Steve Prefontaine, played by Billy Crudup in Without Limits (1998) and played by Jared Leto in Prefontaine (1997)

Bill Bowerman, played by Donald Sutherland in Without Limits (1998) and played by R. Lee Ermey in Prefontaine (1997)

Stephen Meek, played by Bruce Greenwood in Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

Art Honeyman, played by Michael Sheen in Music Within (2007)

Pennie Lane Trumbull, played by Kate Hudson in Almost Famous (2000)

James Fogle, played by Matt Dillon in Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

John Reed, played by Warren Beatty in Reds (1981)

Louise Bryant, played by Diane Keaton in Reds (1981)

Claire Phillips, played by Ann Dvorak in I Was An American Spy (1951)

Walt Curtis, played by Tim Streeter in Mala Noche (1985)

Special mention goes to:

Curtis Salgado, whose signature style inspired the attire and music of Jake and Elwood Blues, aka The Blues Brothers (1980)

Walt Curtis, who has inspired two documentaries, Salmon Poet (2009) and Peckerneck Poet (1997)

The rarest category of Oregon film is a non-documentary based on the life of actual Oregonian. In 1951, Claire Phillips joined a select crowd which would later include John Reed and Louise Bryant, (Reds), Steve Prefontaine (Prefontaine, Without Limits ) and James Fogle (Drugstore Cowboy).

A night club singer who worked under the code name High Pockets, Phillip won the Medal Of Freedom for her espionage in WWII. You can read about her accomplishments in Brian Libby’s wonderful profile in Portland Monthly. Yes, she was water boarded by the Japanese.

She herself chose Ann Dvorak to play Claire Phillips/High Pockets on the Big Screen.‘

I hereby claim I Was An American Spy as an Oregon film on the basis of the inspiration provided by Oregonian Claire Phillips.

In Reds, writer-director-producer-star Warren Beatty zeroed in on a signficant detail. John Reed, who achieved world fame as a journalist, was a frustrated poet.

Throughout much of Red’s 194 minutes, Beatty’s Reed tries and tries to finish a poem to Louise Bryant, his wife.

Perhaps Beatty was thinking of this poem, by Reed.

A Letter to Louise

Rainy rush of bird-song
Apple-blossom smoke
Thin bells water-falling sound
Wind-rust on the silver pond
Furry starring willow wand
Wan new grasses waking round
Blue bird in the oak…
Woven in my word-song

White and slim my lover
Birch-tree in the shade
Mountain pools her fearless eyes
Innocent all-answering
Were I blinded to the Spring
Happy thrill would in me rise
Smiling half afraid
At the nearness of her

All my weak endeavor
Lay I at her feet
Like a moth from oversea
Let me longing lightly rest
On her flower petal breast
Till the red dawn set me free
To be with my sweet
Ever and forever…

Louise Bryant, played in Reds by Diane Keaton, was also from Portland (more precisely, Salt Lake City by way of Portland). Historians agree the scene where Bryant invites Reed to visit her writing studio is largely accurate. Where the invitation was extended is a matter of some dispute. The studio is still standing. It is located across the street from the downtown library, at 1033 SW Yamhill.

Louise Bryant, thinking about John Reed

John Reed, writing about Louise Bryant

Howard Zinn, writing about John Reed

Not one inch of Reds was shot in Oregon. Some of the Portland exteriors were shot in Seattle. Nevertheless, because it is based on the grand love affair of two Oregonians, John Reed and Louise Bryant, I claim it as an Oregon film.

Read here an impassioned defense of Reds as an underrated masterpiece.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I hereby claim Reds as an Oregon film based on the two Oregonians who inspired it.