Examine 50 Films for 50 States and offer inprovements.
For Tennessee I would have preferred Walking Tall (1973) but they got Alabama right.
Pretty good list all things considered.
Is there a criteria or did they just pick the first movie they could think of? I’m not being snarky, I’m just curious how they came up with the list. I mean, is there something about these movies that is really important to the state? Glancing through the list, many of the movies could have taken place anywhere. Fight Club, I thought it was in New York, no reason it couldn’t have been. The Shinning, I knew was in CO, but no reason it couldn’t have been in, say MO. But, I’d say that’s a good one, snowy mountains, hidden away, police on ATVs…
Anyways, they used Lars and The Real Girl for Wisconsin. Never seen it, apparently it’s about a sex doll.
I’d nominate A League Of Their Own. It’s a Fourth Of July list and the movie is about baseball (a pretty American sport if you ask me). It’s also based on a true story that actually did take place in Racine, WI.
I have to think that they were in a hurry putting together the list, because I agree with Joey P’s comments.
For my home state, New Jersey, they chose Atlantic City:
Well, it’s an impressive film, but it encapsulates one very transitory moment in the history of one town, where the OLD A.C. was dying, the hotels being dynamited and replaced by the NEW A.C. of casinos.If they were looking for something a bit more representative they might have looked at some Kevin Smith films or something.
I have no problem with Outsiders for Oklahoma. A lot better than the film I saw listed in a different group. I had never heard of it. It was relatively recent and I can’t remember what it was.
AS someone who lived in rural Mississippi for a few years (and hated every minute of it), Mississippi Burning should have been its representative.
Usual story with New York. Everyone forgets there’s an entire state attached to New York City.
I can’t disagree with Hoosiers for Indiana.
Anything other than “Nashville” for Tennessee.
I thought of that too (and the same for Illinois with the very Chicago-centric The Blues Brothers), but can you think of something more representative of the entire state? Or how 'bout something set on Long Island?
Here’s the full list:
ALABAMA - To Kill a Mockingbird
ALASKA - Insomnia
ARIZONA - Raising Arizona
ARKANSAS - Sling Blade
CALIFORNIA - American Graffiti
COLORADO - The Shining
CONNECTICUT - Far From Heaven
DELAWARE - Fight Club
FLORIDA - Magic Mike
GEORGIA - Gone With the Wind
HAWAII - From Here to Eternity
IDAHO - Napoleon Dynamite
ILLINOIS - The Blues Brothers
INDIANA - Hoosiers
IOWA - Field of Dreams
KANSAS - Winchester '73
KENTUCKY - Coal Miner’s Daughter
LOUISIANA - Interview With the Vampire
MAINE - The Shawshank Redemption
MARYLAND - Diner
MASSACHUSETTS - The Town
MICHIGAN - Gran Torino
MINNESOTA - Purple Rain
MISSISSIPPI - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
MISSOURI - Waiting for Guffman
MONTANA - A River Runs Through It
NEBRASKA - Election
NEVADA - Ocean’s Eleven
NEW HAMPSHIRE - What About Bob
NEW JERSEY - Atlantic City
NEW MEXICO - High Noon
NEW YORK - Manhattan
NORTH CAROLINA - Bull Durham
NORTH DAKOTA - Fargo
OHIO - Heathers
OKLAHOMA - The Outsiders
OREGON - One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
PENNSYLVANIA - Groundhog Day
RHODE ISLAND - Me, Myself, and Irene
SOUTH CAROLINA - Glory
SOUTH DAKOTA - North by Northwest
TENNESSEE - Nashville
TEXAS - Giant
UTAH - 127 Hours
VERMONT - Dead Poets Society
VIRGINIA - Donnie Darko
WASHINGTON - Singles
WEST VIRGINIA - We Are Marshall
WISCONSIN - Lars and the Real Girl
WYOMING - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Giant isn’t a bad choice for Texas, but is it really more Texan than The Alamo?
I grew up or lived as an adult in several states.
Texas: Giant
I was born in the swamps of SE Gulf Coast Texas. Texas is really five (or so) different places. Gulf Coast, East (Piney Woods), Hill Country, West, and Panhandle. Don’t forget the large cities like Houston and Dallas. And all the Hispanic influence.
Giant only captures a small part of what I think the state WAS. I still remember the big news story one day in 1986, that people now outnumbered heads of cattle in the state. I bought a steak.
My California experience was nothing like American Graffiti. Hey, I was in elementary school. I remember listening to Wolfman Jack, tho!
Colorado - The Shining. Yep. Exactly like that. At least, at the Stanley. 
Oklahoma- The Outsiders. Again, yep. That was my cousin’s life late 70s, early 80s. I didn’t move here until recently. He ended up committing suicide. Lots of anxiety, due in part (I think) because of the rampant hypocrisy in this state. Home of the Heartland? Bunch of self important asses, actually. With exceptions, of course.
What iconic upstate movie would you have chosen? I wouldn’t have chosen Manhattan, but I would have chosen The Warriors…
Dead Poet’s Society is not representative of Vermont, IMO.
The Trouble with Harry might be a good one for Vermont. Or
North by Northwest instead of Terrence Malik’s Badlands.
What About Bob instead of Our Town
Field of Dreams instead of anything by William Inge.
Giant by Edna Ferber instead of something by Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Horton Foote.
Etc., etc.
Oh yeah, lived in New Mexico recently.
High Noon? Maybe 100 years ago. Current, try finding a movie that’s more like Breaking Bad.
Pretty place, weird people, LOTS of meth users. At least, where I was…
I’m OK with most of the picks but a few seemed rather arbitrary. Here are a few suggested replacements, that I feel better capture something about the people and the landscape of the state in question:
Indiana: Breaking Away
Massachusetts: The Friends of Eddie Coyle
New York: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Walter Matthau version, not the remake)
South Dakota: Badlands; North by Northwest is one of my favorite films, but aside from the Mt. Rushmore backdrop it has nothing to do with SD.
Pennsylvania: Slap Shot (Although Groundhog Day is equally worthy)
My biggest disappointments are the SEC states of Louisiana and Missouri. I loved Waiting for Guffman as a movie but there have to be better ones for the state. I haven’t seen their Florida pick but there have to be better ones there, too. The best of the SEC states’ movies has to be Sling Blade and Billy Bob could represent the whole Southeast as far as I’m concerned.
Bruce Almighty?
For upstate New York, there’s Canadian Bacon, which is mostly set in Niagara County, NY, with the rest in Ontario.
I got no beef with their pick for West Virginia… exactly what I would have picked…