Stream These Lesser-Known Movies Filmed in Pittsburgh | Screen | Pittsburgh

At Alex Garland Civil wara dark film about journalists traveling through a war-torn United States, the group passes under a highway overpass spray-painted with graffiti reading “GO STEELERS.” The location isn’t recognizable as Pittsburgh (and I’m omitting a macabre revelation), but its suggestion was enough for the Pittsburgh audience at an advance screening to clap and cheer. I know because I was among them, hooting and shouting, thankful that Pittsburgh’s pride remains undefeated.

Even though the region has positioned itself as “Hollywood East,” it’s always a pleasure to see it on screen, and in my films at least, it’s a relative rarity. We’ll always have our must-see Pittsburgh movies that make the city magical, like Hitting Distance, The Dark Knight RisesAnd The perks of Being a Wallflowerand horror classics Night of the Living Dead And The silence of the lambs. But for those of you who get excited at the mere sight of the Smithfield Street Bridge, relax and settle in with these lesser-known films filmed in Pittsburgh.

Desperate measures (1998)

This action thriller set in San Francisco, but primarily filmed in Pittsburgh, stars Michael Keaton as a crazed serial killer crossing the Bridge of Sighs. This happens thanks to a tense plot in which a police officer (Andy Garcia) discovers that the only bone marrow match for his leukemia-stricken son is a convicted killer (Keaton). In a weird Pittsburgh version of John Q.Garcia’s character breaks Keaton out of a supermax prison to perform the transplant. As expected, things go awry, leading to a wild chase through downtown Pittsburgh – viewers will recognize the Allegheny County Courthouse and the BNY Mellon Center on Grant St. – with explosions, helicopters, snipers, SWAT and, of course, a bridge scene.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube TV, Apple TV, Google Play

The clearing (2004)

I happened to look The clearinga film about the kidnapping of a rental car company tycoon the day after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and found it to be rich text . (When the news broke, I immediately thought of another quickly forgotten Pittsburgh film, Sweet girl. In the 2021 Netflix version, a grieving husband, played by Jason Momoa, strangles a Martin Shkreli-like character who denied his wife life-saving care, inside Carnegie Music Hall. Quarter-zip vests are truly the mark of the beast.)

The clearing is a quieter, more contemplative entry in the eat-the-rich genre, loosely based on the real-life kidnapping of a Dutch businessman in 1987. The film is carried by a trio of hard-hitting actors – Willem Dafoe in the role of the captor, Robert Redford as the captive and Helen Mirren as Redford’s stricken wife – and by Pittsburgh itself. Get hooked as you watch Dafoe take the T to downtown, run through the Armstrong Tunnel and ominously retrieve a briefcase and envelope, or stick around for ransom at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV

The cemetery club (1993)

Pittsburgh shines as a backdrop for an action movie, but what about for a ’90s romantic comedy? The cemetery club centers on three Jewish widows who visit their husbands’ graves every week in the Allegheny Cemetery (which has never looked better on film). The ensemble of “three divas” – as portrayed by famed actor/director Bill Duke – includes Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd and Ellen Burstyn, who make this film a delight even before Burstyn’s character leaves for a date you at the Original Oyster House with a suitor played by Danny Aiello. The film is poignant in its own right (and stars 12-year-old Christina Ricci), but Duke brings a Hitting distance– as a reverence for filming scenic swaths of Pittsburgh, and I lost count of the number of recognizable locations. Check out downtown views, a gaudy wedding with an 80-year-old groom at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, and another memorable scene at William Penn.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV

The next three days (2010)

I don’t know how little known he is The next three days is (I suspect it might already have a cult following), but it should be considered a Pittsburgh classic. The crime thriller is part of the yinzer canon, if only for Liam Neeson leaning in during a prison visit to pronounce, in his Irish accent, “Pittsburgh is tough.”

The next three days begins with leading lady Elizabeth Banks about to get into a drunken brawl at the Grand Concourse, being wrongly arrested for murder in the next scene, and then quickly evolving into her true form – a jailbreak movie from Pittsburgh. Brennan’s mild-mannered husband (Russell Crowe) stages his escape amid the region’s bridges, tunnels, and impenetrable belt system, all spectacular with the fall foliage. Enjoy the ride and some great views from Mount Washington (and don’t scrutinize the exit route too much).

Where to stream: Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV

Ms. Soffel (1984)

I’m probably pretty obsessed with Ms. Soffel and the Biddle Brothers, but we were a good country producing these kinds of haunting romantic dramas, and Pittsburgh should rightfully lay claim to this one. Ms. Soffel dramatizes the real lives of the Biddle brothers escaped from the Allegheny County Jail in 1902 (yes, that’s three jailbreak films on this list), with the help of the prison warden’s wife, Kate Soffel. The film stars Mel Gibson and Matthew Modine as Ed and Jack Biddle, and Diane Keaton as Kate. I have mixed feelings reporting that the chemistry between Keaton and Gibson is absolutely out of my pocket and that it alone makes Ms. Soffel it’s worth the detour.

But Ms. Soffel took the true crime element to a new level by filming inside the Allegheny County Courthouse and the old Allegheny County Jail where the Biddles were imprisoned. If you’re familiar with the story, you already know the fate of our protagonists, but you can still buckle in for the chase with real-life police detective Charles “Buck” McGovern played by Terry O’Quinn (aka John Locke from

Lost). Ms. Soffel celebrated its 40th anniversary on December 26 and I raise a glass.Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV