Welcome to the Movie Club! Today’s movie is Bill Forsyth’s comedy-drama, Local Hero!
Local Hero follows Mac (played by Peter Riegart), an American oil executive for the company Knox, who gets sent by his eccentric boss (played by Burt Lancaster) to a small town in Scotland called Ferness to bargain for their land so that Knox can build an oil refinery there. He partners up with a Scottish Knox worker, Danny (played by Peter Capaldi), and as they immerse themselves in Ferness they are won over by the town’s charms and its people.
Local Hero was filmed on a budget of either £3 or £2.6 million, according to two sources on Wikipedia I can’t verify, and then had a staggered release worldwide, starting in New York City on February 17, 1983, earning $5.9 million in the box office.12 It was an immediate hit with critics, earning 4 stars from Roger Ebert, and it currently has a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.3
- Local Hero was filmed in Scotland, with the village of Pennan serving as a stand-in for Ferness.
- The red phone booth in the movie is a prop as the actual phone booth in the village is not in the same location. Fans still take pictures of themselves with it though.
- The soundtrack was written and performed by Mark Knopfler of The Dire Straits.
What did you think? Share your thoughts below!
Up Next: Our next movie will be the David Lean classic, Brief Encounter. Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below:
USA
- Stream: Criterion Channel, Flix Fling, Pluto TV, Shout TV, The Roku Channel, Plex (also via JustWatch), HBO Max (also via Prime Video), BFI Player (via Prime Video), Watch TCM (via Prime Video)
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Flix Fling, Fandango At Home
Canada
- Stream: Criterion Channel, Flix Fling, Plex
- Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Flix Fling
UK
- Stream: itvX
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV