We've been there!

Visiting film locations

There’s something marvelous about visiting the location where a favorite movie was filmed. When we watch a movie, we know it’s all make-believe, but visiting a location… Well, we feel like it might be just a bit real.

Over the seven years of writing Movie Churches, I've had opportunities to visit some favorite film locations. This list includes some from the Movie Churches blog and some not, but they're all places I recommend visiting.

5) Psycho - Universal Studios, Los Angeles, CA - Bates Motel and house

Frankly, this one seems like a bit of a cheat. After all, it's at a movie studio rather than a “real” place, but this is genuinely where Alfred Hitchcock filmed his classic -- and it is a little spooky being there.

4) The Graduate - La Verne United Methodist Church, La Verne, CA - Elaine’s wedding church

This was a location that we did visit for Movie Churches (and our church blog - Dean and Mindy Go to Church.) But I liked this film long before I wrote about it. The scene where Ben (Dustin Hoffman) interrupts the wedding of the girl he loves is iconic. Bizarrely, this has made the church where this scene was filmed popular as a wedding site.

3) Rocky III - Philadelphia, PA - The Rocky Statue

It is rather a meta-event that Philadelphia (in the movie) gave a statue to honor the boxer, and the film company gave the statue to the city to honor the actor Sylvester Stallone and the movie. In the film, the statue is at the top of the outside stair that leads to the Philadelphia Museum of Art but now the statue is at the bottom of the steps. (I have also run up the steps, as Rocky does in the films, but probably not as fast.)

2) High Noon - Saint Joseph’s, Tuolumne City, CA - church for town meeting

This is another location we visited for our blogs. The location of the church is very different from that in the film. It’s in the mountains, it was snowy the day we visited, whereas in the film the church seems located in a town in a flat, arid location in the Western frontier. It was cool to be where one of the greatest Westerns was filmed.

I)  Die Hard - Fox Plaza, Los Angeles, CA - Nakatomi Plaza

Though we never wrote about this film for our blog, it was fun to be in the location where one of the Christmas movies our family views every year was filmed. We took off our shoes because… Well, not because it is a sacred place exactly, but because… If you’ve seen the film, you know why.

Don't Nod Off Before the End of Crime Month: Sleepers

Sleepers (1996)

Throughout my life -- and probably through the centuries -- an ethical argument has moved around Christian circles: is it ever morally excusable to lie? Jesus said, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no,’” but aren’t there times when the right thing to do is tell a fib? 

In these discussions, the name Rahab usually comes up. She was the prostitute who hid the Israelite spies in Jericho and lied when she was asked if she knew about their whereabouts. 

Someone else brings up the Holocaust and says undoubtedly it would be fine to lie to Nazis about hiding Jews. And then someone will tell a story from The Hiding Place about Corrie ten Boom's family, who believed God had called them to hide Jews from the Nazis. With people hidden beneath a trapdoor under the kitchen table, one member of the family, when asked, said that yes, people were hidden under the table. Feeling foolish because they'd lifted the tablecloth to look under the table, the Nazis left without noticing the trapdoor under the rug. Whoever tells that story will remind the listeners that God will protect His people as they tell the truth. 

Note: insert a smooth transition to this week’s Crime Movie, Sleepers here.

Written and directed by Barry Levinson, Sleepers is a very handy film for playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." The film stars not only Bacon as an abusive guard in a boys' reform school, but also features quite a number of other stars: Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver, Bruno Kirby, Ron Eldard, and others. Most important (especially for our purposes here), Robert De Niro plays a priest, Robert “Bobby” Carrillo.

The film tells the story of four childhood friends living in Hell’s Kitchen in the 1960s: Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John (Geoffrey Wigdor), and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker). All four are altar boys and also trouble makers. They have families that care for them -- with various levels of care. All four are cared for by their parish priest, Father Bobby. Shakes describes the priest in this way:

“Father Robert Carrillo was a longshoreman's son who was as comfortable sitting on a bar stool in a back alley saloon as he was standing at the altar during High Mass. He had toyed with a life of petty crime before finding his calling. He was a friend. A friend who just happened to be a priest.” Father Bobby plays basketball with the boys, but also calls them out when they start hanging out with neighborhood thugs.

One of the boys is beaten up by his mother’s boyfriend. After visiting the boy in the hospital, Father Bobby goes to see the boyfriend. He says to him, “You’re a big guy; how much do you weigh? How much do you think John weighs? Next time you will be fighting me. You won’t need a doctor, you’ll need a priest. See you in church.” 

Not exactly a meek and mild approach, but rather like a shepherd protecting a lamb from a wolf.

But one day the boys play a practical joke that goes awry, accidentally injuring an innocent bystander. They are sent to reform school. Before they leave, Father Bobby promises Shakes he’ll stay in touch. Shakes asks the priest to only send good news, even if bad things happen. “You asking me to lie?” the priest asks. Shakes tells him, sure. And the priest tells him he can’t do that.

At the reform school, the boys are verbally, physically, and sexually abused by the guards, particularly a guard named Nokes (Bacon).

Father Bobby visits Shakes at the reform school. Shakes, in a voiceover, says, “I loved Father Bobby, but I hated looking at him.” At this point, we've already seen Nokes sexually assault Shakes and mock him for his Mother Mary medallion. When Nokes rapes Shakes, he forces the boy to cry out to God, getting a perverse amusement out of mocking the boy’s faith.

Shakes says to Father Bobby, “You shouldn’t come here, I appreciate it and all, but it’s not the right thing to do.”

Father Bobby explains it was on his way, “I stopped off in Attica to see an old friend of mine.”

“You have friends in Attica?” Shakes asks.

“Not as many as I’d like,” Father Bobby tells him, “He’s a murderer. Best friend. We hung out together, like you and the guys. We were both sent up here. This place killed him. Made him. Made him not care anymore. Don’t let this place do that to you, Shakes.” The priest hugs the boy before he leaves, and Shakes says he never felt closer to another human being.

Shakes is released after a year, but the other boys serve another year after him. They grow apart over the years. Shakes (Patric) becomes a newspaper reporter and Michael (Pitt) becomes a lawyer working for the district attorney’s office. But Tommy (Crudup) and John (Eldard) become career criminals.

Years later, Tommy and John happen to meet their old guard, Nokes in a bar. They talk to him until Nokes realizes who they are. They then shoot him dead in the dark back room of the bar.

Tommy and John are arrested, and Michael insists on taking the case. Michael discloses to Shakes he took the case just to get his friends acquitted. He has a plan to make this happen, but a key part of his plan is bringing in Father Bobby to commit perjury and say he was with Tommy and John when the murder was committed.

This brings us back to the beginning of this post and the question, “Is it ever right to lie?” I won’t do any spoilers here about what Father Bobby does in the courtroom. I’ll just say that through most of the film, I thought I’d give the priest a Movie Churches rating of Four Steeples, but in the end, I’m just giving him Three Steeples.

Viewed on the Small Screen in Montana

Little Big Man, (1970)

Let’s get this out of the way. The make-up for Dustin Hoffman as a 120 year old man in 1970’s Little Big Man is pretty awful. But they don’t have to make up the location setting of the Custer’s Last Stand Battlefield, because the filmmakers used the actual setting in Montana.

The film is based on the novel by Thomas Berger, a fanciful retelling of history through the perspective of a man who lived both as an Indian and a white man in the Old West. A boy, Jack Crabb, is rescued from a Pawnee massacre by the Cheyenne, who raise him as their own and rename him Little Big Man. Crabb rejoins white culture and lives as a medicine salesman, a gunfighter, an army follower, and a drunk. But most important for this blog, he lived for a time with a minister and his wife.

Jack is “rescued” from the Indians by the army and given to the Reverend Silas Pendrake and his wife, Louise. The Reverend tells Jack that since he’s lived with heathen that know nothing of God or moral right, he is going to have to beat morals and Christian love into him. Mrs. Pendrake has another approach to training Jack, giving the teenaged boy a bath, personably scrubbing him while singing  “Bringing in the Sheaves” and “Shall We Gather at River.”  

Mrs. Pendrake tries to teach Jack the Gospel, saying, “Jesus is your Savior, you do realize that Jack?” When Jack protests he knows the importance of Jesus and Moses, she explains, “Moses was a Hebrew but Jesus was a Gentile like you and me.” She also tries instruct him on the importance of good morals, “You are good looking, Jack. All the more reason for you to receive complete religious instruction. We all must resist temptation. Purity is its own reward.”  

Jack says, “I didn’t know anything about a thing called sin,” but he learns. He eventually gives in to temptation of young women in town, and when the Reverend catches Jack rolling with a young woman in the hay, the Reverend beats him.

We see the Reverend’s congregation momentarily, singing “Amazing Grace.” Jack is forcefully baptized in the river; along with the traditional “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” Pendrake says the baptism makes Jack “white again.”

But Jack’s “religious period” ends when he goes to town with Mrs. Pendrake and catches her making love with the man who runs the dry good store. (Years later, Jack comes across Mrs. Pendrake using a different name in a whore house.) Toward the end of his life, Jack tells the interviewer that he hasn’t sung a hymn in 104 years.

And may I repeat that Little Big Man was not only set in Montana, but was filmed there (and in California and Canada).

There have been other Westerns set in Montana (such Open Range, perhaps the best Western of the 21st century), but most weren’t actually filmed in Montana. But 1954’s Cattle Queen of Montana did film in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Barbara Stanwyck stars as a woman with the awesome name of Sierra Nevada Jones (but none of the film was shot in Nevada). As great a star as Stanwyck was, she is not the biggest name in the film. The film also stars a future President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

A cattle rustling film set in modern times was 1975’s Rancho Deluxe, starring Jeff Bridges in his twenties. Much of the film was shot in another National Park located partly in Montana, Yellowstone. The rest of the film was shot in the small town of Livingston, Montana, where we stayed a night. Another contemporary Western/heist film was 1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Michael Cimino, which was also filmed totally in Montana (Lewis and Clark National Park, Great Falls, Choteau, Augusta, Fort Benson, and Hobson).

Robert Redford directed and starred in a modern Oater, The Horse Whisperer, about a man with a special affinity with horses. It was filmed in Livingston and other Montana locations, as well as New York and California.

I love most of the films of Steven Spielberg, but there is one film I’ve tried to watch a couple of times and quit both times part way through because of boredom, 1989’s Always. Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws) plays a daredevil pilot who takes one risk too many and must spend much of the film dead. As most of the film is dead. But it did film in Bull Lake and Libby, Montana (and also in Utah and Idaho).

One of my favorite books, one I’ve used quite often as a sermon illustration, is Young Men and Fire, written by Norman Maclean. It is the true story of fire jumpers in Montana. Maclean also wrote a novella, A River Runs Through It, to great acclaim. Robert Redford directed the adaptation of that novel in 1992. The film was one of Brad Pitt’s first starring roles as the rebellious son of a stern minister (Tom Skerritt). I should write up the movie church in that film more fully sometime, but this is enough for today.

South Dakota films on the small screen

In our tour of all the states this year, South Dakota is the 42nd state. The film we’re watching in South Dakota, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest, ranks 40th on the American Film Institute’s list of all time best films. Cary Grant, in the film, is also taking a cross country trip.

He starts in New York City, but when he’s mistaken for another man (a man who doesn’t exist) and accused of murder, he begins a cross country trek. HIs journey ends at Mount Rushmore. Some Mount Rushmore scenes were filmed at Mount Rushmore, and the film’s original title was The Man in Lincoln’s Nose. (The scenes of characters climbing on the President's faces were filmed in a studio. Hitch didn't discourage people from thinking those scenes were filmed on location.)

There’s nothing about churches in the film; the only spiritual element I noticed was when James Mason’s housekeeper says “God bless you!” Both characters are evil, and both try to murder Cary Grant, so I don’t think the blessing comes from a place of theological sincerity.

Another film uses Mount Rushmore as the conclusion of a cross country chase, 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Sorry, Nic Cage, you’re no Cary Grant.

Another contemporary thriller set more fully in South Dakota is 1998’s Mercury Rising, in which Bruce Willis must protect an autistic boy who has secrets the bad guys desire. It was filmed partly in Sturgis, South Dakota.

The majority of films set in South Dakota are Westerns. Last year’s Academy Award winning film, The Revenant (about a wilderness guide left for dead in the Dakotas) was not filmed in South Dakota but in Canada. Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for playing a historical figure, Hugh Glass, in the film. The story had been told on the screen before, in 1971’s Man in the Wilderness -- in which Richard Harris played Glass. But that film was made in Spain.

Many other westerns have been set in South Dakota but not filmed in the state. Little Big Man, in which Dustin Hoffman played the world’s oldest Indian (could that casting happen today?), has scenes in Deadwood, but was filmed in Montana and Canada.  Would it really be easier to film in Montana than on location in Deadwood?

The 1953 western musical Calamity Jane with Doris Day and Howard Keel was (not surprisingly) all filmed in Hollywood studios.

There was one acclaimed western that was set and filmed in South Dakota: 1990’s Dances with Wolves. It won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director (for Kevin Costner, who also starred in the film). While making the film on location, Kevin Costner lodged at times in the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood. We stayed in the Franklin when we were in Deadwood, and slept across the hall from the room dedicated to the star.

There are a couple of other films with contemporary stories that had the feel of a Western. 1973’s critically acclaimed Badlands introduced the world to director Terrence Mallick. Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen played young outlaws from South Dakota, but the film was made in Colorado.

But 1992’s Thunderheart, directed by Michael Apted, was filmed in South Dakota. The story of an FBI agent sent to an Indian reservation to investigate a political murder dealt with the struggles of contemporary Native American life.  Filming took place at the Pine Ridge Reservation (called “Bear Creek Reservation” in the film). Both Badlands National Park and Wounded Knee were also used as filming locations.

The Graduate (1967)

In Movie Churches, I don't usually write about films that use a church just as a setting for a wedding. "The Princess Bride" has a hysterical wedding scene in a chapel performed by a character named in the credits as "The Impressive Clergyman." What people remember from the scene is Peter Cook's speech impediment ("Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam.") But the scene wouldn't change much at all if it took place in a throne room and was performed by a medieval justice of the peace. "Sixteen Candles" has a funny wedding scene with a bride who took too many muscle relaxants. But the scene would work as well in a country club as a church.

But I'm writing about "The Graduate" (even though the only church scene is a wedding) for a couple of reasons. One is that the church scene is iconic, replicated and referenced in other films (see the conclusion of Wayne's World II). The other reason I decided to write about it is because the scene has no spiritual or religious resonance. The film has no overt religious or spiritual themes even though it's about a young man's search for meaning.

The 1967 comedy won Mike Nichols an Oscar for Best Director and has rated high on the American Film Institute's list of 100 best films. It tells the story of Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a college graduate who comes home and has no idea of what he wants to do next. At a party hosted by his parents, attended by his parents' friends, Ben is approached by a man who tells Ben he has one word to tell him. Just one word. "Plastics." That one word is a famous piece of dialogue. It captures the option of pursuing material wealth as something that is not real and not enough.

Ben, true to his era, isn't satisfied with the wealth, house, and goods that seem to satisfy his parents. In school he was an achiever in academics and sports, but those things fail to provide Ben with meaning. Though Ben drinks some, for whatever reason he doesn't follow the sixties path of drugs in pursuit of truth.

Ben uses another ancient path for meaning, one that goes back to Solomon and before. Sex. He is seduced by Mrs. Robinson ("Oh, no, Mrs. Robinson. I think, I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends.") Weeks, then months go by with Ben spending the day sleeping in late and hanging out by his parents pool, and nights in a hotel with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

But Ben falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Ben hopes, like many movie heroes before him, that romantic love will provide meaning for his life. But Elaine's parents forbid a relationship. And when Elaine hears that Mrs. Robinson slept with her mother, she tells Ben to leave her alone.

Ben can't leave it at that. He pursues Elaine when she returns to college at Berkeley, so her parents rush her into marriage with Carl, a jerk of a fraternity boy. Needless to say, Ben is not invited to the wedding.

He finds out where the wedding will take place, in Santa Barbara (the actual church is in La Verne). On his drive to the church he runs out of gas. He enters the church and sees the ceremony from the balcony. He's too late -- the minister has just declared Elaine and Carl man and wife. Ben screams to Elaine. She runs to him. People rush at Ben. He punches Elaine's dad. Elaine punches her own mom. Ben picks up a large golden cross and swings it to keep people away. He uses the cross to bar the door, locking the wedding party inside as Elaine and Ben rush out to a bus. 

They laugh together on the bus. And then stare off in the distance. Perhaps meaning won't be found in romantic love either.

The guests in the pews of the wedding seem like the same shallow, materialistic crowd that the film has mocked for the two previous hours. No one in the film mentions God or Jesus except as a curse. Ben uses the cross as a weapon. Perhaps Jesus could have given Ben the meaning he was looking for, but he's never considered.

Of course, he might have listened to the Simon and Garfunkel song on the soundtrack:

"And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,

Jesus loves you more than you will know.

God bless you, please Mrs. Robinson.

Heaven holds a place for those who pray.

Hey,hey, hey.

Hey, hey, hey.

C. S. Lewis said, "Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." 

"The Graduate" is that story told as a very skilled farce. Oh, and if the Robinson family are any example of the members of the church in this film, it earns a sorry One Steeple.

Movie Churches Featured at Church and States in November

Movie Churches Return to Dean and Mindy Go To Church

           

Shortly after we began Church and States, about a year ago, we included a weekly feature about movies in churches. But we soon decided that the reviews of churches in movies should probably be a blog unto itself, and now we post about movie churches here. 

This month we've decided to have a blog crossover event. Our Sunday churches will all have facilities that have been featured in movies. Before we go to the church, we'll write about the movie in this blog. Then we'll go to the real church to see what it's really like. Our first church was featured in the film, "Sister Act," and I will be extremely disappointed if the church doesn't have a choir that sings adapted sixties pop songs as praise anthems -- just as I expect the church featured in "High Noon" to have horses tied up in front, and when we go the church featured in "The Graduate," I expect the service to be interrupted by a cross-wielding Dustin Hoffman.

I am preparing for the possibility the churches we visit will be nothing at all like the churches featured in the films. We might find God is doing something even better.

(Find the review of the movie church in the film "Sister Act" here)