Sleeper Films: “Local Hero”
I thought it might be interesting this week to bring to the attention of the GITS community favorite movies of ours that might have slipped beneath the radar. They could be indie features, foreign movies, or older films, but while they may not have achieved much in the way of notoriety, something about them clicked with you — memorable characters or scenes, compelling plots or dialogue. What are some of your favorite ‘sleeper’ films?
My recommendation today is the 1983 movie Local Hero. Written and directed by Bill Forsyth, it is a delightful comedy with some wonderfully offbeat characters and a clean FOOW (Fish-Out-Of-Water) concept:
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village 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.
Critical reaction to the movie from its Wikipedia page:
Critic Richard Skorman lauded the film, noting that, “Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero spawned a series of imitations, creating a whole new genre of film — the wacky Scottish comedy…Built on a mountain of metaphysics, Local Hero, demands a few leaps of faith that are a bit difficult to make. But the premise of a yuppie from Texas traveling to an isolated town in Scotland to make poor but savvy fishermen wealthy is hilarious in itself…Forsyth also superbly contrasts the warmth of Scotland’s North Shore with the impersonalization of super-modern Houston…[and] cinematographer Menges captures the serenity of the expansive beach and the power of the ocean and the stars as effectively as any filmmaker in recent history.”
Film critic Roger Ebert also gave the film a positive review, commenting, “Here is a small film to treasure, a loving, funny, understated portrait of a small Scottish town and its encounter with a giant oil company…And what could have been a standard plot about conglomerates and ecology, etc., turns instead into a wicked study of human nature.”
Variety magazine film critic Todd McCarthy wrote, “After making the grade internationally with the sleeper hit, Gregory’s Girl, Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth has broken the sophomore sesh jinx the only way he could, by making an even better film…Given a larger canvas, director Forsyth has in no way attempted to overreach himself or the material, keeping things modest and intimate throughout, but displaying a very acute sense of comic insight.”
Local Hero has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was rated in the top 100 films of the 1980s in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade.
The movie’s trailer:
One of the most memorable scenes in the movie:
A special feature where Bill Forsyth goes back to Pennan, Scotland to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of Local Hero:
Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert are great, of course, but it’s the locals who steal the movie. The film’s combination of strong high concept and quirky characters presages the emergences of specialty films nearly two decades later.
If you’re a fan of Local Hero, please add your comments. And feel free to note other sleeper films for us to be aware of and watch.
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