A recent questionnaire of the candidates includes the question, "What is the best movie filmed in Louisiana?" There are eight candidates running for the office of lieutenant governor this year. That's a broad field of five Republicans and three Democrats, some career politicians, some political newbies, six men, two women - lots of variables there.
And yet, when The Advocate sent out a Q & A asking what would be the top priority for the next lieutenant gov, all eight gave just about the same answer: crank up the tourism engine. The second question - What is the state's biggest need right now? - also garnered a unanimous response, fix the budget.
Thank goodness for question number three, "What is the best movie filmed in Louisiana?" We all know the movie question, like the record question and the book question determines if you're going to even bother going out on a second date.
Our candidates showed a surprising lack of imagination and knowledge of movies filmed in Louisiana. Three of them chose The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, (yawn). Two of them chose sports movies, Glory Road and Everybody's All American. One chose Steel Magnolias, (oh dear). The other choices are up to movie buff snuff, Blaze, about Earl Long, and one stellar film, Streetcar Named Desire.
There's a lot of great and notorious films shot in Louisiana over the past century. Take Cadillac Records, Ray, The Apostle, Wild at Heart, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Louisiana Story. Or my two favorite awful films, JFK and The Big Easy (you remember that tag line for anything corrupt or sleazy, "It's the Big Easy, dahlin." I still use it.)
So, it's up to you, voters of Louisiana, to decide, based on the silver screen selection, how you're going to choose the guy or gal who will be one heartbeat away from sitting in state in Huey Long's capitol.
And just for fun, here's a list, a bit cobbled together, (where is Shala Carlson when we need her), of the 500 or so films made in Louisiana, counting HBO, since 1908. That would be Faust, and no, I haven't seen it either.
2010
Imagination Movers Season 3
Colombiana
Chasing the Hawk
The Fields
The Real World Season 24
Killing Karma
Billy the Exterminator
Revenge of the Bridesmaids
Jeff who lives at Home
Love, Wedding, Marriage
Little Murder
If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise
Big Red
Earthbound
Mighty Fine
Brawler
The Chaperone
Red
Memphis Beat Season 1
Catch 44
Trespass
Shark Night 3D
Season of the Witch (Reshoots)
Butter
The Colony
LA Art Show
Business of Love
Big Ginger
The Mortician
Brothers Keeper
The Gates
Treme
EarthBound
The Hungry Rabbit Jumps
Drive Angry
Green Lantern
6 Month Rule
2009
Discovery Channel "Mayday, Bering Sea"
Mirrors 2
Falling in Love
Monster Wolf
Clunkers
Ticking Clock
Knucklehead
Secretariat
Brothers Keeper
The Mechanic
The Hungry Rabbit Jumps
Discovery Channel Ghost Lab
Super
Julia X
Unearthed
Straw Dogs
The Exterminators
Battle Los Angeles
Snatched
The Somnambulist
Father of Invention
Cotton
Excalibur Chronicles
Punishment
Inventing Adam
The Wrong Side of Town Part 1
Standoff
Kiss the Bride
Normal Types
Chameleon
Punishment
Video Girl
True Blood
Imagination Movers
Treme
Dead of Night
Leonie
Jonah Hex
The Expendables
Cool Dog
Youth in Revolt
2008
Drool
Cadillac Records
Mardi Gras
Tribute
Midnight Bayou
Welcome to the Rileys
Night of Demons
Bad Lieutenant
The Family that Preys
Meet the Spartans
College
The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons
My Own Love Song
Acceptance
Skateland
Leaves of Grass
Front of Class
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Disaster Movie
W
Microwave Park
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
I Love You Phillip Morris
Righteous Kill
Billy the Exterminator
Pinks All Out
Comeback
Soul Men
Big Medicine
Tekken
The Midnight Man
Cheerleader Camp
Speed Freaks
Year One
True Blood
2007
Feast 3
Feast 2
Sordid Lives
Wonderful World
True Blood
The Killing Room
Major Movie Star
Pulse 3
Pulse 2
The Pardon
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
The Great Debaters
For Sale by Owner
Mad Money
Secrets of the Heart
The Mist
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Cleaner
The Last Lullaby
2006
Blonde Ambition
Homeland Security
The Year Without a Santa Claus
The Initiation of Sarah
Mr. Brooks
Not Like Everyone Else
Ruffian
Premonition
2005
Factory Girl
The American Standards
Scarlett
Thief
Road House 2
Dukes of Hazzard
All the Kings Men
Elvis
Just My Luck
Pizza Wars
Retiremen
Campus Confidential
Faith of My Fathers
Failure to Launch
Big Momma's House 2
Mammoth
Stay Alive
Bug
For One Night
The Last Time
The Reaping
Same As It Never Was
Deja Vu
The Guardian
2004
Torn Apart
Because of Winn-Dixie
Growing Pains 2
Waiting
Floor of Fear
Nikki and Nora
Infidelity
Stuck in Suburbs
Pop Rocks
Searching for David's Heart
Now You See It...
Skeleton Key
Football Prophets
Last Holiday
Glory Road
Miracle RUn
Brooke Ellison
Frankenstein
Dead Will Tell
Backwater
Dreamer
Canal Street Brothel
Heatless
Five Fingers
Odd Girl Out
Make it Funky
Thief
2003
Ray
Mr. 3000
Deacon Jones Jump Blues
A Love Song for Bobby Long
Home of Phobia
2002
Evil Remains
Runaway Jury
2000
The Riff
Stalled
1999
FAQ
Tony Bravo
Dead Dog
Dracula2K
Under Surveillance
Lush
1998
Any Day Now
Crazy in Alabama
Scarlett's Children
Heiress of the Bayou
Child of New Orleans
Double Jeopardy
A Lesson Before Dying
Madame le Consul
Vampire Murders
Universal Solider II
Bad City Blues
Black Jaq
Going to Mardi Gras
Palmer's Pick-Up
America's Funniest Home Videos
The Great Depression
Going WIld with Jeff Corwin
Miss Universe Pageant
Young Doctors
Miss Teen USA
America's Greatest Pets
Timescape
1997
Primary Colors
Out of Sight
Fait Accompli
Cypress Edge
Letters from a Killer
Murder of Crows
Lucinda's Spell
To Kill Thy Neighbor
Lethal Ladies
Cockpros and Microwaves
Anne Rice's Rag & Bone
1996
The Apostle
Eve's Bayou
The Old Man
Solitude Point
Orleans (movie)
Orleans (series)
Big Easy (series)
13 Bourbon Street
Dark Angel
La Comptess De Baton Rouge
First Love, Last Rites
Suspicion/ Baton Rouge
Favorite Son
Buddys
Dirty Rice
Bump in the Night
Day of the Warrior
The Man Next Door
Grey's Anatomy
Uncle Sidney & the Mexicans
1995
The Glass Cage
Waterfront
Cat Calls
Dead Man Walking
Lolita
1994
Kingfish
Silencer
Sweet Justice
Heaven's Prisoner
1993
Pelican Brief
Fatal Justice
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Do or Die
Crescent City
Skip Tracer
The Client
Interview with the Vampire
French Silk
Blue Chip
House of Secrets
Enemy Gold
Stormswept
Occhio Pinocchio
1992
Undercover Blues
Hard Target
The Fire Next Time
Passion fish
Honor Among Thieves
The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag
Night Trap
1991
JFK
Storyville
Love & Curses, & all that Jazz
Nert'nerworld
The Gate to Nothing
A Woman's Secret
Delta Heat
Timescape, USA
Guests of the Emperor
1990
Hard Hunted
Where the Red Fern Grows, II
This Gun for Hire
Double Crossed
Grand Isle
The Man in the Moon
Hot Steps
Scorchers
Jailbirds
Black Lake, Dry Ice
Zandalee
Darkness
Dangerous Games
Maggie May
Steel Magnolias
1989
Blaze
Convices
Wild at Heart
Tune in Tomorrow
The Pistol
False Witness
Miller's Crossing
Traveling Man
Blue Bayou
Eleven Days and Eleven Nights, Part II
The Blob
Fletch Saved
Heartbreak Hotel
Johnny Handsome
Margaret Bourke-White
Outside Woman
Sex, lies and videotape
Steel Magnolias
Elysian Fields
Les Discos D'Or
1987
Three on a Match
The Unholy
Killer Birds
Gator Bait 2
In the Heat of the Night
Everybody's All American
1986
No Mercy
Avenging Force
Steamboats A'Coming
Angel Heart
Undercover
Shy People
Sister, Sister
Gathering of Old Men
Eleven Days & Eleven Nights
1985
Atchafalaya
The Long Hot Summer
Belizaire, The Cajun
Baton Rouge
North and South - Part 1
North and South - Part 2
If Tomorrow Comes
Dalton
Down By Law
Big Easy
1984
The Click
Stereopticon
Hot Pursuit
Huey Long Documentary
French Quarter Undercover
1983
Louisiana (mini series ~ feature)
Hobson' s Choice
Tightrope
Streetcar Named Desire (remake)
River Rats
Horror at Copasaw Bayou
1982
The Toy
Dixie
Johnny Blue
1981
Southern Comfort
Grambling s White Tiger
Cat People
Cane River
1980
Netchu Jidai
Adventures of Professor Mizutani
Mississippi Days & Southern Nights
Concrete Cowboys
The Beyond
1979
The Dark Side of Love
The Baltimore Bullet
Hardcase
1978
A Woman Called Moses
Murder at the Mardi Gras
Big Bob Johnson & His Fantastic Speed
Circus
Night Riders
The Evictors
1977
Five Days from Home
Pretty Baby
Sparrow
Superdome
Revenge of the Creature
1976
J. D.'s Revenge
French Quarter
Casey's Shadow
The Savage Bees
The Life & Assassination of the Kingfish
This Far by Faith
Return to Boggy Creek
1975
Sounder - Part ll
Dead Man on the Run
Deadly Tower
Drum
Going Home
Let's Do It Again
Creature from Black Lake
1974
Been Down So Long
Mandingo
Hard Times
The Drowning Pool
Obsession
Marianne
Crash
1973
Bob Hope~Mardi Gras
My Name is Nobody
Gator Bait
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
1972
Moon of the Wolf
Sounder
Live and Let Die
Nightmare Honeymoon
Fear is Key
1971
The Player
Keep Off the Grass
Five Easy Pieces
Wife's Habit
Dirty Dan
Bayou Boy
Longstreet
1970
The Beguiled
Quadroon
1969
Easy Rider
WUSA
Goodbye Uncle Tom
Last of the Mobile Hotshots
Undefeated
The Family
1968
The Slaves
Number One
Again, A Love Story
Night of the Bloody Horror
Blood Kin
1967
The Pill
1966
Hotel
Hurry Sundown
Lassie
1965
Alvarez Kelly
Nevada Smith
This Property is Condemned
The Cincinnati Kid
1964
Bayous of Louisiana
The American Wife
Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1963
Toys in the Attic
1960
Poor White Trash
Desire in the Dust
1959
The Sound And the Fury
1958
Buccaneer
King Creole
Wake of the Drunken Soldier
Horse Soldiers
Mardi Gras
Louisiana Hussy
1957
Bayou
Long Hot Summer
Big Fat Black Pussycat
Sing You Sinners
Durango
Band of Angels
Damn Citizen
Swamp Women
1956
Thunder Bay
1950
Panic in the Street
Streetcar Named Desire
1948
Louisiana Story
1946
New Orleans
1945
Enchanted Voyage
1941
The Flame of New Orleans
1940
Kidnapper's Foil
1938
The Buccaneer
Jezebel
1929
Evangeline
1924
Youth's Romance
Prohibition 1918
Way Up in Society
Revelation
1917
Tarzan of the Apes
1912
The Belle of New Orleans
Girl Strikers
The Pilgrimage
Mardi Gras Mixup
Buck Town Romance
Darling of the C.S.A.
1908
Faust