Jeff Bridges' film "Crazy Heart", the story of the redemption of an alcoholic country singer, showcases the landscape of Texas and petchem capital Houston, and won Bridges an Oscar for Best Actor.
For fans of the NPRA road trip from Houston to San Antonio, there are plenty of picturesque shots of wide open spaces, some views of what must be the tree-dotted Hill Country, and one stock shot of the Houston skyline. Given that my knowledge of Houston is somewhat limited, I didn't recognise the street scenes in the residential area of the city where the travelling singer sets up home, but they looked pretty much like the areas you glimpse alongside the main freeways. And despite a passing acquaintance with the shopping malls of the city, the mall where the movie's disastrous turning point takes place didn't look at all familiar either. Maybe a Houston reader could fill me in on this.
(PS See Debi's comment: the scenes which were supposed to be on the road in Texas and in Houston were actually filmed in New Mexico, so no wonder they didn't look familiar!)
(photo: Rex)
Hi Barb,
This post showed up in my Google Alerts today, so I thought I'd answer it. 'Crazy Heart' was filmed in New Mexico, so Bad's "Houston" home and the mall are actually in one of these New Mexico locations...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1263670/locations
Chalk it up to "movie magic"!
Best,
Debi
The house in Houston looks like it could be the Montrose area where I use to live, but apparently, according to Deb's comment, it is not. It all makes sense though because the footage from downtown (which I knew pretty well) looks completely unfamiliar to me.
Also, if I remember correctly, the road in the stock footage of Houston looked like Allen Parkway and not I-10 from San Antonio.
Cheers,
-Mark
The "mall" is a small underground plaza in downtown Albuquerque near the convention center. The "bar" where he lost Buddy is actually a restaurant. Not sure about the house, but it looks like many of the houses in the older part of Albuquerque on the edge of downtown. I lived in Houston and Albuquerque for many years, and the only thing in the movie that spelled Houston to me was the poster on the wall in the "mall" scene advertising the Houston Opera.
I've lived in Houston all my life and also thought the house could be in Montrose or the Heights maybe. The mall I thought could be the underground shops downtown. It's been many years since I've been there though, so it wasn't familiar. It was all pretty generic,save the skyline shots, which should have been my tipoff that it probably wasn't Houston at all.
The "Houston mall" is definitely the small underground Albuquerque plaza. I have been there many times, eaten at the bar/restaurant, parked in the same underground parking they used in the movie, and shopped in the little boutique. The Houston underground is much larger, more shops, different architecture. The house does look like some in Montrose or the Heights, but also like many near downtown Albq or Santa Fe. Everything else was NM, so I don't think they would have gone to Houston for a few shots in a generic house. Like Debi said, movie magic!
In Crazy Heart the road driving towards downtown is Memorial Drive. I live right off of it.