With "Ford v Ferrari" making car companies sexy again and "The Irishman" stirring interest in Jimmy Hoffa disappearance theories, Detroit is back in the cinematic limelight.
Neither of these films was shot in Michigan. Yet one invites viewers into Henry Ford II's ultra-masculine executive suite in Dearborn. The other takes audiences to where Jimmy Hoffa was last seen, the old Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township — well, the fictional version, since the peaceful country lane depicted in "The Irishman" is nothing like Telegraph Road's multi-lane congestion.
"Ford v Ferrari" and "The Irishman" belong to a decades-long collection of films with scenes that unfold in the Motor City region, the state's bucolic west side or the quirky woodlands of the Upper Peninsula. Not all of them were filmed here. Yet some of the most authentic examples were, stretching geographically from "8 Mile" to "Escanaba in da Moonlight."
