Sweet Home Chicago

Posted on Author Ryan McNeil

As I sit and wait to put together my Film Festival schedule, I can’t help to think back to this past weekend when I took a road trip to Chicago for some baseball. While the game itself was a total mis-match, it got me thinking to all the movies that are set in and around The Windy City. A quick peek of IMDb shows that hundreds of movies have been filmed in Chi-Town over the years. Some good (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), others not so much (CANDYMAN). This of course is not to be confused with movies that are set in Chicago but filmed elsewhere – the musical CHICAGO for example, that in an odd twist of financial responsibility was filmed primarily in my hometown of Toronto.

So in honour of John Belushi, polish sausage, Michael Jordan, and the loop, here are
My Top Five Chicago Movies

#5. HIGH FIDELITY, 2000… The city core isn’t really seen too much in this movie, but the whole story of this sad-sack, music-loving moper is firmly entrenched in The North Side. While many lovers of the book this movie is based on cried foul over the fact that the story was taken out of London where it was set, the move to Chicago seems to suit the story rather well. As Rob Gordon (John Cusack) sits on the EL Train and tries to justify his mistakes to the camera lens, you can almost feel yourself sitting on the other side of the car.
Swirsky Superfan Moment: Rob Gordon walking past the Biograph Theatre where John Dillinger was shot, telling the audience that it was Dillinger’s girlfriend that tipped off the authorities.


#4. THE FUGITIVE, 1993… Sure, the chase may have taken The FBI to every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse, and doghouse, but it’s when Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) comes home to Chicago that the hunt really gets tricky. How do you hide in your own hometown? Where any walk through the corridor of a hospital, or shortcut under am overpass could run you smack into someone waiting to turn you in? Kimble’s fearless stops in the city’s courthouses, hospitals, and hotels harkens a determination that Phil Jackson would be proud of.

Smashing Pumpkins Moment: A quick-thinking Kimble starts marching down Dearborn Street in the city’s massive St. Patrick’s Day Parade trying to give Lt. Gerrard (Tommy Lee Jones) the slip. The idea was hatched on the spur of the moment, as can be seen by the expressions on the people around Jones and Ford during the scene.


#3, THE UNTOUCHABLES, 1987… With apologies to Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey, there are few who loom as large in the history of Chicago as Al Capone. So filming this throwback to the gangster genre anywhere else would have just seemed all wrong. Watching Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert DiNiro, and Andy Garcia shoot ’em up all over the cities oldest hotels, churches, theatres, and neighbourhoods serves as an amazing reminder of the violent times this city saw through the prohibition era.

Frank Nitti Moment: The shootout that takes place on the steps inside of Union Station, as Elliot Ness (Costner) and George Stone (Garcia) try to keep one of Capone’s henchmen from scuttling away a key witness, all the while trying to catch a baby carriage as it tumbles down the staircase.


#2. FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, 1986… “The questions isn’t what are we going to do, it’s what aren’t we going to do?”. Ferris (Matthew Broderick) is talking about the fact that he isn’t about to take the car he “borrowed” straight back to Cameron’s house. However, he might as well be alluding to the fact that they are about to jam a lot of sightseeing into a few hours, and that it might be easier to rhyme off where they won’t be hitting, than to map out where the will be going. If there is a better film about spending a day in Chicago, then I haven’t seen it. Is there any better way to spend the morning, than cruising down the highway into town in a 1961 Ferrari 250GT California? The Sears Tower, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Stock Exchange, Wrigley Field…Ferris makes sure his ninth sick day is one for the ages.

Steve Bartman Moment: If the Irish parade in THE FUGITIVE didn’t do it for you, then the German-American parade in this movie has to. Back on Dearborn Street, the same place THE FUGITIVE parade happened. Ferris appears out of nowhere on a float to sing a Wayne Newton classic, and then unites the entire downtown core in singing and dancing with a Beatles classic.


#1. THE BLUES BROTHERS, 1980… No movie seems to be deeper entrenched in the city’s soul, and no film did more to destroy as much public property. The rhythm and blues music that serves as the heartbeat for Chicago comes through with every note of the soundtrack, and who can resist the story of criminals going straight to save an orphanage? They drive an Illinois State Police cruiser. Elwood’s driver’s license lists Wrigley Field as his home address. They get instruments out of hock, and re-enlist their guitarist from the Maxwell Street Flea Market. They make a covert exit from their own concert as their band plays “Sweet Home Chicago”. The movie seems to nod towards it’s city setting at least once per scene, and it’s all topped off by one of the best car chases in movie history.
Magnificent Mile Moment: That final car chase leads right into the city core, where the Blues-mobile crashes headlong into Daley Centre Building (where it meets its glorious demise). After Jake and Elwood have dashed into the City Hall-County Building, the high rise is quickly surrounded by seemingly every law officer in three states. While they manage to finally take the Blues Brothers into custody, it doesn’t happen before they finish their mission…and get their receipt from a clerk who has a gift for making movies.

3 Replies to “Sweet Home Chicago”

  1. your ‘Frank Nitti moment’ should be re-christened the ‘i owe a million dollars to the estate of Sergei Eisenstein moment’.

  2. Indeed. But impersenation still is the highest form of flattery. Sides, I didn’t feel like calling a scene where some dude gets his head Andre Dawson’d as the best moment.

  3. That awful John Cusack movie “Chicago Cab” (aka HELLCAB)? I rarely use “awful” and “Cusack” in the same sentence, but a movie about a Chicago cab drivers’ shift is a little more than I can handle. It belongs in the trash heap with “Candyman” where Ferris Bueller will never see it.

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