Last year I saw commercial on British TV encouraging people to visit America. It used the titles of movies that feature the names of places in America, this got me thinking that lots of movies seem to be set in the same few places, I decided to compile a list of fifty movies, one to represent each of the fifty states. Some I was spoiled for choice, others I was struggling to find anything to choose.
There is no real criteria for picking the movies, some are important in movie history, others make particularly good use of the location, some are just movies I love, a couple make the list because they are the only movie I have seen set in the state.
Alabama – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (1991) When I fist saw this movie I was eighteen, reading the synopsis I expected it to be predictable and sentimental crap, I actually loved it.
Alaska – 30 Days of Night (2007) Not only is this movie set (but not filmed) in Alaska but it is integral to the plot. As the sun goes down not to be seen for a month a group of bloodthirsty vampires hit town. Watch in a double feature with the American remake of Insomnia (2002).
Arizona – My Darling Clementine (1946) John Ford put Monument Valley on map by using it as a backdrop to many of his movies. Whilst a lot of the movies were not set in Arizona My Darling Clementine certainly was, far from the most historically accurate telling of Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and the Shoot-out at the OK Corral, it is still a great movie.
Arkansas – Sling Blade (1996) Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed and starred in this movie. He shot to fame after winning an Oscar for this screenplay and being nominated as an actor.
California – Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) How do you choose a movie to represent California, a huge and varying state that amongst other things is the home the worlds movie industry. I could have picked one of my favourites but how do you choose between Chinatown, American Graffiti and Pulp Fiction? I could have picked a movie about Hollywood and the film industry, and that is kind of what I did. Set in a surreal world near Hollywood called Toontown where cartoon characters or “Toons” live and interact with real people Who Framed Roger Rabbit is in some ways the ultimate Hollywood story.
Colorado – Red Dawn (1984) who would have thought that the antagonists of World War III would be repelled by the brat pack using guerrilla warfare. Based on an concept by Kevin Reynolds, he decided to make Fandango instead so John Milius took up the rains. A remake is on the way.
Connecticut – The Stepford Wives (1975) I don’t really know anything about Connecticut, if anyone asked me where it was I would point vaguely in the direction of New England but I will always associate the state with the movie The Stepford Wives. Not a good advert for tourism to the state!
Delaware – Grunt! The Wrestling Movie (1985) and Trigger Man (2007) Slim pickings from Delaware, these are the only movies I can find that are set there and I hadn’t heard of either.
Florida – Some Like it Hot (1959) Two male musicians flee the Chicago mob as part of an all female band. They end up in the millionaires playground of Florida, none of it was shot in Florida, they didn’t actually leave California, none of this matters, it is still my all-time favourite movie.
Georgia – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) Convention dictates that I should have picked Gone with the Wind but for someone from England who has never to Georgia I thought I would go for this true story from the ultimate southern city Savannah.
Hawaii – From Here to Eternity (1953) The story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base during the second world war. For those that haven’t seen it, it is as good as Pearl Harbor (2001) is bad. (it does beg the question why don’t Americans know how to spell Harbour?) Frank Sinatra won a Oscar for best supporting actor. Whilst never confirmed, it has been speculated that Johnny Fontane from The Godfather was based on Sinatra and this was the part he was so desperate to get.
Idaho – Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Chosen for the simple reason I think it’s the only movie set in Idaho that I have seen, that’s right I have never seen My Own Private Idaho (1991).
Illinois – The Blues Brothers (1980) “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses” Forget Al Capone, if you say Chicago the first thing I think of is ‘Joliet’ Jake & Elwood Blues.
Indiana – A History of Violence (2005) The small-town Midwest setting is completely seminal to the plot of this movie and what a movie it is. Proof that comic books and the movies based on them are not just about supper heroes.
Iowa – The Crazies (2010) a bit of a random reason for picking this movie to represent Iowa. When I reviewed it a couple of months ago fellow blogger Tara left the following comment: “Reason 23 I will not move back to Iowa” it made me smile! 
Kansas – The Wizard of Oz (1939) So the vast majority of the movie isn’t set in Kansas, it was still the only real choice!
Kentucky – Goldfinger (1964) one of the best Bond movies is full of classic scenes not least Auric Goldfinger’s plan to detonate a nuclear bomb inside the Fort Knox gold depository.
Louisiana – King Creole (1958) “There’s a man in New Orleans, Who plays rock and roll, He’s a guitar man, With a great big soul, He lays down a beat, Like a ton of coal, He goes by the name of King Creole” Elvis made some really crappy movies, but he also made a couple of great ones, this is one of the great ones. Originally intended as a non-musical vehicle for James Dean. Directed by Michael Curtiz and also featuring a great performance from Walter Matthau.
Maine – The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Set in Maine like a lot of Steven Kings work. This movie has had an interesting history, it disappeared without a trace at the box-office before becoming a hit on video. The movie sits comfortably at the top of IMDb Top 250 but has had a backlash (particularly from movie bloggers) in recent years by people who don’t think it deserves so much acclaim. Personally I think it’s a great movie but far from the best ever made.
Maryland – The Blair Witch Project (1999) – Set in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland The Blair Witch Project was presented as a documentary that was shot on a mixture of 16mm film and Hi-8 video. It has had a huge influence on other filmmakers it was also the first widely released film marketed primarily on the Internet.
Massachusetts – Gone Baby Gone (2007) There are so many movies to choose from set in Massachusetts, the reason I went for this one is that it is a great film that failed to find the audience numbers it really deserved. With a delayed and low key release here in the UK I don’t know many people who have seen it. An impressive directorial début from Ben Affleck and a great performance from his brother Casey.
Michigan – Roger & Me (1989) the only documentary on the list was the first time I had seen Michael Moore, it remains one of his most powerful movies. The movie explores the economic impact of the closure of General Motors auto plants in Flint, Michigan. The title refers to the General Motors CEO Roger Smith who Moore spends a lot of the movie attempting unsuccessfully to confront.
Minnesota – Jennifer’s Body (2009) Also set in Minnesota, Juno is a better movie but Jennifer’s Body is a hugely underrated movie that doesn’t deserve to pummelled in the backlash against star Megan Fox and writer Diablo Cody . 
Mississippi – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) This movie, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams oozes Mississippi and the south as much as it oozes sex and sexuality. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives are all perfectly cast and give outstanding performances.
Missouri – Ride with the Devil (1999) is an American Civil War movie that tells the story of Missouri irregulars known as “bushwhackers”. It has been accused of being historically inaccurate but what war movie hasn’t! It suffered a criminally small release in the UK and America but it remains for me Ang Lee’s best western.
Montana – Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) The movie started life as a script by Michael Cimino, Clint Eastwood read it and was keen to direct himself but decided to give it back to Cimino (who had previously written the second Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force (1973)) to direct it. This was his first movie as a director, he went on to win Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for The Deer Hunter, a movie he may not have been able to make if Eastwood hadn’t given him his big break.
Nebraska – The Indian Runner (1991) “My name’s Joe Roberts I work for the state, I’m a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8, I always done an honest job as honest as I could, I got a brother named Frankie, and Frankie ain’t no good” Sean Penn directorial debut The Indian Runner is based on the Bruce Springsteen song Highway Patrolman from his seminal 1982 album Nebraska.
Nevada – Casino (1995) For me Nevada equals Vegas and Vegas equals Casino.
New Hampshire – Lolita (1962) Stanley Kubrick’s controversial film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel. Due to censorship of the day Kubrick was forced to leave a lot of the more erotic elements of the story to the viewers imagination, this helps create a surreal dreamlike movie.
New Jersey – Garden State (2004) New Jersey is the Garden State, how could I pick anything but Garden State! A fantastic quirky little movie that more people should see.
New Mexico – Young Guns (1988) It has been suggested that Henry McCarty aka Henry Antrim or William H. Bonney was born in New York City but thanks to the movies he will always be remembered as Billy the Kid and for his part in the Lincoln County War. Watch in a quadruple bill with: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), The Left Handed Gun (1958) and The Outlaw (1943).
New York – The Gangs of New York (2002) “America Was Born In The Streets” according to the tagline to this movie. It isn’t the best movie set in New York, it isn’t even Martin Scorsese best movie set in New York but it does tell of a piece of history I have not seen another filmmaker tackle.
North Carolina – The Descent (2005) okay so it was shot entirely in the UK but the movie is set in the Appalachian Mountains and is by far my favourite horror movie of the last ten years.
North Dakota – Fargo (1996) This very dark comedy is a prime example of everything that is great about the Coen brothers.
Ohio – Heathers (1989) To explain why this movie is so great, I hand you over to someone far more eloquent than me. Meredith from M. Carter at the Movies. “Back in the 1980s, there was a clown car-esque release of movies about teens — their dweeby friends, their terminally unhip parents, their Saturday detentions, their proms and (most important) their neverending quest for carnal treasure. Then came Michael Lehmann’s vicious “Heathers” in 1988, which hammered a croquet mallet on the clichés and the squishy afterschool love-ins that came before. The film leveled an unblinking eye at the quick-n-dirty politics of high school as well as the obliviousness of the adults in charge and, in the process, became the standard not just for dark comedies but for all future teen comedies, too”. Taken from Groovers & Mobsters Present: Dark Comedy
Oklahoma – The Outsiders & Rumble Fish (both 1983) A double bill of Francis Ford Coppola’s underrated movies shot and set in Tulsa. Coppola wrote Rumble Fish while shooting The Outsiders and used the same production team.
Oregon – Stand by Me (1986) The narrator explains at the start of the movie that although there were only 1281 people in Castle Rock, the town he grew up in it was the whole world to him. This is probably true of everyone and the community they grew up in. As the world changes with mass media and the world wide web, will filmmakers be able to make movies like this in the future or are we as audiences becoming too cynical to appreciate them.
Pennsylvania – Night of the Living Dead (1968) I’m not sure how important the location is but this movie is seminal in in the history of movies as it reinvented the zombie movie.
Rhode Island – The Witches of Eastwick (1987) it isn’t always easy to blend comedy and horror, in this film the reason it works is that blends an older more innocent gothic horror and screwball comedy, it may look dated in comparison to movies like Scream but it is great fun and the excellent cast of Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer make the most of it.
South Carolina – The Patriot (2000) A fictional film loosely based on real life events against the backdrop of the American War of Independence. The film was shot entirely on location in South Carolina where the majority of it is set.
South Dakota – North by Northwest (1959) Starting on Madison Avenue New York only the ending of Hitchcock’s masterpiece is set in South Dakota, but who could forget the Mount Rushmore set ending! A movie that is often imitated but fifty years on has never been improved on.
Tennessee – The Evil Dead (1981) you would expect me to go for a music related movie set in Nashville or Memphis but I couldn’t resist The Evil Dead, a truly seminal 80’s horror and a hugely important and influential movie.
Texas – Fandango (1985) There are many movies I could have picked for Texas but I had to go for the one that made me fly all the way to Texas. Shot on location in West Texas including the remains of the Giant (1955) set in Marfa.
Utah – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Only a small part of the movie is set in Utah but what a scene with River Phoenix showing us his origin with a couple of great in jokes.
Vermont – Dead Poets Society (1989) Set in a fictional Vermont boys prep school it tells the surprisingly good story of how an English teacher inspires his students to change their lives through his teaching of poetry and literature.
Virginia – The New World (2005) Terrence Malick’s underrated telling of the Jamestown Expedition of 1607 and the story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. This period of history is as much about the birth of the nation as civil war and war of independence movies are.
Washington – First Blood (1982) The biggest movie to be set in Washington of recent years tells the story of a glittery high school vampire, but twenty-five years before that we had a watershed moment when John Rambo walked into Hope, Washington. The impact it had on action movies can still be seen today and Rambo now appears in many dictionaries as a noun to describe tough or violent people.
West Virginia – The Night of the Hunter (1955) – This hugely influential movie wasn’t well received on initial release. Aesthetically stunning and with one of cinemas most memorable villains, once seen it’s a film you won’t forget.
Wisconsin – The Straight Story (1999) the true story of Alvin Straight’s journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower seems like a strange choice for director by David Lynch better known as an expert mindfucker and that’s because it is! It is also up there with his best movies. Despite the strange form of transport this is every inch an existential road movie that centres on the impact Alvin has on the lives of the people he meets along the way as well as the effect they have on him.
Wyoming – Unforgiven (1992) After making his name in westerns Clint Eastwood’s swansong to the genre is a fitting one and is probably the last great western that deserves its place alongside the work of John Ford, Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah.
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