Tour the celluloid West

Sunset, March, 1994 by Elaine Jarvik

If they gave Oscars for scenery, Utah would be a regular winner

IN ONE OF THE MOST memorable movie finales in years, the heroic but hapless Thelma and Louise rev up their Thunderbird convertible and drive off a cliff into the Grand Canyon. It's a great scene, except it doesn't take place at the Grand Canyon. It was shot in Utah, just outside Canyonlands National Park.

Similarly, it's Utah that you see in Geronimo: An American Legend, the recent Gene Hackman-Robert Duvall western about the Apache leader, even though the real Geronimo never set foot in the state. And it's Utah in this year's City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.

In fact, it's been Utah so often in movies and on TV that it's hard to drive through the place without feeling deja vu all over again. Utah has been everything from Marlboro country to Jeep country. It has doubled for the Arabian Desert and Mongolia. In 1968, it was even Planet of the Apes.

THE ULTIMATE BACKLOT

But mostly it's been The West. Thanks to the silver screen, millions of people around the world think all the West looks like Utah, an endless, arid, breathtaking place. Tom Mix's Dead-eyed Dick, a silent movie shot in 1922, was the first Utah western, but the film that put the state on the movie map was John Ford's 1939 classic, Stagecoach. Ford's new young star, John Wayne, was particularly entranced by the film's location, Monument Valley. Ford, though, was ultimately interested in its cinematic possibilities. He liked the broad vistas and the improbable rock formations, which appeared frequently in his films, among them The Searchers and My Darling Clementine (it was the backdrop for the famous shootout scene at the OK corral). He also appreciated the fact that Monument Valley was far away from his Hollywood bosses.

A good place to learn about Utah film sites is the Moab Information Center (Center and Main streets). There, you can pick up a free Moab Area Movie Locations Auto Tour guide, which has directions to Indiana Jones's childhood stamping grounds (Double Arch, Arches National Park) and the place where Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount in The Greatest Story Ever Told (Island in the Sky, Canyonlands). While in Moab, check out the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame (801/259-6100). Monument Valley is about 150 miles to the south. Utah's Little Hollywood is located in and around Kanab. More than 100 movies and TV shows have been filmed here, including Drums A long the Mohawk, Arabian Nights, and Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales, whose sets are now part of Lopeman's Frontier Movie Town (297 W. Center Street; 644-5337). Nearby Johnson's Canyon served as the setting for television's "Gunsmoke."

If you're staying the night in Kanab, try Parry Lodge (89 E. Center, 644-2601; rates from $38 to $46). Some of the 24 rooms open in winter are named after different stars who stayed there while on location, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tyrone Power, and Ronald Reagan.

One of Utah's most famous movie sets is in the nearby ghost town of Grafton, which is just south of Zion National Park. The town's schoolhouse, store, and cabins provided a backdrop for the bicycle scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford fans will also want to visit Snow Canyon State Park, outside St. George. It's where Redford freed his stallion in The Electric Horseman.