Milwaukee Movies Worth Checking Out
The Oscars have long been the high point of the film industry. There are actually tons of awards for everyone from makeup artists to sound designers to producers who must have some idea as to what a sound designer actually does. With all these awards floating around, why shouldn’t some be awarded to movies set or filmed in our beloved Milwaukee?
So we decided to award some Fauxscars, a legally distinct (and completely made-up) award for great achievements in Milwaukee Movies - and the best thing is that you can then check these movies out at your local branch library!
First off, we have the very, very prestigious category of Best Milwaukee Movie about Making a Movie in Milwaukee. Of course, this award goes to the 1999 Grand Jury Prize winner of Sundance, American Movie. Mark Borchardt is a local treasure, and this is the film that introduced him and his film-making struggles to the world.
The next award is for Best Performance by a former Milwaukee Brewer as a New York Yankee. This goes to the mighty Pete Vuckovich, owner of the second-best mustache in Brewer history and the man behind the nasty Yankee power hitter Clu Haywood in Major League. Major League also gets honorable mention for Best Performance by a Former Milwaukee Brave and WWE Hall of Famer in Bob Uecker (who would be the real award winner if I hadn't wanted to make a joke about Brewers Players' mustaches), and Best Performance of County Stadium Pretending to Be Cleveland Stadium.
Speaking of performances by inanimate objects, next we have Best Use of Milwaukee Highways in a Movie. If ‘Can’t Turn Me Loose’ just started playing in your head, it’s because this award goes to that rhythm and blues car-smash-em-up movie The Blues Brothers. While most of the movie was filmed in and around Chicago, the final chase scene where the Illinois Nazis drive off an unfinished highway ramp was shot on I-794. You can’t go wrong with this crazy mix of car chases and classic tunes.
Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Best TV Movie Starring an NCIS Actor Filmed in a Milwaukee Library" is a very singular award, like awarding a Grammy for 'Best Song That Mentions ECW Wrestler New Jack Getting Leg Dropped Through a Table' to Weezer's El Scorcho, but this one has a special place in our collective hearts. Silver fox Mark Harmon was a younger man when he played gangster John Dillinger for the 1991 ABC TV Movie Dillinger. It is perhaps not otherwise remarkable, but part of that TV movie was filmed mere feet from where I currently type - the gorgeous grand rotunda of our downtown Central Library. This one isn't as available as the other titles, since we only have reference copies of the movie on VHS in our Arts Reference Room... and sadly no VCR to play it on! We'd love to be able to circulate a copy, but given they're selling for exorbitant prices on the internet we're content to simply preserve these bits of our history for now.
No arbitrary internet listicle is complete without one anti-award, and this one is well 'earned'. Bridesmaids, the hilarious and hilariously vulgar film about a blossoming rivalry between a struggling Milwaukeean and a glitzy Chicago denizen over a mutual best friend, tries valiantly to pretend it is actually set in those locations. However, all the exterior shots of Milwaukee locales don't change the fact that the filmed-in-California bits just don't feel like Wisconsin (or Chicago, for that matter).