I caught a movie on TCM a few nights back that was set in the panhandle in 1916.

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Days of Heaven is a 1978 film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz.

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The movie was about a large wheat farmer and migrant laborers during harvest. The actual film was shot in Canada and didn't seem right to me from the parts of the panhandle that I'm familiar with. The movie overall was ok. Not great, but interesting from a historical perspective since they were running some old early tractors and harvesting equipment.

Even some of that didn't seem right. They had harvesting equipment, but also had guys walking around with hand-held sickles. At the beginning, they had workers running along side the machinery which was obviously not correct.

Here's the wikipedia write up about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Heaven

Another panhandle movie that is more well known is Hud. I would imagine most of you have seen that one. It captures the panhandle and its people as well as any movie I've ever seen.

There was a Roy Rogers movie shot on the South/Rolling Plains in about 1975. Name escapes me at present.

As you said, Hud was shot around Claude.

The last scene of the last Indiana Jones was shot somewhere near the Palo Duro, of all the main characters riding off into the sunset. You couldn't tell where it was shot, as I recall.

The final scene of Tom Hanks Castaway was also shot in the same area.

Steve Martin's Leap of Faith was done in Plainview, Groom and several other locations.

I could tell that Jason Aldean's video for the song Amarillo Sky was shot in the midwest somewhere. The crops, barns and equipment were all wrong for the Panhandle. One of the kids in it is wearing a shirt from "Rantoul FFA" which is a town in Illinois, south of Chicago. The crop duster shown is registered out of Kankakee, Illinois.

I like the song, I was just disappointed it didn't actually show the Amarillo Sky.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 12/2/2010 12:37a).]

Castaway was near an intersection by the town of Canadian.

Thanks, rjhtamu! For years I've been wondering where that shot was filmed.

Link

[This message has been edited by BrazosBendHorn (edited 12/2/2010 3:04p).]

Next time you go through Goodnight, Tx, on the NW side of town there is a 2 story house with a red roof. That is the house in Hud.

I knew a few people from Clarendon who were extras in the film.

Castaway. While watching the last scene I sat up and said, "That is the Panhandle, I have been at that intersection."

I thought it was in the Wheeler/Shamrock area though.

Canyon, it also looks like Wayside/Vigo Park too.

Also, the first movie to be filmed in the Panhandle was in 1916 and was filmed on the Charlie Goodnight ranch in the town of the same name. Actually it was in the canyons south of town. It featured Col. Goodnights buffalo herd.

Steve Martin's "Leap of Faith" was shot in Groom. My wife and several of her dad's old cars were in the movie. It wasn't a block buster but kind of a funny movie.....it probably would have come to Clarendon but it is still dry, Groom is not.

I always get a kick out of the old movies and tv shows that supposedly take place in the Panhandle that have lots of mountains present and no plains at all.

Then I found out about the Amarillo mountains.

"A Perfect World" with Kevin Costner.

The last scenes which were supposedly somewhere south of Childress had more live oaks in them than the entire county of Childress.

Actually a law school buddy of mine watched the scenes filmed on a "ranch" outside Wimberly that his cousin managed.

From the rolling hills of Childress with the beautiful live oaks, to the mountains of Amarillo. The Panhandle is a tourists paradise!!!!

Has no one ever used Palo Duro Canyon or any of the neighboring canyons for a location shot? If not, that boggles the mind ...

Let's not forget "Happy, Texas". Shot entirely in California, but so very representative of Texans.

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Let's not forget "Happy, Texas".

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Wasn't the focus of that movie a "Little Miss Citrus" pageant?

After all, we have so many orange trees up here at 3800' MSL and 35 degrees north.

There was a flop called "Waking Up in Reno" shot at the Big Texan quite a few years ago. It was great, I was i middle school and I got to skip classes to go be an extra. I met Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richardson and Charlise Theron.

"Reno" had location shots at a couple of other places. One was the roadside park on US87 on the south side of Canyon, and I think another somewhere on 287.

Caught a bit of a movie that looks to have been shot in Palo Duro Canyon, to some extent.

I just caught the movie halfway through it and couldn't watch due to other distractions, but they did show what looked like Lighthouse Rock/Mountain from PD Canyon. Not sure of the exact name of the place, but I think there was a climbing thread about it a while back.

Anyway, the movie was named "The Sundowners". Here's a link to it. Was shot around 1950.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043013/

So I searched for this online. It is available to watch online

About 1:00 into the movie, it acknowledges the cooperation of the ranches on which it was shot in the Canyon (Currie, Harrell, Miller) and Palo Duro Canyon. I even found a painting of a cabin that was built for the movie and was still there several years later.

[url]http://www.genesis-visual-arts.com/47536/index.html

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"Sundowners Cabin in Palo Duro" framed(The cabin was actually used for a movie called "The Sundowners" 16"X20" Palletee knife, oils on hard-board)

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