I finally got around to watching Wild Hogs yesterday. It wasn't the best movie ever, but I enjoyed it, especially since most of the filming was done in a place I know well, Madrid, NM. If you drive the old Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe (rather than I-40) you will pass through Madrid. It wasn't a town just made up for the movie, but the real Madrid isn't much like the town portrayed in the movie either. Madrid was an old coal mining town, which was mostly an abandoned ghost town until not too terribly long ago. During the 1970s it was a big biker hang out and there were rumors that the bikers buried their victims in the old mines where nobody would ever find them. Now main street has been renovated and it is more of an artist community with people selling their wares in the local shops to tourists exploring the trail. Wild Hogs isn't the only movie to ever film there either, I know parts of The Man who Fell to Earth was filmed there and I am sure there are others. However, much of the time Madrid loses out to the next town north, Cerrillos, which is where the Young Gun movies were filmed. So good for them! I hope the town made some money off that.
4 comments:
Wow, it's great when you know a place where a film was made, it brings an extra dimension to it. "The man who fell to Earth", was that the 1976 version with David Bowie? That was a superb film, a bit surreal and unsettling but great all the same. I'm sure I've got that on DVD somewhere, I'll have to sort it out and watch it again.
Yeah, the one with Bowie. I have it on DVD also. I think it is a great movie and it always surprises me that so few people have seen it.
The movie is quite "avant gard" and I didn't bought the whole "I need your resources" thing... but it was 1976. It's quite depressing in some ways as a film...
You know Lesley, all this time I thought Madrid was in Spain... I guess some of my fellow spaniard ancesters took pieces of it to NM...
Amazing.
Jon
Yes, you are right it is depressing, which is why I don't watch it often. It is making a point that it makes a bit too well.
I am not sure who named Madrid or why they chose that name. It is nothing like the real thing though. There is also some argument as to how it is suppose to be pronounced. I say Madrid, but others insist it is May-drid.
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