I rented this having seen several people here recommend it. And I don’t get it. It was pretty boring and pointless, and I can’t imagine how people can rewatch it over and over. What is the appeal, please? I feel bad because I made my husband watch it, too, and he had the same reaction.
FTR, we have both enjoyed “quaint little town” movies, as well as movies that might be said to be slow and/or slim on plot, e.g. Enchanted April or Babette’s Feast.
Really? It was a very funny film.
The appeal are the characters. They all behave in odd, yet perfectly reasonable ways. And surprising ones, too.
It’s probably not as good as Forsythe’s Gregory’s Girl, but he had a way of making character-based comedies like this and Comfort and Joy. No laugh out loud moments, but hundreds of smiles.
The big joke is that McIntyre (the agent of Knox Oil and Gas) worries that his firm is exploiting the locals, but the locals want to be exploited by getting their share of the price for the village. You expect a bunch of people in a remote village in the north of Scotland to be unsophisticated, but they turn out to be more sophisticated than McIntyre. But the joke comes out very gently, and with real sympathy for all sides of the negotiation. It’s one of my favourite movies.
I tend to equate Local Hero to the TV show Northern Exposure. The show has a very similar feel to what this movie achieved first.
Unauthorized Cinnamon: Did you watch and if so did you like Northern Exposure?
It is a fairly low key comedy, with some weird quirky and eccentric people. It has a tiny dash of modern magic to it and was a counterpoint to the rampant capitalism going on in the 80s exemplified by Wall Street and the corporate raiders that were destroying so many smaller older companies.
Peter Riegert character does a lot of growing in the show. He is the epitome of the fish out of water. (Again, think Dr. Joel Fleischman in Northern Exposure).
The soundtrack was great. Mark Knopfler did an excellent job of setting the mood and the feel of that small Scottish town.
Jim
It is a very gentle, subtle comedy about people, not situations, which might be why it seems pointless. Not a lot happens on the surface, which might be why it seems boring, but there actually is a whole lot going on if you look for it. The joy of re-watching (for me) comes from getting to know the subtle tics of the townsfolk, getting more familiar with the characters and falling in love with them. They become like old friends and are just delightful. For instance Urquhart (Ewan McGregor’s uncle btw) and his wife Stella, who must be the randiest couple in a movie. Urquhart is a lawyer for the town and they run a bed and breakfast. In fact, everyone in the town does multiple jobs (except for that guy on the motorcycle who’s constantly almost running down MacIntyre, no one knows what he does). Urquhart and Stella are two of my favorite characters ever. All the characters in the town have their little moments, such as the man painting his boat (“there are two g’s in ‘bugger off’”), the older woman who has a life-long crush on the Russian, the punk girl with the baby; Ben, who lives on the beach, just to name a few. It’s so rich with characters and character moments, it needs to be seen more than once just to figure them out.
The movie is also about the outsiders who fall under the town’s spell (in a good way). Victor, the Russian fisherman who fell in love with the town years before and comes there as often as he can (much to the annoyance of his shipmates); Marina, the marine biologist who wants a research center there; the preacher, who came from Africa as a missionary and never left; Felix Happer, who runs a world-wide oil conglomerate but is really only interested in the night sky.
It’s also about culture shock for the wheeler-dealer from Houston. He thinks he’s going to be in and out of there in a couple of weeks, and on to the next job of buying up oil rights from some hick town, but he himself gets sucked into the rhythm of THIS town, and charmed by the townsfolk, much against his will. When he actually starts to worry about what he’s doing or what might happen to the town, he gets told “It’s their place, Mac. They have a right to make of it what they can. Besides, you can’t eat scenery!”
There’s so much about it that’s simply delightful, I could go on and on. I’m sorry you didn’t care for it and I hope you’ll give it another chance sometime, but if not, that’s ok too.
No, I wasn’t watching a lot of TV around that time, so I can’t comment on it.
From what y’all are saying, I think maybe I came to the movie with a worldview that had already too thoroughly integrated the “lessons” of the story. Like it doesn’t seem at all unexpected, quirky, or surprising to me that people in a Scottish village could understand what their property is worth and drive a hard bargain, or that a couple might want to get into each others’ pants all the time, or that someone might value a four-century family legacy more than material things.
As I said to my husband, “So, the story is, a guy visits a charming little town, and likes it?” I guess it just seemed exceedingly mild and not surprising to me.
Don’t get me wrong, the characters do seem to be nice people, and I didn’t hate them or the movie at all. It just didn’t provoke much reaction in me.
It’s not us, it’s you. Probably on my personal top ten favorite movies.
ETA:thats just a joke but I will say this. It is not a movie with “lessons” as you put it. If you are looking at it like that then it is probably not the movie for you. No big deal, you probably like some good movies that aren’t my cup of tea.
Local Hero is one of the few movies I can watch at any time. Between MacIntyre’s education in Scotland and Burt Lancaster’s interactions with his shrink (and ultimate involvement in the village) it’s just a great little movie. (little in the sense of not being a “Major Motion Picture.”)
I thought I was the only Doper to have ever seen Comfort and Joy.
Longtime lurker, and I just had to register to say, Comfort and Joy is my favoruite movie of all time. Partially because I work at a radio station so those scenes especially resonate with me.
Also…“No…a sanity clause!”
Local Hero’s also on my top ten list and something I can watch whenever it’s on the tube.
Welcome Alan Bird!
I’m another one that’s seen C&J (though not since it was first released), but have a long abiding affection for Forsyth’s films in general, and Local Hero in particular.
raises hand Me too, and even saw it in the theater when it was first released. My husband and I love both movies. I bought the DVD of Comfort and Joy from England and we watched it again this past Christmas. I don’t love it quite as much as Local Hero, but I do love it. They’re both favorites.
My husband put up 3 scenes from Comfort and Joy on YouTube. Enjoy!
Love your username Alan, or may I call you Dickey?
You may indeed. Thanks also for the welcome ArchiveGuy! I believe there’s a Doper named Gordon Urquhart, perhaps he/she will stop by.
It’s been a while since I saw C and J, besides Mr. Bunny I really loved the guy who was just the ‘stain removal expert’. That wasn’t his job but apparently he just knew a lot about stain removal. Oh and the ice cream cones on the car seat ala The Godfather.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Local Hero, now I’ll try and find it.
NetFlix has it.
Welcome to the Dope **Alan Bird **
Sadly NetFlix does not have C&J.
Hello!
As you may have guessed, Local Hero is one of my favorite films. However, I learned a long time ago to not recommend it to everyone I meet, because it’s definitely not for everyone. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, because not liking Local Hero makes about as much sense to me as not liking chocolate – but there are people out there who don’t, and I can understand that now.
I think you’ve got it right there – I wouldn’t stereotype Local Hero as an 80’s movie, but it certainly wouldn’t make as much of an impact now if it were produced in 2008. The world’s a different place – much smaller – and, as you correctly point out, the fact that the residents know the tremendous value of their property wouldn’t be such a revelation today.
Speaking of usernames, UA, I’m a big fan of Deadwood, too. The similarities between Deadwood and Local Hero probably begin and end with incredibly written dialog (with maybe some effective quiet scenes here and there), but they do exist.
Nice clips. I’ll link to them on my Comfort and Joy page.
I like both of the films, but probably would pick Gregory’s Girl as Forsyth’s best overall. There are moments in that that are pure magic. And the delightful gag with the two boys from Glasgow were trying to hitchhike to Caracas. 
I wish Forsyth did more. I’m surprised that he directed Housekeeping, since the book is so unlike him in tone.
Count me in as another great lover of Local Hero. But the ending always makes me kind of sad. I visited and stayed in the town it was filmed in during one of my trips to Scotland several years ago. Still stunningly beautiful and the real residents were almost as quirky as the ones in the film. And yes, the red phone box was still there and operable!
Strange, I really love Local Hero, but Gregory’s Girl left me fairly blah. I think it was on your recommendation I watch it last year. It didn’t have the quirkiness or light magic of Local Hero.
I might order **Comfort and Joy **, based on the clips it looks more interesting. It’s a shame Netflix doesn’t have it.
Jim
Another “Comfort and Joy” fan here. “Local Hero” pretty much made me a Peter Riegert fan for life. Forsyth movies are like his homeland’s spirit of choice…an acquired taste, but very good.