54:15Z")
[QUOTE=phungi] Pretty sure it was 30th Street. [IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090329/) lists “30th Street” and “Philadelphia”. [/QUOTE] You may be right – I haven’t seen it since it came out. I may have misremembered Reading Terminal, since wasn’t the premise that they were in Philly for Reading Terminal Market? ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/68 "2008-04-06T16:24:09Z")
Sorry to violate the OP but I wanted to chime in and say how _badly_ film makers portray London. Most films depict it as entirely composed of Canary Wharf or Kensington town houses with very little in between. If you want a show that gives you London properly watch the UK version of the Apprentice as they do some amazing helicopter shots - to quote Chris Moyles “I live in London and the Apprentice makes ME want to live here”. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/69 "2008-04-06T18:38:39Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] You may be right – I haven’t seen it since it came out. I may have misremembered Reading Terminal, since wasn’t the premise that they were in Philly for Reading Terminal Market? [/QUOTE] Now that I think of it, you are correct… they were in town for the market, but perhaps all the train station scenes were shot at 30th Street… I actually remember the bathroom at 30th Street they shot it in, but good catch! Keeping with the Philly theme, _Trading Places_ captured many a city-scene accurately, save for some odd displacing of offices and homes. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/70 "2008-04-06T21:12:15Z")
I think the recent live-action **Transformers** depicted Hoover Dam very accurately, especially the giant room with a humongous robot frozen in the middle. Be sure you ask to see that part on the tour. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/71 "2008-04-07T00:47:38Z")
I can name a handful of places–one of which is from _Ransom_ (w/Mel Gibson). I know the one rock quarry he ends up in is right off if I-287 just outside of Pequannock/Wayne. [QUOTE=Obsidian] The Sopranos captured North Jersey (and more specifically, Bergen County) so well sometimes that it made me homesick. I’d watch just to see stores, buildings, roads, etc, that reminded me from home-- including my favorite diner and the candy shop down the street from my Dad’s business. [/QUOTE] Mine too–I can name some of the places in the backgrounds of some of the scenes, but rarely having the ability to watch it, I could never get into the series. **Obsidian** , where are you originally from? Tripler - Ramsey. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806/72 "2008-04-07T22:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=Antonius Block] {Regarding **Dirty Harry** ). 😕 Coit Tower to Fort Mason is just over one mile, and it’s nearly a straight shot Chestnut St / Columbus Ave / Bay St. Mount Davidson to Kezar is well over 2 miles, and much more hilly and twisty. [/QUOTE] Wrong Fort. I meant Fort Funston. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-that-have-presented-your-location-faithfully/443806.md?page=3)