Westerns Like Django Unchained And Bonanza Were All Shot In These California Hills

Locations are a major part of any movie or TV show, and the right spot can go a long way toward setting the tone of any given project. Ridley Scott's "The Martian" was obviously not filmed on Mars, but the combination of the harshly beautiful Wadi Rum valley in southern Jordan and a massive sound stage worked wonders in creating the illusion. The iconic Amity Island in Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" was actually Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and ABC's mystery show "Lost" was filmed almost entirely on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.  

The importance of great filming locations, of course, also applies to Westerns. This means far more than just finding some suitably Wild West-esque area and giving the actors some guns and cowboy hats — the location needs to be just so. Fortunately, Hollywood lucked out on this one, because it had the perfect location sitting in its proverbial back yard. Alabama Hills is a region in Lone Pine, California, and it has served a vast array of projects that include iconic Westerns such as Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" and the classic NBC series "Bonanza." The place offers plenty of rough, cinematic terrain, a majestic backdrop in the shape of the Sierra Nevada mountain range — and, perhaps most importantly, a convenient location just some 200 miles from Hollywood. Because of all this, the area has been a hot spot of movie magic for over a century.

Alabama Hills Recreational Area made its Western movie debut in the 1920 silent film "The Round Up," and its complex rock formations and cinematic landscapes became so popular that the best-known thoroughfare of the area is simply called Movie Road. Conveniently enough, many locations used in famous films are very near the road, which makes it an interesting and accessible stop for any passing film buff. Here, you can see iconic locations from films such as Henry Hathaway's "Rawhide" (1951) and John Ford's "How the West Was Won" (1962). 

Apart from the area's many, many appearances in Westerns, Alabama Hills is a popular filming location for just about every other genre. Marvel Cinematic Universe fans will likely remember it from "Iron Man" (2008), which filmed its Afghanistan scenes there. Ron Underwood's B-horror classic "Tremors" (1990) also filmed in the area, as did Ridley Scott's historical epic "Gladiator" (2000). Even iconic sci-fi franchises have gotten in on the Alabama Hills action, courtesy of the William Shatner-directed "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989). In fact, there's no point trying to rattle off every major project that features Alabama Hills scenery — there are literally hundreds of them. 

Understandably, the region is quite proud of its association with so many iconic movies and the film industry at large. If you're looking to visit the Alabama Hills area in order to take in some of its world-famous views, you may want to take a moment to check out the nearby Museum of Western Film History — or even synchronize your visit with the Lone Pine Film Festival, which combines action-adventure movies that were filmed in the areas with tours of their filming locations.