I’m from southwestern Wisconsin. Nothing much happens here and it’s not glamorous enough or rural enough to attract, oh, anything. There’s really no reason to film anything in Wisconsin unless it’s set in Wisconsin. That said, I can think of a couple movies that were filmed close enough to where I live that I can claim it as home.
The Straight Story is the story of a man from Iowa who drove his lawnmower from Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wisconsin. Filmed entirely on location. It was too weird to watch it and be able to say, “Hey, that’s that stupid little road Dad got us lost on two summers ago!”
Red Betsy is set in and around Boscobel, but was filmed on the other side of the state: Delafield/Milwaukee. This sentence in the user comment at IMDB made me laugh: “The music was excellent and captured the sparse living in the hinterlands of Wisconsin.” Sorry, sweetheart, neither Boscobel nor Delafield are the hinterlands. You’d have to head quite a ways north to find those.
I Love Trouble was filmed in Madison and Baraboo.
Back to School, y’know, that Rodney Dangerfield movie, was filmed at UW-Madison. The Prince and Me should have taken their lead and actually filmed there, instead of Toronto. Sorry, but Toronto looks nothing like Madison.
This one has dropped off the face of the earth and is really bad to boot. The only reason I know about it is because my dad told me about it. Take This Job and Shove It was filmed partially in Dickeyville. Dickeyville! The only other thing that town has going for it is the grotto. And [del]that’s tacky[/del] sometimes makes you question its taste.
Last but not least, F.I.S.T. was filmed in Dubuque, Iowa, and . . . Dodgeville, Wisconsin! That’s the closest one yet, folks.