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That's Pittsburgh - showing on a big screen
near you.
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Possibly because of its diverse scenery
and the cooperative attitude of its citizens, or maybe because the
city just exudes star quality, Pittsburgh has a way of popping up
in major movies — even if audiences don't always realize it.
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George Romero started Hollywood's Pittsburgh craze
when he used the city to film his 1968 horror classic "Night
of the Living Dead." The movie follows a couple of poor
folks who can't seem to escape a horde of decomposing zombies,
even though the nasty ghouls can't move faster than a teetering
shuffle. To keep Pittsburgh safe and friendly, the zombies were
promptly shipped to Cleveland after the filming was over.
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What a feeling! Like every welder/exotic dancer
in Pittsburgh, Jennifer Beals dreams of performing in the ballet
in 1983 film "Flashdance." Beals, sporting legwarmers
and a big 80s hairdo, tries out for a dance audition in the
film in front of the Carnegie Library.
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No, that's not really a futuristic Detroit in
1987's "Robocop" — it's just Pittsburgh with a special
effects facelift. The super-violent cyborg with a heart of gold
clomps around the fair city spouting memorable one-liners like,
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
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When Clarice Sterling has to identify the creepy
Death's Head Moth in 1991's "Silence of the Lambs," she
heads to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland.
It's too bad Dr. Hannibal Lecter didn't enjoy any of the delicacies
at a Primanti Brothers restaurant — he might have stopped
having old friends for dinner.
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In the 1999 film "Wonder Boys," Michael
Douglas, Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey, Jr. look for redemption
while cruising the streets of Pittsburgh in a beat-up Ford Galaxie
500 with a dead dog and a sinister-looking tuba in the trunk.
Based on a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning Pittsburgher Michael
Chabon, this is a Pittsburgh filled with seven-foot transvestites,
ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and an imaginary horse jockey named
Vernon Hardapple.
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Go-go gadget roadblock! When the filming of 1999's
"Inspector Gadget" caused the Roberto Clemente Bridge
to be shut down for 30 days for an action scene, the locals,
by now used to the hustle and bustle of big-name film crews,
took it in stride.
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Kevin Smith's 1999 "Dogma" had Pittsburgh,
ever the versatile thespian, posing as Chicago, New Jersey and
Wisconsin. The fact that Smith had pop star Alanis Morrisette
play God and heartthrobs Ben Affleck and Matt Damon play renegade
fallen angels might have caused some bad feelings "upstairs"--in
the middle of filming a tornado touched down nearby. |
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