Local Hero (1983)

When Mac MacIntyre (played with deadpan perfection by Peter Riegert) is sent by his star-gazing, slightly insane Knox Oil and Gas boss (Burt Lancaster) to Scotland's West Coast to buy the rights to a seaside town slated to be the site of an oil refinery, Mac embarks on his journey reluctantly. "Why do I have to go to all the way to Scotland?" Mac complains to a coworker. "I'm really more of a Telex man." But on the way to closing the deal, a funny thing happens: the place takes root in Mac. The town's eccentric inhabitants, eventful night sky, and stunning scenery soak into his psyche and combine to bring a very different Mac to the surface, a Mac who collects seashells, walks on the beach in his jeans instead of his suit, and throws his calendar watch, beeping "meeting time in Houston," into the sea.

Mac eventually vies to switch places with Gordon Urquhart--accountant, bartender, innkeeper, and community representative in the land deal. After an evening spent drinking 42-year-old scotch ("old enough to be out on its own," Mac chirps, and then laughs smugly at his own joke) and negotiating the real estate deal, Mac tries to negotiate a deal for himself--to trade his high-rise Houston apartment, Porsche, and oil-company job for Urquhart's less traditional, but more fulfilling, life.

The plot runs along almost as if behind the scenes, and the characters are intriguing, but the real appeal here is the incisive yet gentle humor. During a visit to a Knox Oil lab, Mac is shown into a room that contains a miniature of the town he has been sent to purchase. The head of the lab says, "Welcome to our little world," and then gives Mac the plastic replica of the town as a souvenir. "Dream large," he intones. The irony's easy to miss and is just one example of the intelligent presence--in the form of writer and director Bill Forsyth--working behind the scenes here.

Mark Knopfler's delicate, haunting soundtrack complements the sometimes melancholy, sometimes hilarious currents of Local Hero to perfection. --Stefanie Durbin Amazon.com essential video

The chill behind the warmth.

I have read around thirty of the reviews written for this film and all of them describe it as warm, witty, endearing, and gentle. All of which is, on the surface, true. The film can be appreciated for those qualities. But there is also a real darkness at the heart of this movie that seems to have somehow escaped most viewers. It is suggested most blatantly at the beginning in the short publicity film we see for Knox Oil. It is suggested further by the power Happer is demonstrated to have by virtue of his wealth when he orders his nutcase psychiatrist to be shot off his building. "Shoot to kill." It is suggested by the reassurance the minister of the town feels when he sees the jets flying overhead on their practice bombing runs. It's reassuring because their practicing means they aren't doing it for real somewhere else. It is suggested by the visit of the Russian "fisherman". The "fishing" that Soviet trawlers engaged in was often a cover for spying. It is suggested by the resort of the townsfolk to the "church road" when it appears that the sale is going to be blocked by the fellow Knox who lives on the beach. It looked to me like the prelude to a lynching which was only interrupted by Happer's deux ex machina arrival.
All the characters, as apparently appealing and gentle as they seemed on the surface, were motivated by the lure of riches or power and were held blameless for it by one another. "You can't eat scenery." The ending with the phone ringing in a scene that looked more like a picture post card than a live shot left me wondering if that place with all its beauty still existed or was the phone ringing in a place that had changed? We were left with the postcard, a memory, and not the place itself, much as Mac was, and with a troubling sense of participation in something wrong at its very foundations.
The main reason I love this movie is that I consider it a very moral piece of work. October 6, 2008

After 20+ years, never fails to make me smile

Like some of the other reviewers, when this movie came out I was fresh out of college with that misguided sense of ambition that characterized our generation. We were supposed to admire and emulate people like MacIntyre, the stereotype 80s corporate over-achiever, although like him, many of us also figured out that there were more important things in life. However, this is one of my very favorite movies for several reasons beyond the generational aspect: the dry Gaelic wit, the understated performances, the breathtaking landscapes, etc. all factor into it, but what puts it over the top for me is that it is an unequivocally hopeful story. No matter how many times I've watched it, when the phone rings in the last scene, I'm left with a warm heart and a smile on my face.

One parting shot: in a way, I was surprised (and dismayed) to discover that Al Gore cites it as one of his favorite movies. The environmental message in this story is made gently, a seamless part of the story quite the opposite of the heavy-handed approach of Gore and company. I wonder if he learned that this method works infintely better than scare tactics and scolding, but the skeptic in me doubts it. Fortunately the idealist in me enjoys this story too much to be bothered and is waiting for the day when I can travel the out-of-the-way corners of Scotland, perhaps finding a MacIntyre tending the bar in my little hotel. August 17, 2008

It is written in the stars

What do you get when you have an oil tycoon and a young businessman wanting to change a sleepy village into the "petrol capital of the free world?" The 1983 enchanting film, LOCAL HERO, written and directed by Bill Forsyth and produced by David Puttnam who is best known for CHARIOTS OF FIRE. This film is not as epic as the previous, but rather a contemporary and quiet respite from all the extravagance displayed in FIRE.

Burt Lancaster plays the executive of Knox Oil and Gas, Felix Happer, and sends Mac MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) to help negotiate with the people of a Scottish seaside village that the piece of land in which they live and dwell in will be detrimental to the global economy for an oil pipeline. The most interesting aspect of the film is how subtle turn of events occurs the longer MacIntyre spends time in the village. The people as well as nature, the Northern Lights and the Scottish coastline, have an affect on both MacIntyre and Happer when the final decisions are made to turn the small village into a refinery.

LOCAL HERO will touch a nerve as well as the funny bone. With its quaint characters, good storyline, and an exceptional soundtrack from legendary guitarist, Mark Knopfler, the film will sure to please viewers looking for a film that simply entertains without a big production.
April 9, 2008

Scotland The Brave

In my carefree 20's I took my bicycle over to the British Isles and rode all through England, Wales, and Scotland. I spent almost all that summer of '77--Queen Eliz' silver anniversary year--on my red Swallow ten-speed "pushbike", as the Brits called it, slogging it up and down and all around that sceptred isle. Though I saw a ghost in a lonely churchyard above Lynton, hit a sheep outside of Chester, saw authentic gypsies near Malton, and heard a concert in the King's College chapel in Cambridge, my fondest memories of the entire trip remain my rambles through the highlands and isles of northern Scotland. They say that many a wistful Scot longs for his homeland, as he drinks a toast in a bar somewhere in the US, or Australia, or Spain, or anyplace that's got a bit less rain and wind than Scotland! Takes a stout heart to survive the rugged weather and harsh terrain of that wild and lonely place!
If you've ever been there, or want to go there, then you should see this movie. It's got everything I love in a film: humor, quirkiness, romance, unexplained actions and unresolved situations, lovely music, magnificent scenery, magic, diversity of all types and the magnanimity and acceptance that must accompany it. You cannot put this film in any easy category; it's totally unique. For that alone it deserves five stars. Knopfler went on to do many soundtracks, but this is still his best. His music is so perfectly evocative of the true nature of Scotland and indeed, this film itself: defiantly independent, far-reaching, fiercely proud, deliberately out of step with the fads and trends. March 11, 2008

Worth a look...

This little-know bit of surrealist deconstruction remains poignantly relevant. Especially as the debate over the ANWR heats up, here in the US. February 19, 2008

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