Local Hero

The films of Bill Forsyth - C or D/S & D ?

x-post

I suppose it has to do with whether the one character is really a mermaid...

I was just up on the west coast of Scotland a couple of weeks ago and it is as beautiful as it looks in the film - although the village (for reasons I dont understand) is on the east coast. I visted that place a few years ago and took a picture.
http://static.flickr.com/47/113817823_d4b363f7c2_m.jpg
And there's a plaque...
http://static.flickr.com/48/113817824_568c5ebec3.jpg?v=0

Ned, what did the guy on the mailing list do on the film? And what did he think of Lancaster? I'd love some background.

It does have a magical element esp. when Happer turns up in a helicopter and saves the day (and possibly Fulton Mackay's ass). Which reminds me - it's a lovely performance by the man Mackay, in fact the performaces all round are great. It;s just...er...great.

Keep watching the sky, MacIntyre!

xpost - that's the one Ned T is referring to.

Breaking In is no worse than Being Human. Or Gregory's Two Girls. Perhaps he should have stopped in about 1984.

This was actually music writer T0mmy Ud0, so I'm gathering this was an earlier (and obviously more general) freelance assignment when he was starting out. Sez Burt was a gentleman and a half but he doesn't remember too much about the evening given its overall bibulousness.

I heard at the time that BL took only expenses (and obviously a trip to Scotland) - probably a bit of myth making but it fits in with the general vibe of the film.

Mrs Trifle is away tonight being pampered and so I think I deserve another viewing. And it's a good excuse to open my new bottle of Laphroaig.

Classic...

Er, no it isn't. Assuming you're talking about Pennan.

http://www.robinwilson.net/pennancu/pennan.html has a lovely panoramic picture you can scoot around and have a nosey.

Here's a mildly diverting article by an American visitor to the locations of Local Hero - complete with pics also.

Obv. you are being more specific in your definition of east coast. And I respect that :)

Useless bit of trivia. The phone box is a prop, as the real phone box in Pennan was in a less photogenic place.

(Stew, when you get to this thread, as I'm sure you will, do you still want to borrow that off me?)

well yes, that's what i was referring to - but it's just a helicopter

I suppose it has to do with whether the one character is really a mermaid...

touche

Reviving being I'm using the Capaldi casting in DW as an excuse to tell more people about this film.

it's p good; i'll take lair of the white worm instead

LH is one of the best Hollywood-produced films of the '80s.

Which cast member appeared the same year in Return of the Jedi?

I'd guess Dennis Lawson

Denis Lawson

gah xp

I mentioned on another thread seeing a lousy film from a couple of years ago called
Bitter/Sweet. It's basically an attempt to remake Local Hero--Thailand instead of Scotland, coffee instead of oil, James Brolin instead of Burt Lancaster--with a love story worked in.

still get a huge kick out of the bit with the hammering on the roof. that and "I'll be a good Gordon, Gordon".

I've been meaning to see this for decades and finally did. What a sweet film. Felt a little like it was a little rushed, though, which was odd for a film so much about taking your time, but I can't imagine back then Forsyth getting away with making it even slower and longer. I suppose he might have swapped all the broad goofy therapist stuff for even more of the town and its people.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByLSeWnDUA7/

it's amazing a Hollywood studio backed it. Never happen now.

Josh: try to see his follow-up, Comfort and Joy. As much as I love Local Hero, I love Comfort & Joy even more.

Says upthread that Chris Menges shot this, which I had forgotten/never known/pvmic

there's a forthcoming stage musical adaptation

I'm glad it wasn't made any longer or slower. It's perfectly compressed yet leisurely as is, with so many subtle character details just fleetingly hinted at. Only on repeated viewings do you appreciate them. I first saw it on The Movie Channel soon after it played in theaters. They ran it over and over for a month, and I would catch at least some of it whenever I had the TV on. It was like getting to know characters on a TV series as dear friends.

I've only seen it maybe twice since then. The last time, when I introduced a friend to it. I was disappointed that she didn't want to watch it again right away.

I love the understatedly bittersweet ending when Mac is back in Houston in his yuppie bachelor's apartment pinning snapshots to the wall, looking out over the drab cityscape, and it briefly cuts to the Scottish village with the red telephone box small and off to one side. Under the music you can almost hear it ringing. In a typical Hollywood film, the box would have filled up the screen, and the phone would have drowned out the music. And kept ringing through the credits.

YISSSS

https://www.criterion.com/films/28709-local-hero

xpost I still don't know what to make of all the Burt Lancaster stuff. He seems to take up a huge percentage of the film for having no real point, at least not until the very very end.

smdh

Burt is the eccentric face of capitalism

another studio wd've cast DJTrump

Well, yeah. I guess I mean as an erstwhile villain, symbolic or not, I could have done without all the broad therapy stuff.

having seen this since i was young but literally every other bill forsyth film I've seen or rewatched as an adult has been bad.

he's not the villain, no one is, it's a bill forsyth joint

he's on-screen a lot bcz he's great on-screen, and forsyth wrote a film for him to be on-screen a lot bcz this was amazing to able to do from where BF was standing at that point

this is far and away his best film (gregory's girl is nice but no one can act)(jenny seagrove can't act in local hero, it's a bill forsyth joint)

Housekeeping is a great film imho, Christine Lahti should've hauled in all the awards

Mark: I keep plugging Comfort and Joy--have you seen that? Seems very few have.

not since the 80s! i think i liked it but not as much as local hero

the ice-cream truck jingle is still stuck in my head but i remember very little else ("hullo folks!")

Next year, Forsyth and Knopfler have a musical version up at the Old Vic.

https://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2020/local-hero

You’ve got to be kidding

They already did this in Edinburgh earlier this year.

Tom, delete Edinburgh now.

the Guardian rather liked it

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/mar/24/local-hero-review-oil-movie-musical-bill-forsyth-mark-knopfler

never spotted at the time that knopfler did the soundtrack -- i'm listening now and it's mellow!

(his first, according to wikipedia)

oh you'll know the last track on that i'm sure

i mean, even outside of the film

for the US release, Knopfler certainly seemed the most "sellable" element of the film aside from Burt's presence

The U.S. poster added Lancaster standing behind Peter Reigert on the beach.

rewatched via CC edition last night... exquisite. I think the funniest Burt line is "He wants to sell me the sand?"

There's an interview w/ Forsyth where the critic reads a letter to BF in '83 from Michael Powell, full of praise, except for "Burt went over the top and you let him."

"We have an injured rabbit!"

"It was suffering... That (leg) was a clean break -- you can check the bones."

Peter Capaldi's limbs-flying running style is hilarious (and possibly copped from Jerry Lewis).

(it's "We have an injured rabbit also")

(tips hat to morbs)

the actors who play Gordon and the abuse therapist were in, respectively, Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back.

Peter Capaldi's limbs-flying running style is hilarious (and possibly copped from Jerry Lewis).

this is Capaldi's actual run: his fellow Scottish/Italian Armando Ianucci would contrive reasons for the character Malcolm Tucker to run in The Thick Of It and In The Loop bcz he also correctly finds it hilarious

In the CC supps, Forsyth twice says that one of his inspirations for LH was... "The Beverly Hillbillies."

He did not write a hut dialogue scene between Ben the beachcomber and Happer because he didn't know what they would say, and also he thought the movie should reflect that chambers of power are usually secretive.

There's also a South Bank Show segment of David Puttnam having a marketing meeting where it's decided the target audience is "over 25s" and "housewives."

The CC booklet reveals that there's a critical study of BF's films titled Discomfort and Joy.

There's a Bill Forsyth thread on I Love Film...I'll post here instead.

I watched Housekeeping tonight for the first time since it came out. (I've been paying for a Criterion subscription for six months, and I think this is the third time I've used it. Just laziness--have to hook up the laptop to the TV.) I was disappointed at the time and puzzled by the acclaim. I love Comfort and Joy--listed it on my ILX ballot for the upcoming poll--same with Local Hero. (I'm going to watch Gregory's Girl this weekend. There was a heist film in there I didn't care for.)

I would have been 26 when Housekeeping came out; I am, of course, so much wiser and thoughtful 33 years later, so surely I'd love it. No--I still think the other two are much better. It's well made, Lahti's good, etc.; I haven't read the novel, so maybe it's exceptionally faithful to that. I again found it flat--in part because of the narration, in part, I think, because of the sisters, especially Lucille. Whimsical humour is hit or miss with me--I find Playtime an ordeal--but I consider those other two films as good in that department as it gets. There was little of that in Housekeeping, and I missed it. The ending was good. Weirdly, Dead Ringers crossed my mind a couple of times.

Andrew Sarris had it second on his 1987 year-end, ninth on his decade list. It's not on TSPDT's Top 1000; Local Hero is #569. Maybe its reputation has faded a bit, I don't know.

Favourite line in Gregory's Girl: "I want to interview you and that girl in 2A that had the triplets."

thanks for reminding me abt Comfort & Joy, I really need to rewatch that someday

This is fantastic, one of the most fascinating docs about the behind-the-scenes of movies i've ever seen. Thank god they didn't go with the original poster artwork idea..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEm6AsTY0WI

I had completely forgotten until reminded a couple of years back that my dad used to occasionally hang out with Burt Lancaster during the filming of this. He was up north a few times, my dad used to work at the airport and had a little cleaning station and he and Burt played cards in there to give him a bit of peace while he was hanging around the airport.

Nice story...I loved seeing Clare Grogan in Gregory's Girl. The films were released over here out of order, but I'm pretty sure I saw Gregory's Girl before Comfort and Joy, so I didn't yet know her (or Altered Images until much later). I took the screenshot below for something else--she's like Bill Forsyth's Monica Vitti. Also didn't know there was a Gregory's Girl sequel (1999) until I was doing some reading on Forsyth last night. Only because I found a really cheap copy, I ordered it--looks pretty bad.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/comfort.jpg

The Gregory's sequel used to be on Netflix Instant; I started it out of morbid curiosity because (IIRC) I saw it on some listicle about 'Movies sunk by their opening scenes' or something, and yeah, that opening scene is pretty o_O. Didn't get any further in than that.

Gregory's Two Girls is dreadful.

Askit Powders, Glasgow's very own painkiller!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askit_Powders

Askit addiction and subsequent renal failure was a big thing in mid 20th century Glasgow

As if people weren't unhealthy enough.

Has anyone seen That Sinking Feeling? I'd order that, too, but it's a little bit pricier. I can see where it might be a clumsy blueprint for better films to follow--not sure if I want to pay $25 to find out.

Love it. You might need subtitles except I believe there's another version where they dubbed some less strong accents - which sounds horrific to me. Not sure it's worth $25 though!

Yeah, from memory they dubbed in some actors with Edinburgh actors for the US release, I believe, and then the original prints got lost so the redub was used on a DVD.

Edinburgh accents

It's a sin!

I'll definitely need the captioning--hell, I need captioning now for people who sound exactly like me--but I'll check, and if that's included I'll order then.

w/English subtitles--done!

I watched That Sinking Feeling on VHS tape some time back in the 1990s. My memory tells me the production value was low, but pretty good considering the tiny budget, the script and direction were strong, the acting was uneven, but surprisingly effective. Overall, it's the kind of film that more recently would show up on the film festival circuit unheralded and win all the 'audience favorite' awards. You'll like it.

I'm a bit of a bill forsyth sceptic but like that sinking feeling

I think I’m unusual in liking That Sinking Feeling, Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero and Comfort and Joy all about the same. I haven’t seen any of his later ones. Maybe 20 minutes of Gregory’s Two Girls before deciding no.

OK the TSF prints weren’t lost, it was more complex than that:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/09/drama

As soon as I read the headline on that piece, I realized "(the) heist film in there I didn't care for" was That Sinking Feeling...That's okay; I liked Gregory's Girl better this time than way back when. There must have been at least a five-year delay in That Sinking Feeling making it over here.

That heist film might have been the Burt Reynolds one, Breaking In. I didn't like it much at all, even though it was filmed in Portland.

Wow--he did two of them. You could very well be right.

They should have face-swapped Burt Reynolds into That Sinking Feeling for the US market.

I watched Local Hero last week. The end section after Burt Lancaster arrives is a bit underpowered but it's mostly very good. I love Dennis Lawson and Fulton MacKay in it. It's a really good film for right now as well.

That heist film might have been the Burt Reynolds one, Breaking In. I didn't like it much at all, even though it was filmed in Portland.

Confusing the two would seem highly improbable tbh. Also I can't imagine "That Sinking Feeling" being described as a heist movie.

The Graun article describes it as "Glasgow's ­contribution to the bathroom sink ­heist genre" as well as the headline gag.

I think ‘heist movie’ is one of those descriptors that people enjoy applying more at the margins than the core (cf. Man On Wire)

This will win me no friends here, but Local Hero never did much for me. It always kind of seemed to me like a proto-version of one of those whimsical Miramax 90s comedies like The Full Monty or Waking Ned Devine--less aggressively cutesy, sure, but in the same ballpark. Some things I don't mind: the character who lives in the shipwrecked boat, and the guy who plays the main actor's assistant in Scotland (the one who falls for the marine biologist). But I don't feel anything for the lead or care about his perspective, which leaves me uninvested in his transformation, and none of the Lancaster material is all that funny (despite otherwise liking the film, Kael basically agrees with me on this point).

Likely as a result, it is still the only Forsythe that I've seen. I did look for Housekeeping after I read the novel back in my undergrad, but I couldn't find it to rent anywhere at the time.

"the guy who plays"!!

Looked him up on Wiki just now, and what can I say? He's someone who is famous for a bunch of things I don't pay attention to--Doctor Who, The Thick of It. I've seen quite a few movies he's in, but never made the connection.

It always kind of seemed to me like a proto-version of one of those whimsical Miramax 90s comedies like The Full Monty

This is utter bollocks.

I don't agree, cryptosicko, but I come up short the same way with Housekeeping, and even Gregory's Girl I didn't like as much the first time, so I understand. Droll and quiet can be a coin flip--for whatever reason, I immediately connected with Local Hero and Comfort and Joy.

Also I can't imagine "That Sinking Feeling" being described as a heist movie.

The one I saw was a full-on heist film, so it must have been the Burt Reynolds.

I should also add that it is has been a good decade-plus since I've seen Local hero (still ten or so years removed from the Full Monty era, but closer enough to possibly explain my reaction), and that its brand of gentle humour may be more my speed these days. I didn't like Tati at first, either.

crypto - yeah, I figured you would have seen some other of his films, not just being outraged at you failing to respect the only Doctor Who to win an Oscar (btw he was definitely "famous" before The Thick Of It)

this movie is a tonic. I watched it twice tonight.

If you love Local Hero there's a strong chance you love Limbo, which I saw tonight. I found it extremely moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pdLSXjEAoc

Amir El-Masry's central performance is a miracle.

Doesn’t seem to be streaming in this US,*sigh*

It's going to be on Mubi soon, they bought it for distribution.

Think I saw it was already on MUBI Ireland & UK.

It's not yet, I just checked, but I think it's coming on to the platform when the cinema run ends in a week or so.

Some of the humour in this is a bit too broad and doesn't quite land (although my cinema partner disagreed) but I can forgive it a lot because it is so deeply felt and complex as an entire work. I have a very specific niggle about the Scottish accents in it too - Hebridean accents are very specific but rarely deployed here - but again, the same, I forgive it.

It would have just elevated it to hear actual outer-hebrides accents on screen though. It would have been nice to hear some Gaelic too. A lot of Oueter-Hebridean-Scots don't, won't or even can't speak English. I was shocked to go there on a theatre tour and encounter people who can't speak English and only know Gaelic.

but there's the Lancaster accent

Amazing to think there are Scots who can't speak English but it's true, there are (though it's very rare, now).

Is that a reference to something, Alf?

I think Soto is referring to Burt Lancaster, not to the English region Lancaster, or to the dialect of anyone in the film Limbo

ah!

Thanks, my darling.

You’re my eyes and ears!

Because a little time is all we have left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ArhlLvYG0I

Just bought the soundtrack CD for this last month and was surprised to find this song isn't on it!

Because Mark Knopfler didn't write it, I assume.

Or did he?

Anyway, just rewatched for the first time in...four years it seems and it still holds up.

Hadn't realized that Danny was played by Peter Capaldi.

Had you seen Capaldi in anything before four years ago?

Yes

Usually he's quite a bit older. And, more to the point, grouchier.

That “making of” video was excellent and nicely in keeping with the movie. Both Forsyth and Putnam (the producer) come across very well.

He’s not very much older in Dangerous Liaisons or Lair Of The White Worm or as George Harrison in John & Yoko: A Love Story tbf. (If you haven’t seen Lair, stick it on but don’t get confused by how cherubic the wrinkly old villain from Heretic and A Very English Scandal and Paddington 2 is.)

Sorry, wasn't keeping up with his career during those formative years, will have a belated look-see soon.

That “making of” video was excellent and nicely in keeping with the movie. Both Forsyth and Putnam (the producer) come across very well.