National parks have served as backdrops for countless movies. Death Valley National Park played a role in Star Wars, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, of course, was prominently featured in North by Northwest, and Thelma & Louise drove through parts of Canyonlands National Park.
The list rolls on, not unlike credits at the end of a movie:
* Devils Tower was the focal point of Close Encounters of the Third Kind
* Arches National Park was glimpsed in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
* Planet of the Apes landed at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
* Denali National Park and Preserve was a backdrop for Into the Wild
* Fans of Westerns know that Shane rode across the Grand Teton National Park landscape
* Dances With Wolves used Badlands National Park
There are more, but you get the idea. So, which movie with a national park backdrop is your favorite, and why?
Comments
Much of "Never Cry Wolf" was filmed in the vicinity of the Klondike Gold Rush NHP near Skagway, Alaska.
It's not a very good movie, but Dangerous Mission, set in Glacier National Park, has some great 3-D views of the Park. You also get to see quite a bit of the inside of the Lodge there.
It's got Piper Laurie, Vincent Price and Victor Mature. It pops up every now and then on Turner Classic Movies.
As far as I'm concerned, few movies can rival the scenery, plot, and acting in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). Much of it was filmed in and near Zion National Park.
A few other movies come to mind:
Wind Across the Everglades
The Far Horizons, which includes views of the Grand Tetons
Yellowstone, which was a B-movie from 1936 and which can be seen at the Internet Archive
Getting back to the original question though, it's a toss up between North by Northwest and Close Encounters. But I also agree with Ranger Paul, and think a national park is no place to film a big budget movie. A few establishing shots with a small scale location crew maybe, as in North by Northwest, but not one that interferes with other visitors' enjoyment of the park.
127 Hours - James Franco plays a hiker who gets trapped in Canyonlands and has to cut off his arm to escape.
Although on the screen for a short time, the St Mary's entrance of Glacier Park is shown during Gump's running episode in the movie "Forest Gump".
Don't forget about The Shining.
How about "Jouney to the Center of the Earth" or "King Solomon's Mine, both of which were partially filmed at Carlsbad Caverns?