Movies

Local Hero

directed by Bill Forsyth

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Oct 6, 2010
Category: Comedy

So you want to see a "feel-good" movie, but not an offensively stupid one.

Let's make the challenge trickier: You want a feel-good movie with great music. And by that I don't mean some DJ's collection of classic hits. I'm thinking: original score. And I'm thinking: world class music.

Of course this is a set-up --- in this category, there's only one movie.

The plot of Local Hero, made in long-ago 1983, doesn’t begin to convey its charm. An oil executive in Houston (Peter Riegert) is sent to a small town on the Scottish coast by his eccentric boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy up everything in sight. Then the oil company will build a giant refinery. Riches are soon on everyone’s mind --- in Houston and in Scotland.

Bill Forsyth, the director of "Local Hero," is a Scot, smart and wily. And so subtle he doesn't even give much away in the preview:

But the plot --- Riegert’s efforts to negotiate a deal --- really isn't very important. The characters are. And with characters as appealing as the people in "Local Hero," a film doesn’t need more. As Bill Forsyth explains: 

I saw it along the lines of a Scottish Beverly Hillbillies --- what would happen to a small community when it suddenly became immensely rich. That was the germ of the idea and the story built itself from there. It seemed to contain a similar theme to ‘Brigadoon’ (1954), which also involved some Americans coming over to Scotland, becoming part of a small community, being changed by the experience and affecting the place in their own way. 

So “Local Hero” is, first and foremost, a study in character: direct, straight-ahead American and some Scots whose humor is as dry as a 30-year-old single malt. The joke’s on the American. And it takes him the entire movie to get it.

Forsyth again: "I think we're basically all odd. I think we all have a tension between what we think we are and what other people think we are. Everyone is like that and I just tend to highlight it. I think I could make a detective story, or something conventional like that, and end up having odd characters in it too. Strangeness is in everyone, it's just a matter of whether you choose to reveal it or not." 

In “Local Hero,” all is revealed --- in good time. Along the way, we are treated to a tour of the splendid town of Pennan, a village on the northern coast of Scotland. [Great trivial fact: The beach you see is not in Pennan. It’s 147 miles away.] And, along the way, we are treated to one of the greatest soundtracks in the history of film --- by Mark Knopfler (once of Dire Straits). It too is subtle: You don’t hear the whole theme until the very end of the movie.

Something to think about: the red phone booth. At the end, we see/hear it ringing. If your eyes aren’t so teary at the end of the first nearly-perfect film you’ve seen in donkey’s years that you don’t care, ask yourself: Who’s calling? What’s going to happen next? And isn’t this the happiest ending you’ve seen in a long time?

To buy “Local Hero” from Amazon.com, click here.

To buy the soundtrack of "Local Hero" from Amazon.com, click here.