For more information contact: Taos County Visitor Center Steve Fuhlendorf, Director of Marketing P.O. Drawer I - Taos, NM 87571 1-800-732-8267 or 505-758-3873 Fax:  505-758-3872 stevef@taoschamber.com

Taos in the Movies

Taos and its environs have been the set for dozens of Hollywood films, documentaries, and television commercials since the 1940s.  From Lucille Ball movies to the award-winning 1992 PBS show, Surviving Columbus, and up to the present day, this area has been a magnet for movie cameras and crews.  And the wide variety of films has reflected the diverse range of terrain, people, and cultures found here.

In 2002, Taos hosted an independent feature film, Off the Map.  Director Campbell Scott, son of George C. Scott, called Taos "the perfect fit" for this film, which stars Sam Elliot and Joan Allen.  They play the parents in a dysfunctional family living "off the grid" in the early seventies.  In his search for a "forever view" to define the place and time, Scott found it in the high meadows above San Cristobal.

The first feature to be completely shot in the Taos region was the 1999 Tortilla Heaven, a charming comedy.  Working with a New Mexican crew, the production company spent two months shooting in the village of Dixon.  The film will be released in 2003.

Also in 1999, All the Pretty Horses, a Santa Fe-based romance starring Penelope Cruz and Matt Damon, was filmed.  According to director Billy Bob Thornton, the crew shot many scenes in Taos to capture a "more dramatic landscape."

Taos Pueblo has featured in many productions over the years.  The anti-establishment statement of the sixties, Easy Rider (1969), is the best known of these.  Director Dennis Hopper became so enamored of Taos that he lived here for almost ten years after the movie was completed. 

Diane Reyna, a Taos Pueblo native, used the Pueblo extensively in her documentary, Surviving Columbus.  Also, parts of Hollywood or Bust (1956) were shot at Taos Pueblo, and Lucille Ball spent time in the old village during filming of Valley of the Sun in 1942.  Her husband, Desi Arnaz, is said to have whiled away the days teaching Pueblo children to play the congas.

In 1990, Dennis Hopper came back to direct an action picture called Backtrack.  Besides Hopper, the cast included Jodie Foster, John Turturro, Joe Pesci, Charlie Sheen, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, and Bob Dylan.  Many Taos landmarks are recognizable, including a bar on the Ski Valley Road (scene of a dramatic shootout) and the high bridge over the Rio Grande Gorge.

The spectacular gorge bridge, built 650 feet above the river, also provided locations for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny de Vito in Twins (1988); for Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994); and for a commercial launching Acura's new SUV in 2000.