In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a grim movie about journalists traveling through a war-torn U.S., the group drives under a highway overpass spray-painted with graffiti that says “GO STEELERS.” The location isn’t recognizable as Pittsburgh (and I’m omitting a gruesome reveal), but the suggestion of it was enough for the Pittsburgh audience at an advanced screening to clap and cheer. I know because I was among them, hooting and hollering, grateful that Pittsburgh pride remains undefeated.
Though the region has positioned itself as “Hollywood East,” it’s still a thrill to see it on screen, and in my movie-watching at least, a relative rarity. We’ll always have our go-to Pittsburgh movies that make the city look magical, like Striking Distance, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and horror classics Night of the Living Dead and Silence of the Lambs. But for those of you who get excited at the mere sight of the Smithfield Street Bridge, curl up and settle in with these lesser-known movies filmed in Pittsburgh.
Desperate Measures (1998)…