1 minute read
Local Hero
Bill Forsyth’s wry, soulful love letter to Scotland is back in cinemas to mark its 40th anniversary, and its warmth and compassion still radiates off the screen
Words: Rory Doherty
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Local Hero is worth the price of admission just to see its skies. The coastal, highland village of Ferness (the filming locations range from Aberdeenshire to the West Coast) is witness to some of the most stunning dusks, dawns, and sunsets ever captured on British film. Even in scenes created using visual effects, like when our characters watch a meteor shower or the Aurora Borealis, there is a sweeping and wistful beauty that colours every corner of Scotland visible in the film.
Bill Forsyth’s classic comedy, where a yuppy oil executive travels to remote Scotland to negotiate a small town's relocation to make way for a new, lucrative refinery, still has an entrancing effect. The drama is always precise – will our businessman MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) convince the town to agree to leave before he realises he doesn’t want to? – but there’s still a looseness to scenes, allowing Ferness’ melancholic charm to wash over you like it does our protagonist.
Burt Lancaster gets a lot of praise for his performance as a boorish but inquisitive CEO, but the film belongs to Riegert and Denis Lawson, who plays Urquhart, Ferness’ innkeeper, accountant and general spokesperson. Their bond feels more potent than mere bromance; there’s a kinship and eventual loyalty between the two men – and by the time they’re wearing matching jumpers, you know they’ve been fused in some inexpressible way.
Local Hero is a deeply romantic film, perhaps naïvely so. We know, 40 years since its release, that its idealistic narrative of Scotland’s nature triumphing over global capitalism is not how things work – something Scottish critics have articulated in the passing years. In a way, this only makes Local Hero more precious, almost folklorish in how it imagines the beauty of our country. Surely some meek part of it will remain unmoved and unswayed by greater powers. Surely some part of us will remain whole.
Local Hero is reissued by Park Circus on 19 May
