Nonureva Really Surprised!

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

breeko This has to be the most deceptive movie ever made. On initial viewing it appears to be simply a quaint, sweet and beautiful movie, but with no real depth. I will blame my lack of perception for this. I had to watch it again and again to properly get it, and enjoyed and appreciated it more each time. This is a film that makes people the stars. Not plot, excitement, romance or derring-do This is about how essentially, decent people, with different objectives and lifestyles can come together and reach a common good. The interactions are brilliantly portrayed, and what would appear initially as not much going on, is actually human beings really respecting who the others are and allowing them their eccentricities and personalities without judgement. It is telling us that we need outside stimulus nowhere near as much as we need each other. This means that in every scene, no matter how subdued, it is actually reaching far deeper than an exciting, though contrived action sequence would ever do. Bill Forsyth says to the audience. There isn't any need for real drama, just let people come together and watch them tell the story. This they do, to powerful effect, and when combined with a witty script, beautiful music and stunning scenery, you end up with quite simply, a superb creation.

seaquestration This is a lovely film that comes out of nowhere and captures your imagination. Films of the same ilk are Trout Fishing in the Yemen, Waking Ned Devine, the Decoy Bride, and Field of Dreams. If you like these, you will like this film. It takes a subject of little interest to most, the capitalization of an isolated village in Scotland for profit, and because of brilliant characterization and dialog, creates something lasting that you can comment on 25 years after you watched it for the first time. I don't know why I chose to see this move initially. I do know why I rank it as one of my favorite films. The soundtrack is haunting, with Mark Knoffler at his creative prime. The characters are truly unique, the script natural and intelligent. I loved seeing a senior Burt Lancaster at his very best. That is saying something for a man that stole the scenes in so many great films over his career. The scenery is spectacular and filmed in such a way to convey the both the harshness and the vulnerability of Northern Scotland. - Daryl P.

Tweekums When Houston oil executive Mac is told to go to northern Scotland to buy the village that stands where Knox Oil wants to build its new refinery he doesn't think it is an important job; he believes he could do it just as well via telex. When he gets there he initially maintains that view as local lawyer, and hotelier, Gordon Urquhart, tells him that he thinks the locals could be persuaded to sell if the price is right... the truth is they are all keen to sell and understandably want to make sure they get the best price. During his stay there he goes to like the place and its people... but not enough to change his mind about the project; that would be overly cliché. Mac is accompanied by Scotsman Danny Oldsen who works at the company's Aberdeen office and he does end up somewhat conflicted when he falls for marine researcher Marina who believes Knox wants the site to build a research facility not a refinery.This is a delightful film populated by a fine array of characters including Felix Happer, an oil executive who is more interesting in finding comets; Marina, a web-footed marine researcher; Happer's psychiatrist who believes he is paid to insult his employer; Ben, an old man who lives on the beach and could scupper the project and just about everybody in the town. Director Bill Forsyth did a great job keeping the story fun without slipping into sentimentality... the fate of Mac and Danny's pet rabbit is anything but sentimental; it is funny though! This isn't just a visual treat; the sound is great too with a haunting score from Mark Knopfler, the regular peeping of shorebirds and the occasional roar of RAF Jaguar jets that shatters the tranquillity in a way that stops us from thinking the village is perfect. Peter Riegert puts in a nicely understated performance as Mac which went well with Burt Lancaster's and Denis Lawson's performances as the larger than life Happer and Urquhart and Peter Capaldi is good as Danny. I'd certainly recommend this; the plot might not be deep but it is all the little moments that make it great.

tieman64 "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." - Edward Abbey Bill Forsyth directs "Local Hero", one of several films released in the early 1980s credited with rekindling the British film industry. The plot? A gang of big city oilmen attempt to buy up an idyllic Scottish village with the hopes of turning the location into a hotbed of commercial exploitation. One by one this gang convinces our lovable Scottish locals to sell and give up their property, but are stopped in their tracks by an elderly oddball named Ben Knox. Ben refuses to move.The film stars an ageing Burt Lancaster as Felix Happer, the chairman of the oil corporation. His henchman is Mac MacIntyre, played by Peter Riegert. Both men go to Scotland with the hopes of laying the foundations for dredging, but come away with a deep appreciation for Scotland instead. It's an archetypal anti-urban, anti-corporation comedy, our yuppie, big city slickers falling for the beauty of nature, community, the allure of life in the slow lane and the charms of rural countrysides. If this all sounds familiar ("Cars", "Doc Hollywood", "Mr Deeds Goes To Town", "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but came Down a Mountain", Powell and Pressburger's "I Know Where I'm Going" etc) its because it is, but Forsyth's style is unusual and he delivers the tale as best as it been done.Much of the film watches as the villagers become bewitched with the idea of becoming rich. As their greed grows, MacIntyre begins to shed his materialistic lifestyle. His changes are subtle, and conveyed visually: he stops wearing a tie, he stops wearing a suit altogether, he starts drinking with locals etc. This gentle, affectionate tone permeates the entire film. Forsyth slowly draws out the peculiarities and graces of both his rural folk and city folk and aided by musician Mark Knopfler, creates a mystical quality, a superb sense of location, and memorably contrasts Houston, Texan and Scottish skylines, the latter of which is beautifully enhanced by the Aurora Borealis.Films like this were a dime a dozen in the 80s, reacting against the oil boom, Reaganism, Thatcherism and rise in Yuppie and Wall Street chic. It's one of those films which words like "feel-good", "sentimental" and "heartwarming" are routinely applied to, complete with a fantasy ending in which oil barons stop dredging and start saving communities. This fantasy, of course, does not correlate with our world. Big Oil murders for money and has no moral compass whatsoever. "Local Hero's" style, however, is very special; Michael Mann meets Ken Loach and an 80s synth band. Ironically, Forsyth would give up film directing after finding experiences working in Hollywood to be soulless, greedy and distasteful. He'd retire to the countryside.8.5/10 – Worth two viewings.