Seen on the Big Screen in South Dakota

You have to admit “Bring Your Own Bag Night” is genius. It’s one of the many little promotions offered at the Historic Elks Theater in Rapid City, South Dakota. It’s not unlimited popcorn, just three scoops, but it’s free with your movie ticket. Again, if you bring your own bag. Apparently you can’t just hold out your freakishly large hands for the three free scoops or have them pour the popcorn into your jacket pocket. We weren’t there on bring your own bag night, but they still refilled our large bag. (I brought the popcorn back to the motel room and enjoyed it for the next day.)

After buying our two tickets, we were given a card with two stamps. Five stamps gets you a free movie, but since we’d be in town just a few more days, we gave our card to the people behind us in line.

But really, the best gimmick they have at the Elks is friendly employees. We’ve been to many chain theaters this year in many parts of the country, and many of them seem to be recruiting from the zombie employment pool. At the Elks, on the other hand, the woman at the ticket counter was bright and friendly. She smiled broadly and asked us if we’d been there before. We told her about this year’s quest to visit a movie theater in every state, and she seemed genuinely interested. She asked what we’d seen of interest in other theaters.

The other employees I met at the snack bar also were friendly and attentive. This is a remarkable trend that the big movie chains ought to look into.

The Elks seems to be a very well run and pleasant independent theater with a distinguished history. The one negative I noticed was the long stairway to the second screen where we viewed our film. Since I hadn’t a chance to exercise that day, I appreciated the opportunity for a little workout, but I noticed a couple of older folks breathing hard as they entered the theater.

The movie we went to see was Priceless. Not that the movie itself came without cost. It was $5. Priceless was the title.

I’ve noted that in many regions of the United States, particularly in rural areas, certain movies that never play. Art and foreign films rarely make their way out of the big cities. On the other hand, there are certain films that seem to make it to a place like Rapid City, but don’t make it to, say, my hometown of Santa Rosa, California.

In Rapid City we could see Priceless, a Christian film about human trafficking, but it’s not playing in Santa Rosa. On the other hand, in Santa Rosa you can see the Swedish film, En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), which you can’t see in Rapid City.

Priceless has yet to receive a critic’s consensus at Rotten Tomatoes (but it does have a positive audience rating of 94%). The only actor most people might recognize is David Koechner (who played jerk Todd Packer on The Office). But listeners to Christian radio may recognize the film’s star, Joel Smallbone, who’s the lead singer for the band King and Country.

The film claims to be based on true events, but I couldn’t help thinking more than a few liberties were taken. The hero of our film, James, finds himself unwittingly involved in a seedy operation, transporting undocumented aliens who are sold into prostitution.

James encounters a corrupt cop, which apparently leads him to believe that no one in local law enforcement can be trusted, so he must single handedly rescue two women from dangerous thugs. Sadly, the film never warns kids in the audience not to try this at home.

The plotting and the action was about at the level of your average episode of Starsky and Hutch, which puts it above your average Christian film. There isn’t much Scripture, Gospel, or theology in the film beyond “the sex trade is bad,” a message with which I can heartily agree.

And the theme song by King and Country isn’t half bad. (There is no church or clergy in the film to earn a Movie Church Steeple Rating.)

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.