Local Hero [DVD]

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Filming [ edit ] Pennan, Aberdeenshire, which featured as the fictional village of Ferness Camusdarach, Morar, near Mallaig, Highland, as the beach at Ferness Taylor, Marianne (28 April 2018). "Playwright David Greig on Local Hero the musical: 'If Scotland likes it, it'll have integrity' ". The Herald. Glasgow . Retrieved 5 December 2021. I don't know how, or why it has proved such an hypnotic film, maybe it is due to the fact that there is not a sordid event in sight, that every scene reamains soft and innocent, without becoming fantasy. It could all happen, to me, or you and it is totally unthreatening. Not a fist fight, mugging, or domestically violent vision to behold. The film is like a memorable weekend where you know you've experienced something special. Schmadel, Lutz D.; International Astronomical Union (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag. p.592. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3 . Retrieved 29 July 2012.

During his 2000 campaign for the presidency, U.S. Vice President Al Gore told Oprah Winfrey in an interview that Local Hero was his favorite film. [16] Some Scottish critics were less enthusiastic about the film, pointing out that it repeated and reinforced long-established cinematic representations of Scotland and the Scots and perpetuated a comforting but misleading narrative about Scotland's relationship with international capitalism. [19] [20] [21] The Glasgow Women and Film Collective questioned what it saw as the film's male-oriented narrative about innocence and power and the marginal roles it accorded to women. [22] Box office [ edit ] Walker, Alexander (1985). National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. Harrap. p.182. ISBN 9780752857077. What makes this material really work is the low-key approach of the writer-director, Bill Forsyth, who also made the charming Gregory's Girl and has the patience to let his characters gradually reveal themselves to the camera. He never hurries, and as a result, Local Hero never drags: Nothing is more absorbing than human personalities, developed with love and humor. Some of the payoffs in this film are sly and subtle, and others generate big laughs. Forsyth's big scenes are his little ones, including a heartfelt, whisky-soaked talk between the American and the innkeeper, and a scene where the visitors walk on the beach and talk about the meaning of life. By the time Burt Lancaster reappears at the end of the film, to personally handle the negotiations with old Ben, Local Hero could hardly have anything but a happy ending. [10]

On arrival he meets the Aberdeen-based Danny Oldsen (Peter Capaldi) and the pair travel to the Highland village of Ferness. There they meet solicitor Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson) and locals who are keen to get their hands on American cash. During a visit to London with That Sinking Feeling Forsyth was introduced to film producer David Puttnam. He’d had success with 1977’s The Duellists and 1978’s Midnight Express. Keen to raise money to make his second feature, Forsyth handed Puttnam his ‘Gregory’s Girl’ script. He hoped the producer might take an interest. People don’t realise it but there is film magic at work,” explained Mr Melville. “The houses are in the north-east and the beach is in the west. The telephone box in the film was also a prop, while the real phone box was hidden.” Although the last feature offered a very thorough look into the making of the film, Criterion still sees fit to add another program made for Scottish Television in 1983, The Making of “Local Hero.” Though some of the same ground is covered this one expands on things by providing production footage from the portion of the film that takes place in Texas, along with a detailed look into the film’s sets (a few of which caught me by surprise because the whole film feels to have been shot on location). This feature also runs 52-minutes. The screenings are supported by Aberdeenshire Council and are being run by Cinescapes, which specialises in outdoor screenings in the Scottish landscapes that inspired them.

We’ve been moaning about making films in Scotland for years. I’d be daft not to do it now that I’ve got the chance.”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.’

The New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote, "Genuine fairy tales are rare; so is film-making that is thoroughly original in an unobtrusive way. Bill Forsyth's quirky disarming Local Hero is both." Maslin concluded: In his Chicago Sun-Times review, Roger Ebert gave the film his highest four stars, calling it "a small film to treasure". He gave particular praise to writer-director Bill Forsyth for his abilities as a storyteller. Awards for 1983". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012 . Retrieved 11 July 2012. Forsyth told The Herald that he was first inspired to write the movie while he was up in Orkney directing a TV play for BBC Scotland. I feel the power of Scotland still,” she says. “I love Scotland and Local Hero was one of the happiest films I’ve ever made. It always comes from the top – Bill Forsyth is the most marvellous, funny, gentle and understated human being. It was Peter Capaldi’s first picture and my first feature film because I’d done a couple of shorts. It was just happy.”

Side guide

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.