Pssst...I know someone famous, or rather someplace famous! La Tusa or as most people call it Tucson, is a famous place, not because of the recent tragedy that made the world headlines and took away innocent lives and sent one of our legislators into critical condition at UMC. No, I am talking about Tucson as a movie star. Tucson was just as famous as Angelina Jolie or George Clooney are nowadays. Tucson also has a growing local film industry that is seeking to reestablish Tucson as a formidable competitor to New Mexico and of course the golden state.
There were countless westerns that were filmed at Old Tucson and surrounding areas, those were the films that most people remember. Even some of the more recent westerns featured Tucson as the quintessential backdrop to the old cowboys and indians genre. Movies such as Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead come to mind. Other classics from that bygone era are movies such as Rio Lobo and Rio Bravo, The Mine with the Iron Door, and the Eastwood classic, The Outlaw Josey Wales featured the rugged and unique character of the Sonoran desert landscape in such a way that the desert became synonymous with the traditional westerns.
Tucson also offered the world an icon that to this day symbolizes the west, the Saguaro, it relays a certain mood and ambience that conveys the western frontier. I used to wonder why other southwestern cities such as El Paso and Albuquerque would print t-shirts featuring saguaros as design motifs when there were none to be found. I even took issue with a vendor at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso when I was living there as to why he was selling shirts with Saguaros, when all I saw were yucca plants on the hillsides. I’m sure he thought I was some fool with time to waste. But it was evident that the Sonoran desert conjured and made such imagery a tacit experience with audiences and other avid followers of westerns in film and literature.
But lately, I have been intrigued with the schizophrenic attitude that Tucson has had in relation to its role as a movie star both past and present. Sometimes I feel that some production companies regard Tucson as the cousin they have to take to the prom. For instance, I have come across several movies where iconic locations in Tucson were featured in movies with other names. Our beautiful University of Arizona was known as Adams College in Revenge of the Nerds, ok…so it wasn’t an Oscar winner and I can kind of relate to why maybe the folks at the U of A were hesitant in featuring the university in a sophomoric comedy about nerds, fraternity parties, and overall debauchery.
Yet there are other films where Tucson was the backdrop and no reference to the Old Pueblo was mentioned. Films like Stir Crazy, A Kiss Before Dying, and countless others usually replace Tucson with another name. Why? Was this an agreement with the Tucson Film Bureau, I never did quite understand that.
Can’t Buy Me Love, the teen hit from the late 80s was an anomaly. I even had some classmates appear in that movie. I guess Tucson was allowed to keep its name and most of the scenes were shot on location at Tucson High School and not in some LA studio. Pretty cool…
Like I said, that movie seems like the exception. Tucson as a location serves as a Tabla Rosa for filmmakers and the like. Hey make your movie here and you don't even have to worry about giving the movie credit except the end of the credits in small print, and so it goes...
Another aspect of Tucson’s long cinematic history is the role it played in independent films and in particular some of the exploitation movies that were filmed here. The other day I saw a movie titled, Copkillers a very edgy film that was made right here in the Old Pueblo in 1973. I actually rented it from Netflix and watched it, it was entertaining because in the earlier scenes they carjack an Eegee’s Van selling lemon eegees for 15 cents.
This totally blew me away… as for the plot, ehhhh…I mean what else did you expect from a violent ‘breakin’ the law’ flick.
there is another flick that my dad asked if I could find online. I remember my dad asking this question a few years ago. It went something like this:
“Hey mijo, since you know how to get on the computer and on the internet, can you do me a favor?”
“Sure Deddy (our name for my dad, long story, I’m sure fodder for a future blog) what are you looking for?”
“There was movie that made in the early 70s, I think it had Jim Brown or one of those guys about a black cowboy.”
“Hmmm, what was the name?”
“I think it was called The Legend of Nigger Charley.”
For a moment there, I was trying to gauge if my dad was pulling my leg, but he was adamant about it. I guess it was filmed in Tucson and some of the actors and extras included friends and relatives from Old Pascua. So I did some research and lo and behold he was right!
At the time I was taking an African American Cinema Course at the U of A and I worked up the courage to ask my professor if she had ever heard of the film before. I felt it was the right time to ask, since we had gone over genres and tropes in the history of African American cinema.
I approached her lectern and asked if she could help me out with a question on a movie, of course she asked which movie. As the words left my mouth I remember her reaction was something similar to my reaction with my dad, “Is this guy putting me on?”
She did eventually look it up and a few weeks later after class came up to me and shared that she had done some research on it. Excited to share the information with my dad at his house, I arrived to find my brother there with DVDs of the movie and its sequel, The Soul of Nigger Charley. He beat me to the punch.
So if you know of any movies that were filmed in Tucson other than some of the mainstream movies leave a comment. I get a kick peeling back the layers of Tucson’s cinematic history. As Jodi Foster once said in yet another film made in Tucson, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, "Tucson is the WEIRD Capital of the World." lets keep it that way...
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