“Use This Map To Find Your State’s Most Popular Movie”
So I’m clicking through the Internet one day recently when I stumbled upon this HuffPo post:
What if states’ identities were dictated by their most iconic movies? Colorado would scare everyone away with its “Shining” associations, and drug traffickers would flock to Florida to partake in some “Scarface” kingpin action. That’s what we’ve gleaned from a new map created by Reddit user Jakubisko. The map uses IMDB ratings to replace the names of the 50 states (plus Washington, D.C.) with the most popular movie set in each one. “The Godfather” represents New York, “Gone with the Wind” is set for Georgia and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” coincides with D.C. Other states’ more obvious choices, however, are subverted: For instance, “50/50” lines up with Washington instead of, say, “Sleepless in Seattle” or “Twilight.” Check out the map below and decide whether your home state would be proud of its cinematic representation.
Fun idea. Wish I’d thought of it. Hey, wait. I did think of it. Way back in 2009.
I’ve been doing so much traveling this year, I started to try thinking up a movie for every one of our 50 states. The only guideline: Each movie must have some significant tie to that state.
Here’s my list accumulated from memory on two different flights across the country. I drew a blank with Delaware. And the only reason I covered Utah with Broken Arrow is because I happened to remember that the planes took off from Whiteman Air Force Base, which is located in Utah (my Air Force brat background paid off with that one).
Open to your suggestions for movies that better represent / tie to any of the states. And if you can think of a movie with a connection to Delaware, please post your suggestion.
Or maybe you’d like to offer up you own list of 50 movies!
UPDATE: I’ll add suggestions from comments.
UPDATE #2: I guess I was wrong about On Golden Pond, perhaps I was stretching my memory to make it fit into New Hampshire, but Derek sounds authoritative on this, so that will eventually move to Maine. Then the question becomes, what movie is set in New Hampshire? My first thought was Hotel New Hampshire, but most of the book — as I recall — took place in Austria (I think). Any suggestions?
ALABAMA
Forrest Gump
ALASKA
Into the Wild
ARIZONA
Raising Arizona
ARKANSAS
A Face in the Crowd
Suggestion: Sling Blade, True Grit
CALIFORNIA
Chinatown
COLORADO
The Shining
Suggestion: Dante’s Peak
CONNECTICUT
Mystic Pizza
DELAWARE
TBD
Suggestion: Fight Club
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
All the President’s Men
FLORIDA
Key Largo
GEORGIA
Gone With the Wind
HAWAII
Pearl Harbor
IDAHO
Napoleon Dynamite
ILLINOIS
Blues Brothers
INDIANA
Breaking Away
Suggestion: Hoosiers
IOWA
Field of Dreams
KANSAS
The Wizard of Oz
KENTUCKY
Coal Miner’s Daughter
LOUISIANA
The Big Easy
MAINE
Cider House Rules
Suggestion: On Golden Pond, Pet Semetary, Stand By Me
MARYLAND
Diner
MASSACHUSETTS
Alice’s Restaurant
Suggestion: A Perfect Storm, Good Will Hunting, The Departed
MICHIGAN
8 Mile
MINNESOTA
A Prairie Home Companion
MISSISSIPPI
O Brother, Where Are Thou?
MISSOURI
King of the Hill
MONTANA
A River Runs Through It
NEBRASKA
About Schmidt
NEVADA
Viva Las Vegas
NEW HAMPSHIRE
TBD
NEW JERSEY
Atlantic City
Suggestion: Garden State, Good Fellas
NEW MEXICO
The Milagro Beanfield War
NEW YORK
King Kong
NORTH CAROLINA
Bull Durham
NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo
OHIO
Major League
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma!
OREGON
My Own Private Idaho
PENNSYLVANIA
The Deer Hunter
Suggestion: Philadelphia
RHODE ISLAND
Dumb and Dumber
SOUTH CAROLINA
The Big Chill
SOUTH DAKOTA
North by Northwest
TENNESSEE
Nashville
TEXAS
Lone Star
Suggestion: No Country for Old Men, Giant, The Last Picture Show
UTAH
Broken Arrow
Suggestion: SLC Punk
VERMONT
Dead Poet’s Society
Suggestion: White Christmas
VIRGINIA
Shenandoah
WASHINGTON
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Suggestion: Sleepless in Seattle
WEST VIRGINIA
Matewan
WISCONSIN
The Straight Story
WYOMING
Red Rock West
How does my list compare to the one from the HuffPo article?
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