50 Movies, 50 States

A Christmas Story always seemed to me like one of those "Anywhere, USA" movies, where like you said, the actual location is less important than all the nostalgia for the late 30s/early 40s in general. Although I guess I should say "Almost Anywhere, USA," since not everywhere gets that much snow!

 

Chintown, Day Of The Locust, Sunset Blvd.
The list goes on and on...

 

Heck, even Boogie Nights!

 

Kansas = Paper Moon - perfect choice.

 

Night of the Living Dead for Maryland

 

AHH, but...your "good old days" always seems to get more snow than anywhen you know!
(presumably so that your grandkids can hear the stories about the five miles of blinding show you used to walk back and forth to school for)

 

Raising Arizona is a lazy choice. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore or Murphy's Romance are more heartfelt depictions of life in AZ.

 

Florida = Moonlight?!?!?
Credibility = out window.

 

Here in Baltimore, many actually prefer Cry-Baby.
My personal favourite Maryland film is Lilith (1964)
That's set in my olde neighborhood:

 

I haven't seen Paper Moon, so my choice for Kansas would be Superman. I really think it is cool that Superman grew up in Kansas.

 

I would say Drug Store Cowboy for Oregon because it absolutely nails pre Intel/Nike/Portlandia Portland, but give the article a pass because it mentions Van Zandt and has getting out of the cities as a guideline.

 

So...The Iron Giant wasn't filmed in Maine. It is an animated movie that was made in California so it doesn't exactly meet the criteria.

 

Cop Land or Atlantic City would have been better choices.

 

Uh...Pennsylvania, actually. However, the televised 'evacuation bulletin' near the end of the film mentions
a few Western Maryland locations like Frostburg.

 

I've seen Lilith! Could have seen a whole lot more of Jean Seberg!

 

Rocky for the Keystone State; nice choice!

Of course if it was Groundhog Day, I'd point out how it was filmed in Illinois.

 

I saw A Hard Day's Night for the first time at the movie theater shown in
Lilith...not long after their local Rockville shooting (Chestnut Lodge, etc.) wrapped.
My "kids" admission price at the time was 50-cents: