ROTTEN TOMATOES: 50 Movies For 50 States

50 Movies For 50 States

June 30, 2009

For our nation's birthday, we thought that we'd take a look at how the good old U.S. of A. has been portrayed on the silver screen. To capture the vast and diverse peoples and places across the whole country, we've decided to choose films that we feel really showcase each state in the Union. Every one of the 50 films we've picked features something special about the geography, history, or people of a particular state. So check out the map to see which ones we've picked!

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(1-20 of 129 posts) | Reply

JAKEofMIDWORLD writes:
on Jul 01 2009 09:55 AM

uh, I'm sorry, I didn't like Bull Durham. I understand that maybe the best film to represent NC, but nobody was likable in that whole damn picture. Plus it comes across really hokey now.

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JAKEofMIDWORLD writes:
on Jul 01 2009 09:57 AM

Still good list and very cool map feature.

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jSmileyb writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:05 AM

Tennessee = Nashville...very original (you can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes).

How about 'The Thing Called Love' with River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis...very cool, ya'll.

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rle4lunch writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:06 AM

Dances with Wolves... Your name is Stands?

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JohnnyJonJon writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:10 AM

Thanks for using "We Are Marshall" for WV. I'm sick of all the stereotyping of West Virginia folk in some movies, and it's nice to see an inspirational story that meant something to us. If it were executed better, I'd be happier though. Otherwise, interesting list (especially with Bull Durham, one of my all-time favorites).

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ARTaylor writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:32 AM

"The movie's a big Hollywood action flick that's all about extreme California livin': beach settings, house parties, skydiving, and a whole lot of surfing. There are girls with weird hair, guys with ridiculous names, and a beach bum as your gun toting government hero. Only in California!"

Yeah and people in Iowa is obsessed with corn, Texans are a gun-totting racists, Alabamans are all inbred, those in Georgia are just waiting for tourist to get lost so they can rape them, and the entire state of Wisconsin shuts down for every Packer game.

I am so tired of the idea that we fit into three groups: radical liberals in San Francisco, self-obsessed wannabe celebrities in Los Angeles, or surfers. There's so much more to the state than that. How about Terminator 2, Pirates of Silicon Valley, Lethal Weapon, Back to the Future, Beverly Hills Cop, Scream, Die Hard, Speed, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Also you should have done Washington DC since it does have electoral votes.

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Jen Yamato writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:41 AM

Life sure has a sick sense of humor, doesn't it?

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JohnnyJonJon writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:48 AM

In reply to this comment (#2520040)
You said it, Bodhi!

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rle4lunch writes:
on Jul 01 2009 11:55 AM

I dunno Jen, I think you could've used Breaking Away or Rudy for Indiana versus Hoosiers.. That movie was, well, kinda boring.

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Josh C. writes:
on Jul 01 2009 12:02 PM

Yes, sir... The gal-darn only thing we have here in Nee-Braska is corn... And children... That's it!

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crystalwhiteeyes writes:
on Jul 01 2009 12:03 PM

Us Georgia folks get Gone With The Wind? Meh, I guess that's alright.

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Hurjay M. writes:
on Jul 01 2009 12:12 PM

Yay! I'm real happy Pennsylvania got Sylvester Stallone's bruised face to represent us!

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Jen Yamato writes:
on Jul 01 2009 12:29 PM

Folks, we know we left out a lot of great films for many states in this feature, so we welcome you all to make a list of your favorite state films and leave a link here in the comments! Use our new Community section (in your user profile, next to your profile pic) function to make a list on any topic.

For example, I just made a list of 5 Movies We Considered Before Picking Point Break for California:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/209023/lists/view.php?id=50466

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JAKEofMIDWORLD writes:
on Jul 01 2009 12:58 PM

haha, nice jab johnnyjonjon.

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NTROST writes:
on Jul 01 2009 01:56 PM

@crystalwhiteeyes

I hope you are being just sarcastic on the meh! aspect? because "Gone With The Wind" is easily one of the greatest top 5 films ever to grace the silver screen & if anything, Georgia should be truly honored to have such a film to represent it. I mean what would you want? a Tyler Perry film? which are utter jokes let alone rip-offs of better & more superior films. His skills & faculty as a filmmaker & storyteller are just deplorable & outright inferiorly deficient. I mean you could easily fit him with such filmmakers as Uwe Boll, Victor Adamson, Robert J. Horner, Ulli Lommel, Jason Friedberg
Aaron Seltzer, Will Zens, Dwain Esper & many others. How the hell did he get put into the Film Academy? It's such a disgrace & almost sinful.

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Eric T. writes:
on Jul 01 2009 02:10 PM

For Alabama, "Forrest Gump".

For Georgia, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" or "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (but "Gone with the End" will do, for now).

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JohnnyJonJon writes:
on Jul 01 2009 02:13 PM

In reply to this comment (#2520074)
hehe, no problem. I used to live in South Carolina, so any chance I can get to take jabs at NC I'll take it. Plus I got a ticket in Lumberton, so I still hold that grudge! lol

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doc.grizzly writes:
on Jul 01 2009 02:55 PM

Virginia got screwed, but North Dakota made me laugh.

and my fellow Georgian's and I seem to feel a little let down with "Gone in the Wind," because we had to watch it in Georgia history, pre-civil war history, post civil history, elementary-high school history. Catch my drift, but because it's the most popular movie ever, I guess it'll do.

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Walken The Park writes:
on Jul 01 2009 02:56 PM

I couldn't agree more with "Casino" being the pick for my home state. There are so many movies out there that use Las Vegas as a mere backdrop, but don't offer any meat or substance about the city. Scorsese's attention to detail (including the actual old local news station logos on the microphones) is pretty impressive. Although the story itself is modified to protect the not-so-innocent, this stands out as a fairly accurate portrayal of local legends Tony "The Ant" Spolatro and Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. Nice inclusion, RT!

My second pick? "Honeymoon in Vegas" for its sweet inclusion of another Vegas icon, former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. Seeing Tark the Shark playing cards with James Caan is a little slice of cinematic heaven.

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Larry J. writes:
on Jul 01 2009 03:22 PM

Ugh, so you choose 'We Are Marshall' for W.Va over a great movie like 'Matewan'? At least try and show you're putting some effort into these list articles. I'm not trying to take anything away from the Marshall movie, but its pretty obvious which of these two films was better, and more important to cinema as a whole.

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