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Local Hero [1983] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Long before The Full Monty there was this lovely fish-out-of-water comedy by deft Scots writer-director Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl). Set in the 1980s during a period of controversy over North Sea oil drilling, Local Hero follows a likeable, woolly American junior executive (Peter Riegert) dispatched from Texas by his blustering boss (a high-spirited Burt Lancaster) to a small fishing village on the coast of Scotland for the purpose of swindling the presumably simple-minded locals out of their drilling rights. The surprise isn't that the villagers turn the tables on the American schemers, but that they do so without displaying a hint of malice. They get a kick out of flummoxing the city slickers. Even Lancaster's greed-head Felix Happer eventually has a change of heart. In outline, this may sound more ordinary than it feels as you're watching it. The fine young British actor Denis Lawson, who had a tiny role as one of the fighter pilots in Star Wars plays Riegert's UK contact, Gordon Urquhart, a sad sack with a noble soul. --David Chute
My favourite film
Review date: 2007-12-30 Rating: 10 out of 10
Still my favourite film almost twenty-five years after its release. Nice to see so many other people also rate it so highly. Makes you wish you were there on Scotland's west coast.
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Reviews
A British Classic
Review date: 2007-11-19 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is the type of film that you keep on coming back to periodically, like It's A Wonderful Life or Breakfast At Tiffany's. The film exudes warmth and leaves you with a glow inside. At its heart, it is a simple tale of Knox Oil and Gas, a large multi-national corporation whose chairman is the wondefully cranky, stargazer Happer (played brilliantly by Burt Lancaster) and which seeks to purchase several miles of unspolit Scottish coastline to build an oil refinery. Happer dispatches Macintyre played by Peter Reigert to test the water for the development and strike the deal with the local community, headed by hotel owning/lawyer Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson).
However, it is the human story which captures the audience. The director's little in-jokes such as the passing motorcyclist or Macintyre's journey and experiences from American Exec where he phones people in the next office to arrange meetings and lunch breaks to field man in a remote village in Western Scotland where the only phone is a payphone in an old traditional red phone box where calls to America require a copious supply of 10p pieces. The script is also superb with some fantastic repartee between Macintyre and his Scottish hosts, "Would it help if I called a vet?" (Urquhart's retort after he has served up Macintyre's pet rabbit for tea much to Macintyre's disgust).
The film has aged well and offers an interesting insight into the effect of the capitalist boom of the 1980s on the small and traditional rural parts of Britain. Superbly acted, quaint and inoffensive, this is the kind of film the British do so well and which never tires from repeat viewing.
Essential movie
Review date: 2007-09-29 Rating: 10 out of 10
Agree with all the reviews. This is a beautiful, heartwarming movie.
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An underrated 1980's feel good movie
Review date: 2007-07-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
I can just about remember watching this with my dad as a child in the 1980's and being absolutely bored to the point of insanity, watched this sometime in 2006 on film four and absolutely loved it, what an amazing change of opinion.
I am only guessing that a lot of people have never seen or even heard of this, if you haven't then you really don't know what you are missing. Without going into too much detail it is about an American junior executive (Peter Riegert) who is sent to a small Scottish fishing village by his rich greedy boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy for oil although it is a lot more complex than this and so you would be better off watching it yourself so you will know what I mean when I say this is an underrated beautiful feel good movie.
Like I said I am not going to mention any more of the story but I will just give a few examples why I really like this film. For a start I love the location of the actual village, it is one of those places where everybody knows each other but what I also really like is the way that everybody is really friendly and happy, not in a fake way but in a sincere way even though they haven't got much money, everybody genuinely seems to care about each other. It is for this reason that the young rich American that is sent there, very slowly but without realising it starts to fall in love with the place. This might sound a little seen it all before and over sentimental but you have to really trust me when I say it isn't either, it is filmed in such a unique, beautiful and uplifting way that you really could only know what I mean by watching it, it is one of those movies that I didn't want to end. WATCH THIS AND HOPEFULLY SURPRISE YOURSELF.
Superbly gentle comedy
Review date: 2007-06-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
I love this film! Its sumptuous, gorgeous, beautiful, gentle, funny, amusing, sad, poignant... so many words to describe this quirky film set mostly in a Scottish coastal village where the locals want to sell and the potential US purchasers don't realise this fact! The characters are wonderful from Happer, the US oil billionnaire played by Burt Lancaster to the head spokesperson for the locals played by Dennis Lawson (Star Wars' Wedge Antilles). Theres a great minor but important character played by Fulton Macay and many more super characters with lesser but equally as important roles. Nothing here is rip roaringly funny, rather it is a gentle and amusing comedy (look out for the scene by the church where the vicar says he will be as discrete as the next man while the whole village listens from inside the church!). This isn't big budget movie making, theres no loud explosions, no stunning but obvious special effects, no car chases, just exceptional acting and direction telling a terrific story which almost stands still like the life of the villagers. I cannot recommend this film more highly; surely its about time it was re released on DVD.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Denis Lawson
Norman Chancer
Burt Lancaster
Fulton Mackay
Peter Riegert
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 9786305558200
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 6305558205
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 1999-09-21
Universal product code (UPC): 085391130727
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
DVD layers: 1
DVD sides: 2
Picture format: Anamorphic WidescreenPan & Scan
Region code: 1
Running time: 111 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1983-02-17
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)