LOCAL HERO (1983)
Directed by Bill Forsyth
Warner Brothers, 111 minutes, PG
★★★★
Local Hero was a favorite film of my friend Michael, who recently passed away. Like me, he loved all things Scottish. Local Hero is a classic that is part of a series of Scottish films from Bill Forsyth, a beloved director. Although the film’s externals–hair styles, clothing, automobiles, gender dynamics–are dated, Local Hero bears another look for its what-goes-around-comes-around relevance.
Local Hero is a pastiche of farce, broad comedy, fairy tale, Brigadoon parody, and moral lessons. It begins in Houston, where Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), the head of Knox Oil, has his eye on draining some of Scotland’s North Sea oil. Knox Oil needs a place to build facilities and a deep port for big tankers. His experts advise him that only a place called Ferness meets the criteria. Happer decides that “Mac” MacIntrye (Peter Riegert) is the man to finalize the details based on Happer’s mistaken assumption that Mac is “Scottish.” Mac is actually an 80s-style Yuppie of Hungarian descent who’s about as Scottish as Scotch tape, but what Happer thinks equals reality.
Mac is also commanded to report on what he sees in the sky because Happer is a passionate amateur astronomer. So, it’s off to Caledonia where he meets his gawky local contact Danny Olden (Peter Capaldi). Danny is instantly smitten with Marina (Jenny Seagrove), an oceanographer who believes her geologist bosses actually want to build a marine biology center in Ferness. When she exits–and she will resurface–Mac and Danny are off to the village via moors, one-track roads, Biblical rain, and fog.
They finally check into a B & B run by Gordon Urquahart (Denis Lawson), who is also the local accountant, bar owner, and unbeknownst to the visitors, pre-selected by Ferness residents to wring as much money as he can from the Yanks. Mac is all-business and wound tighter than a bodhran, but he can’t help but be attracted to Gordon’s wife Stella (Jennifer Black). Think of every joke you know of yokels getting over on city slickers and kilted variants appear in the film. Mac is oblivious to the fact that villagers have dollar signs dancing in their heads and discuss what they intend to do with their instant wealth the moment Mac and Danny are out of earshot.
Plot lines emerge involving everything from a rabbit, a baby no one wishes to discuss, a fishing boat whose name changes daily, misadventures with the village phone booth, a madcap motor bike fanatic (John Gordon Sinclair, the future star of Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl), an African-born minister with the unlikely name of Murdo McPherson (Christopher Asante), a joie de vivre Russian fisherman, city guys on rocky beaches, a twist on mermaid legends, and a celidh whose musical selections vary (to put it mildly). The film’s humor—even that of the sexual variety—is gentle and droll. Some of it, such as Happer’s abusive therapist (Norman Chancer), is a thudding dud, but it helps to remember the film’s fairy tale qualities are unmoored from quotidian logic.
As you might expect, there is a midge in the cockaleekie soup. Everyone is anxious to sell except one hermit living in contented squalor on Ferness beach: Ben Knox (Fulton MacKay). Note the surname! Mac’s reports on seeing the aurora borealis and stalled negotiations are enough to send Happer to Ferness and Mac back to Houston.
From today’s perspective, several things stick out. The first is a difficult nut to crack, the question of preservation versus modernization. Should a place like Ferness be left alone like tartan encased in amber, or would locals benefit from joining the “real” world? Ferness–real-life Pennan–exudes stark beauty, but it’s also remote and jobs are scarce. On the other hand, refineries (and Mac’s Porsche) do enormous ecological damage. Forsyth cleverly and subtly riffs off Brigadoon rather than moralize, but from the perspective of 2022 it’s hard not to infer that Big Oil needs to become as archaic as Brigadoon.
A funny snippet occurs early on that suggests not even hurricanes wish to be in Houston. Forsyth used Mac, whose stay in Scotland unbuttons him, to consider desire. In short, what do we really want, things themselves or things that feed our souls? Watch and consider who is the happiest person in Local Hero. I thought about Michael as I viewed it, a sad moment but also one that made me ponder and smile.
Rob Weir
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