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Local Hero

directed by Bill Forsyth

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Apr 17, 2022
Category: Comedy

A Texas oilman wants to buy a village in Scotland and turn it into a refinery.

The townspeople are eager to sell it to him.

The sale doesn’t happen.

Why not?

A few minutes into the film, “Mac” MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) and his associate are driving from the airport to the town. They hit a rabbit. A thick fog descends. They sleep in the car. In the morning, the rabbit is sitting in the back seat, and Mac asks, “Where are we?”

I missed it the first time I saw “Local Hero” because the answer is too simple: they went to sleep in one reality, now they’re in another — the reality of a fairy tale. Unlike the fairy tales of our youth, which were often dark and terrifying, this fable is heartwarming, with a beautiful moral: there is never a straight path to a happy ending.

Bill Forsyth, the writer and director of “Local Hero,” doesn’t make movies by formula. He’s a Scot, and that’s the key fact about him. There are no jokes, and yet the film is very funny. The plot doesn’t seem urgent, and yet the film never drags. I’ve seen it half a dozen times, and each time, I find something new, feel something new. The way many feel about “The Godfather,” that’s the way I think of “Local Hero.”

Forsyth made “Local Hero” in 1983, and his fairy tale about capitalism vs. humanity and nature is as true now as it was then. In most of the world, capitalism crushes all opposition most of the time. In remote parts of Scotland, magic and mystery are still alive. Not that Forsyth ever hammers that point. Watch the preview.

Years later, Forsyth was more direct:

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:a direct, straight-ahead American and some Scots whose humor is as complex as 30-year-old single malt. The joke’s on the American. And it takes him the entire movie to get it. [To stream the movie from Amazon, click here. To buy Mark Knopfler’s soundtrack — the greatest in modern movies not written by Ennio Morricone — click here.]

More Forsyth:

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 this fable, love wins. Happiness is possible. The great theme song — which doesn’t appear until the end — underscores that triumph Here’s the song.

Performed live, it’s at a higher level of gorgeous.

Something to think about: the red phone booth. At the end, we see/hear it ringing. 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?