MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: LOCAL HERO (1983)

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Sunday, November 28, 2021

LOCAL HERO (1983)

In an interview on the Criterion DVD, iconoclastic Scots writer/director Bill Forsyth shows off a congratulatory letter he got from iconoclastic Brit writer/director Michael Powell. And suddenly the influence of Powell’s enchanting Scottish romance I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING is obvious. In tone, off-beat humor & eccentric town with a wise old contrarian to straighten things out; the celebratory community dance and single outdoor pay-phone to serve a whole town. Even that film’s famously unseen rich industrialist here made flesh by no less than Burt Lancaster. Strongly influenced, yet still feeling wholly original as Peter Riegert’s Texas-based oil acquisitions exec is sent off to Scotland to buy up coast & village for his boss’s new oil refinery. But as this is a pastorale (if t’were late Shakespearean Romance the full title might be LOCAL HERO - OR: The Despoiler Foiled) traveling capitalist Riegert quickly falls for the town & its people, unaware those townies, an unsentimental lot, dream only of riches and profit-sharing. If not for Riegert’s Scottish assistant (a debuting Peter Capaldi) with his love-at-first-sight crush on an ocean scientist/conservationist (and possible mermaid), along with Lancaster’s passion for the natural wonders of sea & sky, there’d be nothing to stop the momentum toward catastrophic development. With almost no one doing just what you expect them to do, yet never stepping out of character to land one of the many jokes exploding at odd times & angles all thru the pic. Beautifully shot by Chris Menges and acted without a hint of pressurized twee (Wes Anderson take note), HERO is a sui generis delight of serious proportions (and purpose), ending with a heartbreaking trade-off of magical realism for hard-nosed melancholy.

ATENTION MUST BE PAID: Both Puttnam & Forsyth were carried to Hollywood on this film’s unlikely success, Puttnam as Head of Production at Columbia; Forsyth on three misconceived projects. They both quickly crashed & burned, packed their bags, barely worked again.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Before Forsyth’s Hollywood misadventures, another Scottish collaboration for him & lighting cameraman Menges on next year’s equally superb COMFORT AND JOY/’84. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/08/comfort-and-joy-1984.html

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Sunday, November 28, 2021

LOCAL HERO (1983)

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