Local Hero [DVD]

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At the Pennan Inn, Monika Focht also feels the pull and legacy of the film – every day. Local Hero lives on in her house, she says. There are film posters on the walls and guests arrive all the time from all over the world. Monika says that it wasn’t Local Hero specifically that made her and her husband buy the B&B some two years, but she’s glad they did. And she knows that one night soon, she’ll be sitting on the bench by the call box and the phone will ring. She’ll answer it and maybe the person on the end of the line will speak, maybe they won’t. They’re just fans of Local Hero, that’s all. They just want to make the connection.

Its Homeric narrative makes it a wholly unusual entry into the British War Film genre. There are no stalwart British Good Guys in hot pursuit for us to cheer on and identify with. The Germans are well-drawn and three dimensional. Controversially, one of them is even a pretty decent cove (and pays for that flaw with his life). Most extraordinary of all is Laurence Olivier’s ‘Pepe Le Pew on cocaine’ performance as a French Canadian trapper which is either the worst accent-mangling job in history, or evidence of a genius-level acting style the world has yet to apprehend. Upon arriving in Scotland, Mac teams up with local Knox representative Danny Oldsen. During a visit to a Knox research facility in Aberdeen, Dr. Geddes and his assistant Watt inform them about the scope of the company's plans, which entail replacing Ferness with the refinery. They also meet (and admire) marine researcher Marina.

Side guide

Those fond of the film will be beyond thrilled with this edition from Criterion, which delivers on all fronts: a sharp and stunning A/V presentation and rich collection of supplements. Highly recommended. Maslin, Janet (17 February 1983). "Local Hero (1983)". The New York Times . Retrieved 22 January 2012.

Melville agrees that the film is all the better for touching on these themes, including relationships and environmentalism, lightly rather than with a heavy-hand but he does wonder if things would be different if the film were made nowadays. Would the Americans be the baddies? Would there be scenes of the heavy machinery moving in on the beach? He also admits that if you were making it now, you would probably give the female characters more of a prominent role. And could you really make a film about a place like Pennan now without talking about house prices and second homes? The village is mostly holiday homes now and has only about 10 permanent residents left. Jenny Seagrove, who played the mysterious character of Marina (is she or isn’t she a mermaid?) has extremely happy memories of filming at Camusdarach and Pennan in ‘82. She calls me from the middle of the woods in England – she spends some of her time now running Mane Chance, an animal sanctuary and charity in Surrey – and says that the effects Scotland had on are 40 years ago are still with her. Our Lady of the Braes Roman Catholic Church, Polnish, Highland, Scotland, UK (Ferness, village church, internal scenes) [7]

The film’s many beach scenes were filmed on the west coast, in Morar and Arisaig after film maker Bill Forsyth realised nowhere combined the village setting and coastline needed for the story.

Glasgow Women and Film Collective (1983), Bill and Ben: The Innocent Men?, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 14, Autumn 1983, pp. 42 -44, ISSN 0264-0856 Raising his tiny budget from local businesses and working with crew such as production manager Paddy Higson and a young cast, Forsyth’s first feature as writer-director was 1978’s That Sinking Feeling. A Meeting of Minds James Berardinelli gave the film three and a half stars out of four, calling it "a fragment of cinematic whimsy—a genial dramatic comedy that defies both our expectations and those of the characters". Berardinelli also focused on Forsyth's abilities as a storyteller, noting that the director "finds the perfect tone for this not-quite-a-fairy-tale set in a quaint seaside Scottish village named Ferness. By injecting a little (but not too much) magical realism into the mix, Forsyth leavens his pro-environmental message to the point that those not looking for it might not be conscious of its presence." Berardinelli concluded that Local Hero represents "the best kind of light fare: a motion picture that offers a helping of substance to go along with an otherwise frothy and undemanding main course". [11] Past Awards". National Society of Film Critics. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015 . Retrieved 11 July 2012.Melville’s book also reveals the many ways in which the finished film could have been different. The main character of Mac for example is nicely under-played by Riegert but Forsyth considered other actors for the role, including Henry Winkler who played Fonzie in Happy Days. Michael Douglas also fought for the part and it would have been a very different film had he got it. Mac" MacIntyre is a typical 1980s hot-shot executive working for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas. The company's eccentric head, Felix Happer, sends him (largely because his surname sounds Scottish) to acquire Ferness, a village in the Scottish Highlands, to make way for a refinery. Mac (who is actually of Hungarian extraction) is a little apprehensive about his assignment, complaining to a co-worker that he would rather handle business over the phone and via telex. Happer, an avid amateur astronomer, tells Mac to watch the sky and to notify him immediately if he sees anything unusual. Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press, p. 314 Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

British director Michael Powell and Hungarian writer and producer Emeric Pressburger were a two-man creative powerhouse in the mid-20th Century. ‘The Archers’ (as they styled themselves) unleashed a sequence of classic films onto the world that has a unique place in cinema history. Huge box office and critical hits upon first release, their work was latterly (and incorrectly) dismissed as quaint, twee and whimsical fare for several years, until directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola re-educated the critical consensus. Twee? Quaint? According to Scorsese, P&P’s run of movies through the 1930s and 40s was ‘the longest period of subversive film-making in a major studio, ever.’ Bill Forsyth told Evening Times journalist Alasdair Marshall that he was keen to keep making films in Scotland:

Walker, Alexander (1985). National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. Harrap. p.182. ISBN 9780752857077. Ever since I began this project, I have dreamed of staging a screening of Local Hero,” said Amanda Rogers, founder of Cinetopia, the company behind Cinescapes. “Local Hero is an utterly charming film which has stood the test of time. We are particularly excited to be working with Jonathan Melville to explore stories behind the making of the film and its impact on the Aberdeenshire area and on the film industry in Scotland.” JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly Texas Commerce Tower, 600 Travis St., Houston, Texas, US (Knox Oil headquarters)