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15 Famous Detroit Movies

We scrounged up an eclectic selection, boasting the likes of Clint Eastwood, Carl Weathers, Warren Beatty, and Eminem.

Detropia
Photo: Loki Films

This weekend’s hot doc is Detropia, the latest from Jesus Camp directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. A painterly ode to a recession-ravaged empire, the movie explores the rock-bottom state of Detroit, and questions whether or not it has the stuff to rebuild itself. A unique metropolis, Motor City is one offbeat cinematic setting, far from the glamor of New York and the commonness of Toronto, Hollywood’s go-to stand-in town. Only a handful of films have been set in Detroit (and even fewer have actually been filmed there), but we scrounged up an eclectic selection, boasting the likes of Clint Eastwood, Carl Weathers, Warren Beatty, and Eminem.


8 Mile

8 Mile (2002)

Surely few had high hopes for the big-screen debut of Marshall Mathers, given the sour track record of star musicians making such a leap. But Curtis Hanson largely exceeded the low expectations of 8 Mile, delivering a watchable work with the right amount of urban grit, and capping it off with a cheer-worthy rap-battle finale. Set in Detroit circa 1995, the film gets its name from 8 Mile Road, a highway that stretches along the city’s northern boundary, and a great street on which to lose oneself.


Action Jackson

Action Jackson (1988)

Carl Weathers stars alongside Sharon Stone and ’80s icon Vanity in this proudly tacky action flick by stuntman-turned-director Craig R. Baxley. Playing a demoted Detroit lieutenant up against a corrupt business giant (Craig T. Nelson), Weathers wields a weapon and an attitude, and when his character is framed for the murder of Stone’s trophy wife, he needs to enlist the help of Vanity’s heroin addict and Armelia McQueen’s plucky hairdresser. Ah, city life.


The Betsy

The Betsy (1978)

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Harold Robbins, Daniel Petrie’s The Betsy is most notable for its starry ensemble, which includes Laurence Olivier, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, Jane Alexander, and Katharine Ross. Intended to evoke Henry Ford, Olivier’s Loren Hardeman Sr. is the head of a family-owned Detroit auto conglomerate, whose fading success may just be remedied by its new model, The Betsy, named for Hardeman’s great-granddaughter (Kathleen Beller). Amid the struggle to save the company, family strife ensues, particularly between Hardeman and Duvall’s feisty heir.


Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Unfolding in the title suburb of Gross Pointe, a classy locale that borders Detroit in Michigan’s Wayne County, Grosse Pointe Blank was the first of two cultish, music driven hits for John Cusack, the other being 2000’s High Fidelity. In this movie, the boyish boombox-raiser plays Martin Blank, a hitman who attends his 10-year high school reunion, and catches up with a cute DJ played by Good Will Hunting’s Minnie Driver (who apparently likes to star in movies with excessively punny titles). Co-starring Alan Arkin and a pre-ubiquity Jeremy Piven, Grosse Pointe Blank was only half as popular as its soundtrack, which came loaded with indie ’80s tunes.

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Gran Torino

Gran Torino (2008)

Think Clint Eastwood is good at chatting with a chair? Then you should see him threaten foreigners on his front lawn with a shotgun. In this moody follow-up to his Angelina Jolie vehicle, Changeling, the GOP cheerleader plays a retired factory worker and war vet, whose love of his titular ride is matched by his hatred of the diversification of his Highland Park neighborhood. The crotchety Detroit local comes around, of course, in rather moving fashion, but not before spewing out slurs at his Asian-immigrant neighbors.


Traveling Husbands

Traveling Husbands (1931)

Directed by Paul Sloan and featuring Evelyn Brent in the lead, Traveling Husbands concerns a group of traveling salesman, specifically the unmarried Barry (Frank Albertson), and the tied-down Ben (Carl Miller). Brent is Ruby, the call girl who cozies up with the boys when they hit a wild party while rolling through Detroit. Ruby pops a cap in Ben and nearly lets Barry take the fall, before confessing and making a jealous woman out of Ben’s distraught wife (who arrives to find her hubbie alive, but hardly faithful). On hand for comic relief is vaudeville vet Hugh Herbert, who went on to star in Kansas City Princess and Gold Diggers of 1935, and employed his legendary “woo-woo” for the performance.


The Crow

The Crow (1994)

The Crow made headlines for Brandon Lee’s tragic demise on set (he was mistakenly shot with a dummy bullet in the last weeks of production), but it didn’t need any sympathetic or sensationalist boosts. An unglamorized take on the comic-book hero tale, the movie proved a strong translation of James O’Barr’s source material, which takes place on the rainy, noirish streets of Detroit. Lee plays a murdered musician resurrected to enact revenge on his killers, who set the corrupt city ablaze each year on Devil’s Night. The Crow spawned three increasingly terrible sequels, featuring Lee substitutes like Eric Mabius and Edward Furlong, and it’s set to be remade with a Hollywood It-boy, as Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum, Mark Wahlberg, and Bradley Cooper have all been rumored as inheritors of the role.


Zebrahead

Zebrahead (1992)

You might say Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever robbed the spotlight from Zebrahead, another early-’90s drama about interracial romance. The couple here consists of Michael Rappaport (in his feature film debut) and N’Bushe Wright, who’d go on to share the screen with Wesley Snipes in Blade. The tensions that spreads outward from the couple’s button-pushing love affects characters all living in inner-city Detroit. Produced by Oliver Stone, Zebrahead was rather unfairly nudged aside, making it an unsung gem of its decade.

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Mickey One

Mickey One (1965)

Arthur Penn’s New Wave-inspired surrealist drama sees Warren Beatty play a stand-up comic fleeing Detroit for Chicago, in an attempt to escape the mob hoods who are after him. Beatty’s runner takes the name of Mickey One, and the film takes on some curious experimental properties, like kaleidoscopic photography, an offbeat approach to narrative, and a film-noir look spiked with potent paranoia. Critics and audiences didn’t quite know how to receive the film, but it did lead to Penn and Beatty’s much-beloved collabo on Bonnie and Clyde.


Detroit Rock City

Detroit Rock City (1999)

Named for the 1976 KISS track, Detroit Rock City strives for Dazed and Confused vitality, following a group of teenagers in a KISS cover band who trek to the titular town to see Gene and company perform. Edward Furlong, Giuseppe Andrews, James DeBello, and Sam Huntington play the enamored foursome, and The Chase director Adam Rifkin is the maestro filming their exploits. Melanie Lynskey and Natasha Lyonne add some color to the cast, and the movie brands Detroit as more than just an automotive mecca, but the film exudes the hollow grime of a mosh pit, and leaves a grungy aftertaste that only a shower can cure.


True Romance

True Romance (1993)

There was a bit of hyperbole across the web in the wake of Tony Scott’s death, with undue praise lavished upon his not-quite-stellar filmography. True Romance, however, stands high among Scott’s titles, thanks in part to a wicked early script from Quentin Tarantino. Boasting a dream supporting cast that features Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Gary Oldman, and Brad Pitt, the movie stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in the lead roles of Clarence and Alabama, who bond over screenings of Sonny Chiba movies in a Detroit movie theater. The two marry the following day, and what happens next is a unbridled swirl of brutal twists and violence.


Scarecrow

Scarecrow (1973)

Al Pacino and Gene Hackman play traveling vagabonds in Jerry Schatzberg’s Scarecrow, a road movie that sees its two lead characters, Max (Hackman) and Lion (Pacino) journey from California to Detroit, where Max’s estranged wife and child are waiting. The trek bonds the pair thanks to a heap of misadventures, including a stint in a Denver prison and even a barroom striptease. It’s no Midnight Cowboy, but Scarecrow is akin to Detroit Rock City in its painting of Detroit as a promised land.

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RoboCop

RoboCop (1987)

One of many triumphs by underrated master Paul Verhoeven, RoboCop is a kindred spirit to The Crow, also chronicling the resurrection of a murdered man, who’s brought back to make right the ills of Detroit’s criminals. In this case, Peter Weller’s cyborgian officer is put to work by an evil mega-conglomerate, opening the door for all sorts of moral dilemmas. The Detroit of RoboCop is a city on the very edge of financial ruin, making the film as relevant as it is thematically sound.


Out of Sight

Out of Sight (1998)

Traffic and Erin Brockovich be damned, Out of Sight is likely Steven Soderbergh’s most acclaimed film, and long before it led to the ill-fated TV series, Karen Sisco. It features George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in two of their best roles, playing a convict and a U.S. Marshal who spark an unlikely romance. Co-starring fellow Soderbergh fave Don Cheadle, the movie sees its motley crew wind up at a mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit’s upper-crust northern suburb. It’s home to Albert Finney’s unsuspecting businessman, who may or may not be holding an enviable stash of diamonds.


Blue Collar

Blue Collar (1978)

Paul Schrader’s directorial debut led to one of the most acclaimed roles for Richard Pryor, who plays the auto-industry co-worker of Harvey Keitel and Yaphett Kotto. Set in Detroit, the movie provides commentary on union practices and its setting’s working class, via a chain of events that blurs the obviousness of who’s the corrupt party. Pryor and company’s characters commit a robbery and attempt a blackmail, a scenario that ropes in organized crime and the federal government, but small-scale, personal effects prove to be the most profound.

R. Kurt Osenlund

R. Kurt Osenlund is a creative director and account supervisor at Mark Allen & Co. He is the former editor of Out magazine.

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