Seen on the Small Screen in Nebraska

Whenever possible in these state films posts, I write about films that are both set and filmed in the state we’re visiting. In some states there aren’t enough such films to write about.

A number of films supposedly set in Nebraska aren’t filmed there (such as Heaven is for Real, which was filmed in Canada). But chiefly due to the efforts of one filmmaker, Alexander Payne, Nebraska has plenty of films for our purposes. Payne is an Omaha native who’s been nominated for Oscars for directing; and he’s won two Oscars for screenwriting. Over half of his feature films are set in Nebraska.

One of the screenplays that wasn’t Oscar nominated, but did win the Golden Globe for screenwriting, was About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson starred as Warren Schmidt in this droll 2002 comedy about an insurance executive who retires and begins to search for meaning in his life. It is a road film in a Winnebago. All the Nebraska locations were filmed in Nebraska -- even some of the Kansas and Colorado scenes were filmed in Nebraska. The film includes a sequence in the Great Platte River Road Monument, a popular state tourist attraction. And even the insurance office where the fictional Schmidt, Woodmen of the World, is an actual company headquartered in Omaha.

About Schmidt has a number of elements that fit well in Movie Churches. There is a funeral in a Lutheran Church. The minister tries to provide good counseling, assuring Schmidt that he can be angry at God. There’s also a wedding in a church, complete with Noel Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song.” But the most unique spiritual element in the film is Schmidt’s decision to sponsor an African child. The program in the film is Child Relief, but it seems to be modeled after Plan International. There are a number of such programs, like GlobalFingerprints (which we recently wrote about).

You may be surprised to learn that Payne’s film, Nebraska (which was nominated for 2013’s Best Picture Oscar) was set and filmed in Nebraska. It tells the story of another old man who made a trip. Bruce Dern (nominated for the Best Actor Oscar) plays the man who makes the journey from Montana to Nebraska in an attempt to collect sweepstakes winnings. June Squibb, the same actress who played Schmidt’s wife in About Schmidt, plays Dern’s wife in Nebraska.

Payne set and filmed two other features in Nebraska, both political satires. Payne’s first feature film, 1996’s Citizen Ruth, starred Laura Dern as a pregnant woman who finds herself in the middle of a fight between pro-life and pro-choice forces. 1999’s Election starred Matthew Broderick as a high school teacher who rigs a student council election to the detriment of a too perfect honor student (Reese Witherspoon’s star making performance.)

Besides Payne, other filmmakers have set and filmed features in Nebraska to some acclaim. Terms of Endearment, the 1983 winner of the Best Picture Oscar, makes great use of locations in Lincoln (including the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.) James Brooks also won Oscars for his writing and direction of the film, and Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson also won acting Oscars.

2009’s Up in the Air was nominated for a number of Oscars, including Best Picture, direction (Jason Reitman), writing (Reitman), and acting Oscars (for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick) though it didn’t have a win. But scenes were filmed in Omaha.

1991’s The Indian Runner didn’t earn any Oscar nominations, but it did earn critical acclaim for the film’s writer and director, actor Sean Penn. The story of two brothers who love each other but can’t get along was filmed in Omaha and Plattsmouth.

Finally, one more Oscar winner, 1938’s Boys Town. Spencer Tracy won an Academy Award for playing Father Flanagan, the priest who founded a home for at risk boys. Filmed at Boys Town (and in the MGM studios), the film brought international attention and support to Flanagan’s work. (A sequel, 1941’s Men of Boys Town, was not a success.)

Kauai, Hawaii, Films on the Small Screen

Last week I feigned bafflement about why films which were set in Alaska were often filmed elsewhere. But really, I get it. The logistical challenges of filming so far from Hollywood, in often inclement weather, where the sun rarely shines, pose problems that are difficult to overcome.

Hawaii, on the other hand, is a place that’s been popular for location shooting for a long time. Sure, it’s pretty far from Hollywood, and at times it must be a challenge to transport equipment to shooting sites. But I’m sure it’s easier to talk talent and technicians into spending months of their lives near beaches rather than tundras, so there are many Hawaii-made films to choose from.

I decided to narrow things down to the island we went to, Kauai (thus ruling out all the World War II films set at Pearl Harbor. Sorry, Michael Bay.). Even by selecting films made on this one island, I had to eliminate many films. It’s a popular place.

Nonetheless, I’m going to start with a movie that wasn’t filmed on Kauai. In a sense, it wasn’t filmed anywhere.  Lilo and Stitch (2002) was part of the new wave of Disney animation that continues to this day. The film, about lonely little girl who befriends a mutant creation from outer space, is set on the island of Kauai and uses many local landmarks, such as the Kilauea Lighthouse. Stitch, the mutant alien, manages to make chaos cute. Lilo is his equal, reminding audiences both how horrible and wonderful little girls can be. There is no church in the film, but the theme of community (which we’ve returned to again and again in our posts about churches and bars) is represented here in the idea of ‘ohana, family, where “no one is left behind. Or forgotten.”

If you’re a fan of a certain Jimmy Cagney gangster film, you might be surprised to see White Heat mentioned here. But I’m writing about the 1934 melodrama about love between whites and natives on a Hawaiian sugar plantation. I haven’t seen the film, but it looks like it would not have been made after the Hayes Code of censorship were enacted.

"Bali Hai" - Kauai North Coast

I have seen South Pacific,  the 1958 film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hit Broadway musical about star-crossed U.S. Navy personnel and South Sea Islanders during World War II. Though not set on Kauai, the island was used for location filming and signaled to Hollywood the possibilities for location shooting on what was about to become the 50th state.

Elvis Presley actually filmed two musicals on Kauai, 1961’s Blue Hawaii and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style, but the first film is much more remembered and beloved. The Coco Palms Resort Hotel in Kapa’a used for Blue Hawaii was the height of elegance at the time, but is now closed awaiting destruction. And yes, that is Murder She Wrote’s Angela Lansbury co-starring in the film.

The worst of the three major films made about the famous giant ape, 1976’s King Kong, used Kauai for the location of Skull Island. (The 2005 version used New Zealand for Skull Island and the best version from 1933 used a miniature model in Culver City.) While the first version of the film used stop-action models to bring the Beast to life, and the more recent version used CGI, in 1976, Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange were terrified by a man in a gorilla suit.

There are a number of films that compete in my head for greatest film of all time, but one that’s perhaps the most fun is 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. And the awesome opening sequence that introduced the world to Indiana Jones in a booby trapped temple in “Peru” was actually filmed on Kauai.

Jurassic Park, unlike Peru, is not a real place. But in 1993, Raiders director Steven Spielberg returned to Kauai to create a world where prehistoric dinosaurs came back to life. One can look out on the lush greenery of the island and imagine it all coming true, even though you are little more likely to see chickens than dinos.

In Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy, Tropic Thunder, Kauai is (again) not allowed to play itself but instead is playing the role of “the Golden Triangle” playing the role of Vietnam. Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black play spoiled Hollywood actors who must find a way to survive when they are abandoned in the jungle without their massages and cappuccinos. The actual film (as opposed to the film within the film) is said to have been the largest production in the island’s history.

Kauai is allowed to play itself in 2011’s Soul Surfer, which was featured previously here at Movie Churches.

George Clooney drank here in The Descendants 

Kauai is also allowed to play itself in 2011’s The Descendants, a dramatic comedy or comedic drama from writer/director Alexander Payne. George Clooney plays a realtor attempting to connect with his daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident. Many Kauai locations and locals are featured prominently in the film.

Our visit to Kauai made us understand very clearly why Hollywood continues to film on this beautiful island.