Local Hero

Rating:
Summary: A Heroic film experience - french new wave meets burges
Review: Today's newest filmaking savant is Wes Anderson who pays an awful lot of homage to the French New Wave and 1970's American film wave that brought you Harold and Maude. I've often wondered if or why 'Local Hero' is never mentioned in his list of formative film experiences.

This gentle, wistful, whimsical comedy is never anything but subdued and perfect-pitch. Comedies today have become so broad (zoolander) or over the top (something about mary) or stylized (coen brothers) that a more restrained eye I fear suffers. The aforementioned all please and are a cut above the rest, but what makes 'Local Hero' so different and beguiling is how it builds slowly not resorting to contrivances to do so. This picture, site and sound, feels organic.

In life it usually follows that the reward is always in the journey; something that is usually only evident in hindsight. And so it goes with LOCAL HERO. The story follows a Texas oil executive, Mac (the always great Peter Reigert at his best) who is sent by his irreverent, eccentric-bordering-on-sociopathic Boss, Mr. Happer (Burt Lancaster), to a Scottish coast town to purchase the land to locate an oil refinery on the basis that he's Scottish. The irony is that Mac is not actually Scottish (his last name assumed when his parents entered the country) and a product of assimilation and rootlessness in his sense of community.

Upon arriving, the town slowly slips under his skin and he begins a slow transformation. The land is something untouched by the modern world, almost primal in its beauty. The people, hard working and eccentric. The catch is that they have their own plan: a poker game, as the head negotiator (Ewan Macgregor's uncle) puts it, to become "bloody stinking rich" off of the Yanks through the sale of their town and surrounding land.

As both sides play out their hands, fate steps in, with Mac, almost in the middle, caught up in trying to do his job and secretly longing to stay (There's a really poignant scene where he pitches switching lives with the local Accountant/Inn Keeper).

Ultimately, the movie helps remind us of how we quickly forget very simple pleasures. The dialogue is smart, terrific really, it's message sweet and sad and the interactions quirky without feeling forced. This is the independent cinema should be.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, boring, boring.....
Review: Apparently, people who like this movie don't like to see it criticized. This is apparent in the number of 'unhelpful' votes this review has been given (far more than it would have if I just said a single sentence about how great it is). But, I still hated the movie and thought it was boring. You may like it, and if you do, great. Here's my original review:

This is by far the most boring movie I've ever seen. I would have turned it off, but I kept expecting that something (anything) interesting would happen. Nothing interesting ever happened, though there were a couple of funny spots. I'd like to have those two hours of my life back. I fortunately didn't waste my money buying the DVD, but rented it instead. Even after reading some of the reviews here, I don't know what anyone could like about this movie. I would have given it zero stars if possible.

Rating:
Summary: A movie that touches, then lets go
Review: This movie is incredible. It brings together all the elements of what a great movie should have (and believe me, this is a great movie). It has warmth, heart, depth, great acting, a rather simple story, and an air of longing. This movie is set on the west coast of Scotland in a small village, though the beginning is set in Houston. It is one of the best contrasts in a movie I have ever beheld. Houston, busy, big, loud and fast, to a little Scottish town, idle, small, quiet and slow. The quality of transformation in this movie is spectacular. Of course, many great film, especially ones of this caliber, have less than to standard endings, but this on has an ending unrivalled. It is actually my favorite part. So, if you are ready for a fast passed and thrilling movie, this is not one for you. But if, like me, you are ready to be moved, to ponder the content of an outstanding little movie, well, then this one is more than perfect for you, it is the only movie you'll ever need.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Disappointing DVD
Review: Ditto commnets from Texas (7/27/02). This sppears to be a matte widescreen version - all they do is chop off some of the top and bottom from the full-screen version to create the widescreen format. You lose even more of the picture from the 4:3 full-screen version! At least it contains the 4:3 version, so it's no worse than VHS, but if I'd known I would have simply kept the tape...

Rating:
Summary: "More of a telex man."
Review: Minor masterpiece from Bill Forsyth involving the attempt by a Texas oil corporation to quite literally buy a small seaside Scottish hamlet. The idea is to relocate the town and put a gigantic oil refinery in its place. The only impediment is that, according to a member of the board, "This isn't the Third World" -- meaning, someone skilled at negotiating needs to be sent over there to iron out the details of the deal and be diplomatic, generally speaking. Enter Peter Riegert as MacIntyre, a junior-level exec selected primarily because of his name (his superiors think he's Scottish). He's reluctant to make the trip, grousing that he's "more of a telex man" and can seal the deal over the phone, until the corporation's president and amateur astronomer (Burt Lancaster at his most ingratiating) takes an interest and asks Mac to report on the stars, the sky, anything unusual up there. ("I want reports, MacIntyre!" he exclaims.) On route to the village, Mac picks up a colleague from the English branch of the company. And so they arrive, dressed in their tailored suits and beeping wristwatches, seeking adaptors for their re-chargeable briefcases. From there, the movie traces the gradual erosion, effected by the village and its people, of the pair's corporate shells: Mac literally loses the beeping watch, leaves the suits in the closet in favor of rumpled sweaters, neglects to shave, collects seashells, drinks 40-year-old Scotch with the local innkeeper / accountant / bartender / chef / unelected town mayor (and gets a crush on his pretty wife), all the while delivering reports on the Northern Lights to Lancaster back in Texas via a bright red phone box. Meanwhile, his British colleague wades into the sea in pursuit of a lovely marine biologist (replete with webbed feet, bringing to mind the mermaid legend) who's studying the area. Clearly, the place is magical, and it literally charms the interlopers to the point that, by movie's end, they are "telex men" no longer. *Local Hero* also charms us. If nothing else, it constitutes the dream European vacation that Americans fantasize about. Ironically, that's because Forsyth doesn't cram the gorgeous scenery (or overly cute local yokels, for that matter) down our throats: like Akira Kurosawa in *Dersu Uzala*, he gives us a characters'-eye view of the terrain, which puts us right there without the help of authorial comment. The same can be said for the movie's themes: the inherently pro-environmental bias is beautifully stated by the scenery and the changes within the characters. No oratory required.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie - so, so DVD
Review: This is a funny, quirky comedy with a great cast, great characters, and beautiful views of Scotland. If you are too young to remember Burt Lancester, he is totally out of character in this film and he is great. Peter Riegert is gorgeous and does wonders as the Houston oil-man slowly being transformed by this little Scottish community. A shot of the oil men striding across the beach in full business uniform, briefcase in hand is contrasted nicely with a later scene of Riegert strolling with his pants legs rolled up and his expensive watch forgotten in incoming tide. The timeless wonder of this movie is aptly descibed in many other reviews. I mainly wanted to comment on my disappointment in the quality of the DVD. With a Mono soundtrack and 4-to-3 TV-quality views it could have been much better done. What happened to the original film?

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: The subtle humor, great characters and story draw you in emotionally and really pays off each time you watch. Peter Riegert never had a better role (well, maybe a tie with Animal House), and Knopfler's soundtrack compliments the picture as well. Made me want to find this place in Scotland. Still stands up over time.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best ever
Review: This movie is fantastic. It is a must-own. I've watched it
over and over again - a great story, funny, intelligent, and
the scenery is breathtaking. It is not a "big" movie, but
it is a wonderful place to visit.

Rating:
Summary: Mark Knopfler in mono?
Review: The movie itself--the story, the acting, the directing, the cinematography--rates 10 stars in my opinion. However, a great deal of the pleasure of this movie is due to Mark Knopfler's soundtrack which unfortunately is only available in mono. How could this be? The cd is stereo. Why not the dvd or vhs addition? For this reason I give the dvd, not the movie but the dvd, only a fair rating.

Ray Fones

Rating:
Summary: Two local heroes' tender declaration of love to Scotland.
Review: Knox Oil rules Houston. The Knox headquarters tower over the Houston skyline, and KNOX radio brings Houston its weather and traffic report. Knox Oil is owned by Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), whose father bought the company from its Scottish-born founder; but unfortunately neglected to change the name to "Happer Oil." Now Knox Oil needs to obtain a location for a refinery in Scotland, and the most appropriate place happens to be a village called Furness, far up on the Northern Scottish coast. And the Knox people don't take no prisoners - they decide to simply go ahead and buy the whole village. The man they're sending to Scotland to negotiate is Mac MacIntyre (Peter Riegert), whose presumably Scottish roots are going to make it easy for him to bond with the locals and close the deal (actually, his family is from Hungary and changed their names to MacIntyre because "they thought that's America").

Reluctantly Mac takes off (he would much have preferred to handle the matter over the wires), bringing an electrically locked briefcase, a watch beeping a signal for "conference time in Houston," pictures of his Porsche 930 ("I got migraine headaches when I was still driving a Chevy") and the tough-nosed, textbook negotiating skills of a Texas oil man. He is not very impressed with the backwater ways of Furness at first - although he does instantly observe that there's "a lotta landscape here." But slowly and inexorably, his attitude changes. Walking along the beach, his steps grow longer and slower, more contemplative. He starts to collect shells. His business suit makes way for a woolen sweater. And his treasured watch dies a slow death as it tries to signal "conference time in Houston" one last time from its underwater grave. Instead of quickly closing the deal and leaving again, Mac has let the place get to him. And he is beginning to regret what this deal is going to mean for this place - nothing other than its total destruction. It will take a surprise visit from Felix Happer himself, prompted not by Mac's reports on the progress of the deal but rather, by his descriptions of the wonders of the Scottish nighttime sky, to bring about a decisive turn of events. For Happer's true love is not the oil business but astronomy; and before Mac left, Happer has charged him with the search for a comet because "the constellation of Virgo is very prominent in the sky right now in Scotland," wherefore Mac needs to "keep an eye on Virgo," to help Happer realize his lifelong dream, the discovery of "Happer's Comet." ("You do know what a comet is?" the tycoon asks, just to make sure. "I feel sure I'd know one if I saw one," a slightly flabbergasted Mac replies.)

"Local Hero" is one of those movies that capture you not because of the intricacies of their plot lines - the story moves along at a languid pace, almost tricking you into believing that there is no plot to speak of at all - nor does it require its participants to display acting skills, Hollywood style. It does, however, require them to be human; no silver screen champions but everyday heroes: "local" heroes, that is; the guys next door, ordinary people. There is, for example, Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson), the village's innkeeper, accountant and general spokesperson who, while negotiating a tough deal on behalf of the village population, also hosts Mac and, by introducing him to the "local ways," inevitably has a big hand in changing Mac's attitude. There is Danny Oldsen (Peter Capaldi), Mac's Knox Oil companion from Aberdeen, who falls in love with a local marine biologist (Jenny Seagrove) with her own designs for Furness Bay, which have nothing to do with a refinery and everything with the bay's preservation. There is Viktor (Christopher Rozycki), a fisherman from Murmansk who has discovered capitalism on the remote Scottish North Sea shores and routinely stops by to visit his friends there and check in on the investments Gordon Urquhart has made for him. There is Reverend Macpherson (Gyearbuor Asante), who despite his last name is about as Scottish as the Lone Star in the Texas flag, but whose erstwhile presumably African accent, after years of living in Furness, has nevertheless taken an unmistakably Scottish tinge. And there is the local villagefolk; wily, earthbound, unpretentious and hard working, nevertheless almost over-eager to cash in; and far from stubbornly clinging to their roots, soon finding themselves discussing the relative merits of a Rolls Royce and a Maserrati (measured by the cars' respective utility in transporting sheep) and musing that "it ain't easy being rich." Except, that is, for Ben Knox (!) (Fulton Mackay), who owns an essential piece of the beach and who will not give up the land given to an ancestor of his by the king himself for "turning a thing for him" (killing the king's brother) centuries ago; not even for the promise of a couple of miles of pristine beach in Hawaii.

The movie's dialogue is as unpretentious and understated as it is witty - Glasgow-born director Bill Forsyth was responsible for the script, too, and it shows. But the film's single most outstanding feature is nature itself; the rugged cliffs, endless and ever-changing skies, windswept, forlorn beaches and stormy sea of Scotland's northern coast. And the brooding, melancholy mood of those beaches, cliffs, misty glens and mountains is perfectly captured by the music composed by another son of Scotland, Mark Knopfler (like Forsyth born in Glasgow), whose very first film score remains one of his most poignant and best-known to date - there probably isn't a Knopfler fan out there who doesn't instantly recognize the movie's theme song "Going Home," even if he has never seen the movie itself. "Local Hero" is Forsyth's and Knopfler's declaration of love to their native land; a humble, evocative appeal for its preservation which merits every bit of attention it has (belatedly) received.