Movie makin' , salt shakin'

Well, we're almost leaving and I have to admit I'm a bit nervous about it all. Why? In preparation we decided to try and watch a few seminal films about our intended destination. While searching around the internet for "movies filmed in New Orleans" I found a curious pattern: Movies in NO tend to be about crimes, murder, sex, drugs, death etc. I guess these topics just seem to be popular movie themes anyway. If I looked for "movies filmed in Petaluma", would I find the same pattern?? Hmm...

So, lacking a diversity of theme choices we went for "The Big Easy" starring Dennis Quaid, "Easy Rider" starring Dennis Hopper, and "Trouble the Water". The last one is a Katrina documentary and there's probably someone named Dennis in it, but I swear I wasn't googling for "movies filmed in New Orleans with someone named Dennis".

If you haven't seen any of these here's a quick synopsis of the two we've seen so far.

Big Easy - Sort of a New Orleans-xploitation film about gangsters, bad cops, and drugs. Everyone has a thick "Yat" accent, a dialect with french, creole, and southern roots. It was pretty hilarious, I thought. I think Lishka would agree. It also features a pretty steamy sex scene and in so doing, covered all the requisite NO film themes. I wonder what kind of accents we'll encounter down there. No matter what, we'll just be part of dose folks dat tawk normal.

Easy Rider - Filmed in 1969 about two guys who are making a sort of metaphorical escape by making a big drug sell in Los Angeles, then using that money to ride across the country on the back of a couple of Harley's. One planned destination is Mardi Gras. Adventure and tragedy soon follow. Jack Nicholson makes an appearance and steals the show as a crazy borderline-alcoholic lawyer working for the ACLU named George Hanson. Although much of the movie's theme's are related to the post-summer-of-love feelings in the late 60's, one memorable quote is still chillingly relevant today:

George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it.
Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that's what happened. Hey, we can't even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we're gonna cut their throat or somethin'. They're scared, man.
George Hanson: They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.
Billy: Well, it don't make 'em runnin' scared.
George Hanson: No, it makes 'em dangerous.