An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
Director:
Bill ForsythWriter:
Bill Forsyth
From metacritic.com
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Title: Local Hero (1983)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Burt Lancaster | ... | Felix Happer | |
| Peter Riegert | ... | Mac | |
| Fulton Mackay | ... | Ben | |
| Denis Lawson | ... | Urquhart | |
 |
Norman Chancer | ... | Moritz |
| Peter Capaldi | ... | Oldsen | |
|
|
Rikki Fulton | ... | Geddes |
| Alex Norton | ... | Watt | |
| Jenny Seagrove | ... | Marina | |
|
|
Jennifer Black | ... | Stella |
|
|
Christopher Rozycki | ... | Victor |
|
|
Gyearbuor Asante | ... | Rev Macpherson (as Christopher Asante) |
| John M. Jackson | ... | Cal (as John Jackson) | |
| Dan Ammerman | ... | Donaldson | |
|
|
Tam Dean Burn | ... | Roddy |
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Oil billionaire Happer sends Mac to a remote Scottish village to secure the property rights for an oil refinery they want to build. Mac teams up with Danny and starts the negotiations, the locals are keen to get their hands on the 'Silver Dollar' and can't believe their luck. However, a local hermit and beach scavenger, Ben Knox, lives in a shack on the crucial beach which he also owns. Happer is more interested in the Northern Lights and Danny in a surreal girl with webbed feet, Marina. Mac is used to a Houston office with fax machines but is forced to negotiate on Bens terms. Written by Matthew Stanfield <mattst@cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Taglines:
A beautiful coastline... A rich oil man wants to develop it. A poor beach bum wants to live on it. An entire town wants to profit by it. And a real-live mermaid wants to save it... Only one of them will get their way.Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The name of the northern skies natural light display seen in this movie was the Aurora Borealis. See more »Goofs
When Happer leaves his penthouse office to enter his adjacent apartment, he uses a remote control to reveal the apartment's single doorway entrance. Yet in the next sequence, Happer is shown cooking in the kitchen, with the same entrance in the background - double-doored. See more »Alternate Versions
CBS edited 14 minutes from this film for its 1987 network television premiere. See more »
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Details
Country:
UKRelease Date:
17 March 1983 (UK) See more »Also Known As:
Local Hero See more »Edit
Box Office
Opening Weekend USA:
$23,567, 21 February 1983Gross USA:
$5,895,761Cumulative Worldwide Gross:
$5,895,761Company Credits
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Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1Contribute to This Page
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In this cynical age of image counting for all and increasingly small minded audiences being baffled by anything approaching subtlety, this film represents a much needed haven for the more cerebral viewer. It's pitch perfect lampooning of the massive gulf between supposedly similar cultures is a joy to behold over and over.
That fact that not much really happens is, in fact the whole point. It is a modern comedy of manners, the humour being in how characters react to alien situations.
It is exactly the kind of film Ealing studios would have produced had they survived into the 80's, and as such is to be praised for trying to show how simply taking an off centre look at real life can inform and entertain more eloquently than those who shout their satire from the rooftops.