Local Hero **** (1983, Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay, Peter Capaldi, Denis Lawson) – Classic Movie Review 1634

Writer-director Bill Forsyth’s 1983 vintage-style Scottish comedy is an irresistible throwback to the era and movies of the Forties and Fifties and, in particular, the similarly themed classic Whisky Galore (1949).

Peter Riegert stars as Mac, a Houston oil-company boss sent in to Scotland to try to purchase the property rights for an entire remote Scottish fishing village as a site for an oil refinery they want to build. Mac starts the negotiations with the eager locals, keen to get their hands on the dollars involved. But hermit and beach scavenger Ben Knox (Fulton Mackay) lives in a shack on the all-important beach that he also owns – and puts a spanner in Mac’s oil works. And so Mac is forced to try to negotiate on Ben’s terms.

Riegert is excellent, Fulton Mackay, Peter Capaldi and Denis Lawson score particularly well among the home team and Burt Lancaster does a lot of grand scene-stealing as Felix Happer, the American billionaire oil baron who sends Mac in and eventually flies in to Scotland himself to try to sort all the mess out. Eventually the normally money-obsessed Americans reluctantly fall for the whimsical charm of the locals and the local scene of course.

Forsyth’s adventurous, fresh and engaging movie succeeds through its amusing screenplay, charmingly quirky characters, appealing actors, intriguing situations and a sweet surprise touch of mysticism as the Northern Lights and a surreal girl with webbed feet are accessed.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1634

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