St. Louis was once considered the Gateway to the West or some such, right? Earlier than that, the Ohio River Basin was the far west and even earlier, Pennsylvania was the far west.

I might differ in opinion as a native Texan, just to be contrary and all, but growing up near the mouth of the Rio Grande River certainly gave me a sense of the south, although mostly geographical, instead of political.
Oddly, where I spent my early teen years, near El Paso, was fairly close to the west, again, geographically.
I just watched "The Fifth Element." A truly easy to watch, funny/goofy movie and while the picture is improved somewhat on blu-ray, it is the sound of this movie that is noticeably improved over standard DVD.