My top 30 films - No.24

24. Local Hero (1983)

 

Out of all the films in this countdown, this was always going to be in there. Come on, I first saw this when I was seven.

Local Hero was written and directed by Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl) and produced by David Puttnam (Chariots Of Fire). It starts in Houston, Texas, where the owner of Knox Oil and Gas Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster (Birdman of Alcatraz)) decides to send "Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Riegert (The Mask)) on a business trip to Scotland to buy the fictional village of Ferness and the stretch of coastline nearby, making all the residents millionaires. The reason they want to buy it - to turn it into a refinery. The reason he chooses Mac - his name sounds Scottish. Before leaving, Happer asks Mac to watch the sky, especially around the constellation of Virgo, and report any unusual activity. He arrives in Scotland and is met by Danny Oldsen (Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It and In The Loop)), who drives him to Ferness. However, they end up stopping in the middle of fog, after having ran over a rabbit. That scene is fantastic, particularly when Danny goes "Should we put it out of its misery...Kill it. Hit it with something hard" and Mac simply replies "You've already done that with a 2 tonne automobile." They arrive in Ferness the following morning and try to check into a hotel, but are told "breakfast isn't until 8; 7 in the fishing season. It's not the fishing season." Mac's reply - "We have an injured rabbit also." The man they are looking for to discuss the deal is actually the owner of the hotel - Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson (Star Wars)). All the locals want the deal to go through, so they can get "4 or 5 winter lambs and a box of mackerel into the back of a Maserati". However, there is a problem concerning the nearby beach and the man who lives on it called Ben (Fulton Mackay (Porridge)).

Local Hero is brilliantly written and features some memorable quotes. There is one particular moment where one of the locals is naming his boat The Silver Dollar and someone asks him "Are you sure there are two L's in dollar, Gideon?" His response is priceless - "Yes. An' are there two G's in bugger off?" There are two other scenes that are memorable in this film. The first one happens at the end of the ceilidh, where Mac is quite drunk and offers to swap lives with Gordon. He is prepare to give away his apartment in Houston, his job and his Porsche to Gordon, so that he can stay in Ferness. The other is when Mac is negotiating with Ben and Ben picks up a handful of sand. He tells Mac that he can pay him £1 for every grain of sand in his hand and he'll sell the beach for it. The best bit of this is when some fall through his finger, saving him a few pounds. Is it a comedy? Most of the comic elements of based on reality. Honestly, go to a village in Northern Scotland and there will be one man constantly going up and down the street on a motorbike.

The most amazing thing concerning the cast was the fact they were able to have a Hollywood star like Burt Lancaster appear in it. He joined after Bill Forsyth won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for Gregory's Girl and David Puttnam a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Film for Chariots of Fire. Apparently one-third of the budget was Burt Lancaster's wages. He was the only major Hollywood star in the film. Peter Riegert was little-known at the time but was Bill Forsyth's choice, even though Warner Bros. would have preferred Henry Winkler. The sense of Mac constantly walking into room and going "HEY!" like the Fonz doesn't seem right. And who would have thought that an inexperienced Peter Capaldi would become the violent, foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker.

The other thing to love is the setting of the movie. The Ferness scenes were filmed in Pennan, Aberdeenshire. Honestly, if you go there after watching the movie, you will see that it hasn't changed one bit. Well, I say that, but one thing has changed. An important part of the film is the phonebox which Mac uses whenever he wants to call America. The actual phonebox in Pennan is not the same one used in the film; they built a wooden one yards away. The beach scenes were actually shot on the other side of Scotland, on the west coast at Arisaig, Morar and Camusterrach. I remember visiting those beaches in 1999 and 2000. Good times. It is picturesque and worth visiting, preferable in the summer. This film is an advert for Visit Scotland.

Finally, a word on the soundtrack - fantastic. The soundtrack was composed by the legendary Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. The main tune is performed in so many different ways but they work on every level. There is a piano/acoustic guitar version (known as the Wild Theme), a version played by The Acetones during the ceilidh and Northern Lights scene and, of course, Going Home, which is played during the end credits. Going Home is also the intro music for Newcastle United's home games. That's why it is just as special for me. The whole soundtrack perfectly compliments the movie with its instrumental melodies, even though the soundtrack actually outsold the movie.

Back in 2008, Mark Kermode did a piece for The Culture Show, where he took Bill Forsyth back to Pennan to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary. The most special moment of that was a screening of the film in the newly reopened village hall (which had been destroyed by a mudslide the previous year) and Bill Forsyth admitted that this was the first time he had watched the film in 23 years. He won a BAFTA for Best Direction and the film was nominated for 5 others categories, including Best Film. This is almost the perfect movie. Sure there are things that Warner Bros. and maybe other directors would have done differently. But if they had, I wouldn't be talking about this film and you wouldn't be reading about it...