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Summary: O the horror, misery, and nonsense, when will it end?
Review: I saw this on Turner Classic Movies. It was utterly the most wasted 2 hours I have spent through my entire existence on this planet. This movie had a poor excuse for a plot, very little if any plot development, terrible story line, and failed to make a shred of sense. It left me asking, what is the point of this poor excuse for a movie? It was so bad, it should be taken off of the shelves everywhere. The guy who introduced it on TCM needs to have his head examined. I give it negative stars out of 5. In short ladies and gents, this movie should be avoided at all cost. I am totally in agreement with the guy who only gave it one star and made a 6 item gripe list on it. Good day to you all. I hope this review is helpful.
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Summary: My favorite film
Review: Local Hero is for anyone who longs for a place and time that they loved, but could not remain in. (If you've ever had an experience like that, this movie will reverberate in your heart and mind for years.) People either seem to adore this film as I did (Al Gore mentioned that it was HIS favorite film in an interview with Oprah during the 2000 presidential election) or hate it (the person I originally saw the film with in the movie theatre back in 1983 thought it was stupid). Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits did the fantastic (often haunting) soundtrack (which I also bought on CD). Otherwise, the film is difficult to describe -- quirky and whimsical are adjectives that come to mind, but they are too limiting. There are Local Hero fans whose goal in life is to visit the tiny seaside village in Scotland in which it was filmed -- I have to admit that I'm one of them. Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl, Housekeeping) is a very special talent, as a writer and director.
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Summary: DVD demo with a difference
Review: Do you want a disc to show why you invested in DVD/Home Theatre? Local Hero does NOT have Digital Visual Effects, 100's of "DVD Extra's", Digital Surround Sound (or even Stereo) or any of the other usual DVD showcase features. The only advantage of DVD vs Tape is a good transfer from film that maintains the cinema screen proportions (or an option of 4:3 if you want) and picture quality. Why use it to show off your flash new home theatre? It has a wonderful script, superb understated performances from the whole cast, great editing, cinematography that uses the Scottish light wonderfully and a soundtrack so good Dolby Digital Mono is not really a handicap. It's just a great film and that's what you got Home Theatre for, isn't it?
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Summary: Local Zero
Review: Here's a list to decribe this movie 1. dumb 2 stupid 3boring 4 bad actors 5 weak plot 6 makes no sense If you find any of these qualities apealing this is the movie for you.
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Summary: Never heard of it? Get it anyway- it's El Cheapo!
Review: I wouldn't credit this movie to Burt Lancaster- his role is too small to even get partial billing. Peter Reigert (Riegert, whatever) has the coolest, clunkiest leading role of his, ah- career. He's just not very prolific. Anyway, I bought the soundtrack to this film years before I saw it in the video store. Mark Knopfler did the music, and I had learned the soundtrack backwards and forwards. When I saw the tape in the store, I let out a little yelp and grabbed it. This is one of the funniest movies out there, in a sophisticated manner. There are dozens of running gags throughout the film that you won't notice until you've seen it three or four times, and the humor is constant, but devoid of slapstick or tacky stuff. Like this one: they're driving along in the fog and there's this THUMP. Riegert wakes up and the other guy says "I think we hit somethin'." They get back there and it's a stunned rabbit. "Maybe we should put it out of its misery!" "What are you talking about?" "Kill it. You know- hit it with something hard." "You just DID that with a 2,000-pound automobile." Heh.
Rating: 
Summary: A Subtle Comedy
Review: I have watched this movie countless times because it is, in parts, outright funny, and in others, so subtle, it sneaks up on you. Peter Reigert plays "Mac" an oil company negotiator in the early 80's, who is a self-described "telex man". This is his was of describing his own detachment from the events happenening around him. When he is at loose ends the night before leaving for Scotland on business, you get a feeling for how much distance he puts between himself and other people. Burt Lancaster has a delightful part as Mr. Happer, the owner of Knox Oil and Gas, the oil company that Mac works for. He, in his way, is as detached from the events around him as Mac is. His sole interest is in the stars. When he sends Mac off to Scotland he gives him no details on negotiation, but asks him to watch Virgo, where he believes there is an undiscovered comet. Some of the most hilarious parts of the movie are between Happer and his "therapist". The town in Scotland, Furness, that Mac has been ordered to buy, could not be more ready to be bought, and it is the job of Gordon Urqurt, Dennis Lawson, the town innkeeper/barkeep/ accountant to make sure they get their money's worth. Bill Forsythe has directed one of the finest films I have seen. If you like this one you will love Forsythe's "Comfort and Joy."
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Summary: My First DVD
Review: A family favorite, we bought this one right after Christmas when we got the new DVD player. I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the filmed looked via the digital transfer. Highly enjoyable, almost like a fairy tale, nearly makes you forget that MacIntyre was Boon in Animal House.
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Summary: The movie every "indie" filmmaker has since tried to make.
Review: *Local Hero* (1983) is a film I remember from my teens. HBO started running it, I think, a couple of years after its release. I'm sure it bombed at the box: even though Bill Forsyth is Scottish, this movie with its American leads -- and no one was more "American" than Burt Lancaster! -- seems geared toward an American audience . . . who, doubtless, had never seen a movie like this before, unless they cared to check out certain foreign films (and not necessarily French ones). It's my opinion that this movie set the standard for what we would today consider a "successful" independent film. Unfortunately for those involved in making it, the movie suffered from the usual symptom of trend-setting: utter lack of recognition . . . until much later. This movie is like no other, which is why those early HBO audiences, of which I was part, were so captivated. Due to incessant requests, the cable channel showed the film at regular intervals for about two years. For me, it's a restorative thought that, yes, sometimes the cream of the crop IS recognized by a general audience. People argue about the several meanings of *Local Hero*, and I'm certainly not going to offer some sort of "definitive" answer. Personally, what I take from it is how places can change people. What there is of a plot concerns a young Texas oil executive ("I'm really more of a telex man," a superb Peter Riegert sniffs) being sent by his boss (Burt Lancaster) to Northern Scotland to basically buy up a small fishing town, pay off the residents, and relocate them in order to commence building a plant for some environment-wrecking North Sea oil drilling. But Lancaster's sky-crazy Happer also wants young MacIntyre to keep an eye out for the aurora borealis, and to keep him informed of anything unusual happening up in Scotland's skies. (Much of the movie centers around a phone booth painted an eye-dominating bright red -- Forsyth understands how crucial communication is in a small town.) Along the way, MacIntyre picks up a young British exec, presumably to help him deal with the locals. So much for the "plot". What the movie's really about is the gradual change effected by the town and its surrounding environment on our executives, who start the movie by walking along the beach in suits (shades of Nixon!), and who end up . . . but why ruin the movie's many gentle surprises? Forsyth directs the thing with masterful restraint. There are no 30-second shots of the scenery that are meant to impress and edify the audience. The locals, with the execption of a speed-demon motorbiker and a hermit on the beach (who is NOT "charmingly" nuts, thank God), are not the wacky types one finds in, say, contemporary Southern fiction. Restraint and taste are this small masterpiece's hallmarks, woefully missing in most of its imitators. *Local Hero* is a keeper.
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Summary: "I wonder what the poor people are doing today"
Review: Being a scot this has to be one of those rare occasions where a british / american produced film worked well on both sides. Local hero is a classic comedy reminiscent of the ealings classic 'Whiskey galore'. Burt Lancaster was brilliant as was the rest of the cast, scored with a excellent soundtrack by the dire straits front man Mark Knopfler, and filmed beutifully. This has to be by far as Bill Forsyth's best. Despite its age, it is still a very charming and funny film, something rare compared to most of the pictures coming out nowadays. Well worth a look.
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Summary: As close to a perfect film as you'll ever see.
Review: A young Houston oil company exec is sent to Scotland to negotiate, and finds himself totally out of his depth in dealing with the "naive" locals. Hardly sounds interesting, does it? Well, chances are that you, too, will find yourself trapped by this charming, sly, unsentimental film. I don't know how the director, Bill Forsyth, did it (he's missed the mark so many times), but it's like a perfect game in baseball - somehow, everything came together, perfectly, and to see it is to recognize its perfection. And it did not go unnoticed - "Northern Exposure" took the basic premise and even whole scenes, and did a decent homage to "Local Hero". Nevertheless, this is NOT "Northern Exposure in Scotland, With Oil" - it's "Local Hero", and it's a movie that almost everyone who sees it, loves. Read the other 67 reviews - they are all correct. Then see this movie - but, save yourself the rental fee, as the chances that you will want to own it are overwhelming. This film will sneak up behind you and bop you on the head, leaving you feeling happy, wise, foolish, and sad, and wishing you were back in Scotland.
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