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Local Hero (1983)

Comedy | 111 minutes
3,40 158 votes

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Duration: 111 minuten

Country: United Kingdom

Directed by: Bill Forsyth

Stars: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert and Fulton Mackay

IMDb score: 7,3 (29.240)

Releasedate: 17 February 1983

Local Hero plot

A representative of an oil company (Riegert) is commissioned to buy up a small Scottish coastal village: it is located on the spot where a refinery urgently needs to be built. But the man becomes more and more charmed by the village and its inhabitants, and begins to wonder whether the refinery should be built here.

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avatar van blurp194

blurp194

  • 5484 messages
  • 4187 votes

In the 80s this film was quite hyped - ehh, we didn't know that word back then. But still, there was quite a bit of fuss about this film. Jenny Seagrove was quite a famous lady from all kinds of television series, and the soundtrack by Mark Knopfler was also widely spread. Seen at the time, even in the cinema I think.

So that's why I thought: oh yeah, let me watch that again. And I was quite disappointed.

Because, what I see in it is a rather sloppy and unlovingly made B-movie, almost a television movie. Populated by cardboard characters. With a thin, barely developed story, with a faint contrast between the nature-loving green sweeties and the pitch-black Texan oil farmers. Insufficient, and unsatisfying. Just like the images of the village - idyllic perhaps, but with an ugly gray light that reminds me mainly of television images from the time when you could still get them in your home via a whip antenna. Pity. And, that will also be very personal, Mark Knopfler has been on my nerves since the second Dire Straits album, and the local hero pling bores me really very quickly.

So, back in the bin this film. Or maybe even in the trash. I certainly don't need to see it for the first ten, twenty years.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van jono

jono

  • 345 messages
  • 4122 votes

In 1983, you often heard the instrumental song Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero) by Mark Knopfler, the singer/guitarist of Dire Straits, on the radio. At the time, I was very charmed by the saxophone solo in the song, and therefore even bought it as a single. I would not do something like that so quickly nowadays, but in the meantime I had become very curious about that movie with such a cool soundtrack. A few years ago I saw the movie in the sale bin, and decided to buy it for a few euros. Last weekend it was finally time to watch the movie.

The film is about a certain MacIntyre, a representative of a large oil company. He is given the assignment to buy up a village in Scotland, because the oil company wants to build a refinery there. However, he gradually becomes attached to the villagers and begins to have doubts about his assignment.

On MovieMeter the film is listed as a comedy, but I couldn't find anything funny in it. I even think it's a fairly mediocre film with a vague story, and the soundtrack also disappointed me a lot. Lots of guitar playing on the well-known theme, but a saxophone solo is nowhere to be found in the film. Only at the end credits does the saxophone get going a bit. A reasonable disappointment, although it was quite nice to see Burt Lancaster in one of his last film roles. 2.5*

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Lovelyboy

Lovelyboy

  • 3906 messages
  • 2920 votes

Finally, Friday, a Quality film collection thrift store fund in the form of this Local Hero that could count on the necessary prizes and has an interesting actor in the form of Burt Lancaster. But that these conditions do not guarantee a sufficient was again evident.

The story is simple around a Scottish village that has to disappear from the map in favor of a refinery, and the employee sent to realize things still runs into quite a few special scenes and characters. Plus points are in any case the amiable characters in the form of Mac and Oldsen, the beautiful oceanographer Marina, the beautiful Scottish environment and nature, the film has a beautiful soundtrack by Mark Knopfler and there is a great message in the whole that was already current in the 80s and still is around industry, money and capitalism and the division that this can bring.

And yet it doesn't work with this Local Hero, which I really didn't laugh at once despite the genre designation comedy. It is at most strange and alienating, for example how chef Happer is sleeping during the meeting but also how astrology apparently seems to be a more important reason to order Mac to regularly contact the head office. Apart from that it is boring, nothing happens if you ask me and I have absolutely no interest in it. And that while the film still scores decent numbers. Anyway, clearly not my cup of coffee and quickly on to the next one.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original