Love her or hate her, there's one thing that must be said for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- she sure has a lot of people looking north.

It's now a well-known fact that before stepping into the white-hot spotlight of national politics, Ms. Palin was and is the governor of Alaska. As a result, there has been a real spike in interest in the 49th state.

Here are a few facts. It has the largest coastline of any state in the Union. It is larger than Texas, California and Montana combined. There are a lot of bears there. And moose.

Oh, and one other thing -- Hollywood loves Alaska.

Few Americans venture to Alaska, which is separated by 500 miles of Canada (another fact). That remoteness seems to work in its cinematic favor. Everything in Alaska comes wrapped in mystery.

There is a sense of wilderness and wildness about Alaska. Alaska, particularly the cinematic take on the state, often serves as super-sized metaphor for potential and the pioneer spirit.

It's no wonder Hollywood loves it. Here are five of my favorite films featuring the Last Frontier.

RUNAWAY TRAIN (1985): Although easily dismissed as only an action movie, Runaway Train succeeds because it considers all the things that make a movie work. Its action is exciting, but it also is about setting and character and symbol and circumstance.

Yes, the movie is about a prison escape and a train running wide open across the wilderness. But it's also about people (Jon Voight and Eric Roberts) coming to terms with their humanity in desperate times. That's what elevates it.

INSOMNIA (2002): Insomnia, set during an Alaska midnight sun summer, stars Al Pacino as a Los Angeles police detective dispatched to a small town to capture a killer.

Though the police procedural drives the plot, what moves the movie are the ideas of displacement -- physically, emotionally and mentally.

The film also features a rare understated performance by Robin Williams.

THE GOLD RUSH (1925): A Charlie Chaplin masterpiece, this silent Little Tramp feature finds Mr. Chaplin's signature character enduring not only his usual problems -- no love, no money, no respect -- but also contending with the harsh nature of an Alaskan winter.

It's a tribute to the artist that he can find humor in that sort of woe. A favorite scene finds the Tramp making a meal of a boot.

THE CALL OF THE WILD (1935): This classic film adapted from perhaps the most well-known book based in Alaska differs from its literary source material as the focus shifts from the dog Buck to the prospector Jack Thornton, played by Clark Gable.

It isn't surprising. Dogs can't talk, and Mr. Gable, although still a few years from his Gone With the Wind glory, was one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Call was actually shot on the slopes of Washington state's Mount Baker.

REPORT FROM THE ALEUTIANS (1943): This documentary/propaganda piece, directed by Hollywood legend John Huston, focuses on an oft-overlooked chapter of World War II.

The profile of the airmen who flew out of the Aleutian Islands looks at the only time American territory fell into enemy hands and the efforts to reclaim it. Fascinating as both a film and a piece of American, and Alaskan, history.

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