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Talking about movies »

M-ollywood

By Frank Beaver

April 14, 2009

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Since independent filmmakers started abandoning studio sound stages in favor of location settings for their films, producers have increasingly sought out areas that provide attractive tax incentives. Canada was an early leader in luring the U.S. film industry with attractive tax relief. Did anyone really notice that those Brooklyn Heights street scenes in "Moonstruck" (1987) were shot on Toronto's pavements?

Now Michigan has its own legislation that offers tax breaks to film producers. That was a smart move. The history of feature-filmmaking in Michigan is a meager, almost shocking dearth of activity—especially for a state with such a diverse geography, from the grittiest of urban streets to rural idylls and remote wilderness.

Michigan's two best-known in-state films are "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), shot in the Upper Peninsula, and "Somewhere in Time" (1980), filmed on Mackinaw Island. "Anatomy of a Murder," the granddaddy of all Michigan-made movies, is a half-century old this year but as durable as ever.

There have been a few other Michigan-made films of note. For example, Robert Altman's "Secret Honor" (1984) was filmed in seven days in the front parlor of Martha Cook dormitory on the University of Michigan campus. The parlor was reconfigured to represent Richard M. Nixon's San Clemente study, where the ousted President rants drunkenly against the family members and political opponents—who contributed to his inability to come out a "winner." "Secret Honor," in my opinion, was the best "unseen" film of the 1980s, a sad fact for a work shot entirely in Michigan.

Many films set in Michigan have actually been shot elsewhere. "The Upside of Anger" (2005)—a terrific film about a suburban Detroit housewife whose husband walks out on her and their four daughters—was filmed in England with cut-away shots of I-75 and I-94 freeway signs to suggest a Michigan location.

At least those filmmakers knew something about our state. One wonders about the producers of "Bird on a Wire" (1990). That film has a shot of a boat leaving a Detroit harbor, a mountain rising dramatically in the background.

But the tax incentives have turned that tendency around. "Betty Anne Waters," a narrative set in the Northeast and starring Hilary Swank, was recently filming in Ann Arbor and the U-M campus.

Got a favorite Michigan movie? Tell us about it.

Plenty of other production companies are trotting out to Michigan too. "High School," with Adrien Brody, was filmed at the end of 2008 in Howell. I was able to spend a blustery December day on the set for a scene in which Brody wheels his battered old van up to the entrance of the high school. One of the cinematographers was Todd Schlopy, a former film student of mine and football player under Bo Schembechler in the 1980s. Todd recounted how the idea of a shoot in Michigan had at first been met with skepticism but said the cast and crew loved Michigan and its hospitality.

Best of all, filmmakers aren't just using Michigan as a stand-in for other places, but are telling Michigan stories right here. Clint Eastwood's "Grand Torino," is a superb example. Highland Park is the setting for a plot about the last white man on the block, a feisty, bigoted character who doesn't care for his two selfish sons and their families and especially not for his Hmong neighbors next door. The recent death of his beloved wife has turned the former Korean War veteran and retired Ford assembly line worker, Walt Kowalski, even more surly. Not even the young Catholic priest who conducted his wife's funeral services can obtain a moment of regard from Kowalski. The only things the man treats respectfully are his dog and his 1972 Gran Torino Sport.

Eastwood directed the film and also portrays Kowalski with the inimitable squinty-eyed face mask that he patented decades ago. That mask serves as a familiar reminder that a Clint Eastwood story usually erupts into violence. The motivation for violence surfaces when a teenage gang begins to torture the young next-door neighbor, Thao, and his sister, Sue, because Thao has refused to join the gang. Horrible things happen and Kowalski, who has mellowed toward the youngsters, is compelled to take action. "Gran Torino" offers much more than a variation on Eastwood's self-styled law-and-order hero. The script delves into the cultural traditions of Hmong life, including family rituals, ethnic dress and a political backstory about the Hmongs' alliance with the United States during the Vietnam War.

"Gran Torino" falls short of being a great film but it benefits significantly from its authentic setting and its predominantly Hmong cast. Here, as in his other recent films, "Million Dollar Baby," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters From Iwo Jima," Eastwood shows himself to be a director with heart and compassion. And I really appreciated the fact that he came to Detroit to make this film.

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Film historian and critic Frank Beaver is professor of film and video studies and professor of communication.