Local Hero [DVD]

Product Information

Raising his tiny budget from local businesses and working with crew such as production manager Paddy Higson and a young cast, Forsyth’s first feature as writer-director was 1978’s That Sinking Feeling. A Meeting of Minds For Movie Gazette, Gary Panton described the film as a "magical, intelligent comedy". Panton praised the cinematography as "little short of amazing" and that Local Hero was "Bill Forsyth's finest work of all, this is a perfect film." [15]

Taylor, Marianne (28 April 2018). "Playwright David Greig on Local Hero the musical: 'If Scotland likes it, it'll have integrity' ". The Herald. Glasgow . Retrieved 5 December 2021. Monica says fans of the film often want to recreate that scene for themselves and she’ll often hear the phone ringing when she and her husband are sitting on the bench nearby having a cup of tea. She always answers the phone although usually the person hangs up - perhaps they’ve had their moment and all they needed was to make the connection; sometimes it’ll be someone from the other side of the world: Australia, America. “It’s because the film still inspires people,” says Monika. “I know people who watch it once a week and sometimes more.” Happer = 1969 TJ6 = 1992 OF". The International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center . Retrieved 18 March 2019.

Side guide

Upon arriving in Scotland, Mac teams up with local Knox representative Danny Oldsen. During a visit to a Knox research facility in Aberdeen, Dr. Geddes and his assistant Watt inform them about the scope of the company's plans, which entail replacing Ferness with the refinery. They also meet (and admire) marine researcher Marina. Mac" MacIntyre is a typical 1980s hot-shot executive working for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas. The company's eccentric head, Felix Happer, sends him (largely because his surname sounds Scottish) to acquire Ferness, a village in the Scottish Highlands, to make way for a refinery. Mac (who is actually of Hungarian extraction) is a little apprehensive about his assignment, complaining to a co-worker that he would rather handle business over the phone and via telex. Happer, an avid amateur astronomer, tells Mac to watch the sky and to notify him immediately if he sees anything unusual.

Though Puttnam turned down the opportunity, busy as he was trying to put his own film Chariots of Fire into production, he did help secure distribution for That Sinking Feeling and introduced Forsyth to his new agent. It’s a very important film because it was a Scottish writer and director showing you could make a film for a global audience,” said Mr Melville. I got some of the inspiration while in Orkney,” he said. “I saw the effect it has on outsiders who go there. It happed to Mary June, the wardrobe lady. She left the BBC to live there. I was able to steal a lot of things because it was happening in front of my eyes.”

Sadly Criterion didn’t get new interviews with any of the cast members still with us (Riegert and Capaldi, at the very least, would have been great subjects) but we do, at the very least get archival interviews with them spread out. Outside of that this is about as complete a set of supplements I could imagine for the film. Closing People don’t realise it but there is film magic at work,” explained Mr Melville. “The houses are in the north-east and the beach is in the west. The telephone box in the film was also a prop, while the real phone box was hidden.” I tell her the story of the man coming all the way to Pennan from Poland and bursting into tears when he saw the phone box and she isn’t surprised. For Seagrove, it’s the subtlety and mystery in Local Hero that helps explains its power – we’re never quite sure who anyone really is deep-down and isn’t that true of real life too? Seagrove says that, 40 years later, people still ask her whether her character was a mermaid or not. She never gives an answer.