Films of the fifty states: Colorado to Georgia

June 18, 1:27 PMNashville Movie ExaminerKaty Coil

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No matter where you want to go this summer, you can have a cheap two hour vacation to the state of your choice by watching a film set in that state. Today, we will venture from the Rocky Mountain peaks of Colorado to the bays of Connecticut and Delaware, to sunny Florida, and to historic Georgia.

Colorado

King's classic horror film: The Shining

Famed horror writer Stephen King set his novel in a hotel, based on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where the story is set. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance and Shelley Duvall as his wife Wendy. The couples' son Danny (Danny Lloyd) begins to experience the paranormal in the old hotel they are staying in and Jack starts to experience paranoia as a result of the hotel's ghosts and activity, leading him on a binge to destroy the family.

The 1971 film Vanishing Point starring Barry Newman is about a race to get a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco in less than 15 hours. Woody Allen's futuristic comedy about a nerd trying to outwit an oppressive government, Sleeper, was largely filmed in various parts of Colorado.

Connecticut

Set in Connecticut, the 1994 film PCU stars Jeremy Piven in a tale of high school seniors who visit an extremely politically correct university and drum up tons of trouble. Julia Roberts and Annabeth Gish are the stars of another Connecticut set film, Mystic Pizza, about two teen girls coming of age while working together in a pizza parlor. The creepy robot wives from Stepford Wives in both the recent and original films made their homes in Connecticut. Bette Davis steals scenes in the Connecticut set All About Eve and Barbara Stanwyck lights up the screen in the 1945 holiday classic Christmas in Connecticut.

Delaware

In addition to being the previous residence of Vice President Joe Biden, Wilmington, Delaware is the location for the cult classic Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Starring  Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter, the film is widely popular and analyzed in a variety of film critics. As a personal side, if you have no exposure to the book or movie, watch the movie before you read the book. Though not a critical or consumer hit, the film Trigger Man, a thriller about three men from Manhattan who become the hunted while on a hunting trip. Unfortunately, Most Dangerous Game-esque plot didn't sit well with audiences.

Bogart and Bacall in Key Largo

Florida

Like Calfornia, the film industry would have you believe that Florida is a virtual tropical paradise. However, a lot more in film goes down in this state than retirees playing shuffleboard and Spring Breakers going wild.  Ace Ventura: Pet Detective has funnyman Jim Carrey playing a detective looking for the stolen Miami Dolphins' mascot, though in reality there is no actual dolphin mascot. With an all-star cast, Big Trouble is a massive comedy where the lives of dozens of kooky Miami citizens intersect in a Seinfeldian manor. Also set in Miami is The Birdcage, a story of a gay couple (played by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) trying to pose as a straight couple so their son (Dan Futterman) can win the good favor of his fiancee's father, a staunchly Republican senator (Gene Hackman).

The film Wild Things is a mystery thriller in which the audience has to figure out if a high school guidance counselor is guilty of molesting two students or if the students were conspirators behind a plot to bring him down. Even Humphrey Bogart made a trip to Florida, playing a man trying to save his friend's hotel from being overrun by mobsters in the midst of a fierce hurricane. The film also has the talents of Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, and Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall, who help facilitate the nature-escalated drama.

Promo material for Driving Miss Daisy

A little to the north, the state of Georgia also has a long history in film. As any good Southern girl knows, the 1939 Civil War epic Gone with the Wind was set in Georgia, though largely filmed in California. Also based on a book, this one by John Berendt, is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the based-on-a-true-story about a crime reporter (Kevin Spacey) who visits Savannah, Georgia, befriends a millionaire (John Cusack), and suddenly gets caught up in investigating the many twists and turns of a murder case involving said millionaire. Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film also features Kim Hunter, Jude Law, and director's daughter Alison Eastwood.

Starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, and Dan Aykroyd, the film Driving Miss Daisy is a tale of pride and prejudice taken from a Pulitzer prize winning play. Miss Daisy (Tandy) is an elderly Jewish woman living in Georgia who is somewhat of a burden to her son Boolie (Aykroyd). To make sure his mother is taken care of, Boolie hires Hoke (Freeman) an African-American driver to escort his mother. Though they don't get along at first, the pair come to a mutual understanding and respect of one another. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989.

So, no matter where you live or want to visit, there's definitely a way to find it in film.