How Many Movies Were Made in Wisconsin?

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© Trimark Pictures/CBS Entertainment

Historic Pabst Brewery in 'Family of Cops' (1995)

The historic Pabst Brewery as Milwaukee Police District 3 in 'Family of Cops' (1995).

Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta are well-known filmmaking hubs, but Milwaukee once had the potential to join that list and yet has oddly been talked about in film more than it has been used in film.

Wisconsin has a long history of films being shot in the state and Milwaukee in particular has had many productions (large and small) use the city. From the 1910s onward, it was rare for movies to be made outside of Hollywood, California, and that is how the term “Hollywood” became so cemented in culture as the catchall term for movies. This is not to say that movies did not get made outside of Hollywood, but it was rare.

Wisconsin’s had diverse landscapes and these attracted early silent film productions at the start of the medium.

For some movies that were shot mainly in Milwaukee we start with:

One Way Boogie Woogie from 1977 might be one of the first Milwaukee productions to really gain some attention. It is an experimental film utilizing locked down shots in 60 second increments with no real story. Director James Benning uses the city AS the subject and not merely as a location another story happens.

The Blues Brothers from 1980 I guess counts as though it is set in Chicago the famous 3rd act highway chase and subsequent multicar pileups were shot on the Milwaukee freeway (you can really see the Milwaukee skyline in the shots). So, not a Milwaukee movie it is notable for how much of Milwaukee is actually in the film.

Major League’s 1989 shooting in the area has been covered extensively but it is a very Milwaukee production and yet it’s a Cleveland set movie. Despite being set in Cleveland, you can spot many Milwaukee locals.

Dillinger from 1991 was a TV movie for ABC that starred Mark Harmon as the titular character and was extensively shot in Milwaukee and the surrounding area. The odd part of the Dillinger film is that none of it takes place in Milwaukee, the story is set in Depression-era Chicago.

The strange Miramax direct-to-video film Chump Change was shot in Los Angeles and New York for a while, but the bulk was shot in and around Milwaukee. Director/writer Steve Burrows is a Wisconsin native, so he set his feature debut in a place he knew well.

Milwaukee’s ‘Family of Cops’

The series of CBS TV Movies “Family of Cops” beginning in 1995 might just be the most Milwaukee fictional production ever made. This Charles Bronson series is steeped in Milwaukee settings, lingo, locations and atmosphere. Directed by Ted Kotcheff and written by Milwaukee native Joel Blasberg, they went out of their way to make sure that Milwaukee was center stage for the “Family of Cops.” The Pabst Brewery is even a named location in the story. This movie (and the second one) are really snapshots in time of Milwaukee right before major changes to the city and the area were implemented.

Possibly the largest and most important Milwaukee set film is a documentary. 1999’s American Movie. Mark Borchardt was a UWM student who wanted nothing more than to make a movie and he did that all the while Chris Smith was making a movie about Mark making his movie. A brutally honest and scrappy film, American Movie showcased Milwaukee in a way that many outside of the state had never experienced before. Love it or hate it, American Movie is Milwaukee distilled to its base components. The subsequent film that Borchardt was making, Coven (pronounced with a long O) would also quality as a Milwaukee production.

1999 also brought about The Last Great Ride with Ernest Borgnine and Eileen Brennan. Shot all over the state (including Milwaukee) it has a few strange credits such as “developed for Wisconsin by…” This leads me to believe that there might be more history here than we know for this all by forgotten direct-to-video family film.

This was the heyday of direct-to-video films and another Milwaukee lensed film was 2001’s Lady in the Box. A thriller starring Robert Knepper and Mark Sheppard it was shot at McKinley Marina for a considerable portion of the film.

Staying DTV, we have Red Betsy also in 2001, a period drama about family and loss set in 1940s rural Wisconsin.

Milwaukee, Minnesota?

Milwaukee, Minnesota is another crime thriller mixed with a family drama from 2002. Randy Quaid and Bruce Dern both give chilling performances, but the standout is Troy Garity as the mentally disabled man who might know more than you think. Also a small part for Josh Brolin.

The Surface was a 2014 bottle thriller set on Lake Michigan starring Sean Astin, Mimi Rogers and Chris Mulkey. Isolated and claustrophobic survival tale.

Give Me Liberty is celebrating life and diversity around Milwaukee. A 2019 independent film that tries to do a lot with very little. Milwaukee plays a large role.

Now, many films are set in or around Milwaukee but shoot elsewhere. That is, I have left off many of the so called “famous” Milwaukee movies which didn’t actually shoot more then exteriors in the city.

• Gaily, Gaily used city shots to establish locations but is set in Chicago.
• Wayne's World had its famous Alice Cooper concert shot at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee.
• Novocaine was shot all over the state with just few shots in Milwaukee.
• Mr. 3000 was shot mostly in Louisiana despite having a decent part of the plot set in Milwaukee.
• Dawn of the Dead (2004) is set entirely in Milwaukee with the whole movie being shot in Canada.
• Public Enemies had a few scenes in Milwaukee but not many.
• Bridesmaids shot exteriors in Milwaukee but mostly shot in California.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon famously shot part of the Milwaukee museum as Chicago.
• “Happy Days” / “Laverne & Shirley” are set in Milwaukee but other then establishing shots were not filmed here.
• “A Whole New Ballgame” was a Milwaukee based sitcom that shot in LA.
• Tommy Boy has characters from Milwaukee but was shot in LA.

There is an interesting film subculture built around Milwaukee movies, but it is scattershot and inconsistent in terms of how often they happen and the size of the productions. Perhaps with the Wisconsin Film Tax Credit returning, this may change soon.