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
Alan Ruck explains how such awful people make such compelling characters on HBO's "Succession."
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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 |
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
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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Details
Country:
UKRelease Date:
17 March 1983 (UK) See more »Also Known As:
A kisvárosi hõs See more »Edit
Box Office
Opening Weekend USA:
$23,567, 21 February 1983Gross USA:
$5,895,761Cumulative Worldwide Gross:
$5,895,761Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
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Ben Knox: Do ye want to buy a comet now?
Mac MacIntyre: Maybe.
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
Writer-director Bill Forsyth said in "Local Hero: The Making of the Film" (1983) by Alan Hunter and Mark Astaire: "I saw it along the lines of a Scottish Beverly Hillbillies -- what would happen to a small community when it suddenly became immensely rich -- that was the germ of the idea and the story built itself from there. It seemed to contain a similar theme to Brigadoon (1954), which also involved some Americans coming over to Scotland, becoming part of a small community, being changed by the experience and affecting the place in their own way. I feel close in spirit to the Powell and Pressburger feeling, the idea of trying to present a cosmic viewpoint to people, but through the most ordinary things. And because both this film and I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) are set in Scotland, I've felt from the beginning that we're walking the same... treading the same water." See more »Goofs
When they hit the rabbit, Oldsen says "Why don't we kill it? Hit it with something hard", to which Mac replies "You've already done that with a 2 ton automobile!" They are in a Mark 5 Ford Cortina (and a lower spec model with a 1.6 litre engine) which only weighs a little over 1 ton. See more »Quotes
Mac MacIntyre: Any comets around?Ben Knox: Do ye want to buy a comet now?
Mac MacIntyre: Maybe.
See more »
Alternate Versions
CBS edited 14 minutes from this film for its 1987 network television premiere. See more »Connections
Featured in Century of Cinema: A Personal History of British Cinema by Stephen Frears (1995) See more »Contribute to This Page
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There's the great movies with a capital "M" (Casablanca, Strangelove, Kane) and then there's the great movies which feel like they've been made for the deepest, quietest, quirkiest parts of you and you alone - the small gems. And this one, in my view, is the sparkliest of these gems - a little masterpiece of a rumination on just how beautiful things can be when disparate paths in life intercept each other just the tiniest bit out of phase, never perfectly according to plan, and on how the deepest transformations seem to proceed from the smallest disjoints of orientation and expectation. It is a beautiful dollhouse of a film, whose success lies in its excruciating attention to and understatement of detail. Beautiful Mark Knopler strains suffuse the film's quieter moments, while subtle performances and simply lovely dialogue provide the backbone.