local hero movie review

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. The town is tucked away in a sparkling little bay, and is so small that everybody is well aware of everybody else’s foibles. The oil company is run by an eccentric billionaire ( Burt Lancaster ) who would really rather have a comet named after him than own all the oil in the world. And what could have been a standard plot about conglomerates and ecology, etc., turns instead into a wicked study of human nature.

The movie opens in Houston, but quickly moves to the fishing village of Ferness. The oil company assigns an earnest young American ( Peter Riegert ) and a whimsical Scot ( Peter Capaldi ) to go to Ferness and buy it up, lock, stock and beachline, for a North Sea oil-refining complex. This is a simpler job than it appears, since a lot of the locals are all too willing to soak the off company for its millions of dollars, sell the beach, and go in search of the bright lights of Edinburgh.

But there are complications. One of them is old Ben, the cheerful philosopher who lives in a shack on the beach. It turns out that the beach has been the legal property of Ben’s family for four centuries, ever since an ancestor did a favor for a king. And Ben doesn’t want to sell: “Who’d look after the beach then? It would go to pieces in a short matter of time.”

The local negotiations are handled by the innkeeper, Urquhart ( Denis Lawson ). He also is the accountant, and sort of the mayor, I guess, and is so much in love with his pretty wife that they’re forever dashing upstairs for a quickie. Meanwhile, Riegert and Capaldi fall under the spell of the town, settle into its rhythms, become wrapped up in its intrigues, and, in general, are co-opted by a place whose charms are seductive.

What makes this material really work is the low-key approach of the writer-director, Bill Forsyth , who also made the charming “ Gregory's Girl ” and has the patience to let his characters gradually reveal themselves to the camera. He never hurries, and as a result, “Local Hero” never drags: Nothing is more absorbing than human personalities, developed with love and humor. Some of the payoffs in this film are sly and subtle, and others generate big laughs.

Forsyth’s big scenes are his little ones, including a heartfelt, whiskey-soaked talk between the American and the innkeeper, and a scene where the visitors walk on the beach and talk about the meaning of life. By the time Burt Lancaster reappears at the end of the film, to personally handle the negotiations with old Ben, “Local Hero” could hardly have anything but a happy ending. But it’s a fairly close call.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Burt Lancaster as Happer
• Peter Riegert as Mac
• Fulton McKay as Ben
• Denis Lawson as Urquhart
• Peter Capaldi as Danny

Written and directed by

• Bill Forsyth

Produced by

• David Puttnam
• Mark Knopfler

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Local Hero Reviews

...a decent-enough comedy that generally feels like it should be much, much better.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 27, 2024

It plays it as the mixture of British kitchen-sink realism and Robert Altman that I never knew I wanted.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 5, 2023

A Scottish-American charmer with a sublime soundtrack.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 23, 2023

Local Hero snares your heart because it takes on a fantasy element: something to do with Happer’s visionary obsession with the stars.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 17, 2023

An unforgettable story about weighing the worth of what we can hold in our hands against value of the stuff we cram into increasingly large receptacles. Its warmth endures as a respite from, and not easy resolution to, the chill of life’s many conflicts.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 28, 2023

Filled with Forsyth's understated witticisms, from the b-roll footage of side characters, enacting their own moments of comic whimsy... It's the same puckish quality that also fuels the film's careful sense of longing.

Full Review | Nov 30, 2020

An absolutely disarming comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 5, 2019

Forsyth both inverts expectations and runs with them in this story about the sea, the sky, and a dreamily weird village of straight-talking locals.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 27, 2019

Lancaster gets better with age; he is capital as the magnate with equal passions for astronomy and moneymaking. Peter Riegert is effective as his ambassador, and the Scottish actors are refreshing and adept.

Full Review | Nov 12, 2018

Writer-director Bill Forsyth's 1983 film sneaks up on you. It takes its time. It reveals its characters through snippets of conversation and casual interactions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 23, 2018

A poignant, funny tale of a simpler life.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 25, 2010

The thematics are rather cloying, but the mood -- profoundly relaxed, bemused -- eventually conquers.

Full Review | Sep 3, 2010

Without question, the most charming British film of the 1980s.

Bill Forsyth directs the film with wry understatement and has gentle affection for all of his characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 85/100 | Aug 6, 2010

[It's] loaded with wry, offbeat humor and is the sort of satisfying, personal picture that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity these days

Full Review | Aug 13, 2008

Forsyth cannot quite tease out of his characters the kind of strange sublety that Powell and Pressburger delivered, but it is enough that he and producer David Puttnam succeed in making you realise just how badly this kind of film has been missed.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2006

It's the feel-good flick of the decade.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 15, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 19, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 26, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Local Hero (1983)

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Release details.

• Duration: 111 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Bill Forsyth
• Screenwriter: Bill Forsyth
• Burt Lancaster
• Peter Riegert
• Denis Lawson
• Peter Capaldi
• Fulton Mackay
• Jenny Seagrove
• Jennifer Black
• Christopher Rozycki
• Rikki Fulton
• John Gordon Sinclair

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By Nell Minow , based on child development research. How do we rate?

A poignant, funny tale of a simpler life.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie has the feel of a fairy tale, but there are some odd moments that may bother some kids. Happer hires a "therapist" for a bizarre "abuse therapy." Danny saves a rabbit that is then cooked and served to Danny and McIntyre by Gordon.

Why Age 12+?

A great deal of social drinking; McIntyre gets drunk.

Gordon and his wife have frequent (off-screen) sex; McIntyre uses a mild epithet

Any Positive Content?

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Gordon and his wife have frequent (off-screen) sex; McIntyre uses a mild epithet when he's angry at his former girlfriend.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents need to know that this movie has the feel of a fairy tale, but there are some odd moments that may bother some kids. Happer hires a "therapist" for a bizarre "abuse therapy." Danny saves a rabbit that is then cooked and served to Danny and McIntyre by Gordon. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

A film to reflect upon

What's the story.

McIntyre (Peter Reigert), an ambitious executive with Texas-based Knox Oil & Gas, is dispatched by Happer (Burt Lancaster), the company's eccentric billionaire chief executive, to a remote corner of Scotland to acquire a fishing village named Ferness and the land surrounding it for an oil refinery and storage facility. Most of the residents are delighted at the prospect of being bought out; the only hitch to finalizing the deal is Ben, a reclusive beachcomber who lives in a shack by the shore. He owns several miles of beach and refuses to sell.

Is It Any Good?

LOCAL HERO is to be noted less for its messages or themes than its magnificent cast of quirky, delightfully observed characters and gorgeous location photography. There is a touch of magic in the story, with a marine biologist who seems to be part mermaid, and a deus ex machina happy ending for most of the characters.

This movie has the feel of a fairy tale, but there are some odd moments that may bother some kids. Happer hires a "therapist" for a bizarre "abuse therapy." Danny saves a rabbit that is then cooked and served to Danny and McIntyre by Gordon. And the very un-Hollywood resolution, with McIntyre back in Texas by himself, should prompt some discussion of what kids think may happen to him.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how McIntyre's life in Houston is cluttered but empty. What does McIntyre list as the requirements for an excellent life in Houston? Do the villagers agree with him, since all but Ben are anxious to sell? Why does the girl with the punk outfit say that she likes McIntyre? Why didn't Ben want to sell? Why, when McIntyre calls the village pay phone at the end of the film, does no one answer?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 17, 1983
• On DVD or streaming : September 21, 1999
• Cast : Burt Lancaster , Fulton Mackay , Peter Riegert
• Director : Bill Forsyth
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 111 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• Last updated : September 14, 2024

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What to watch next.

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Misfits in the Movies

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

• Remember Me 15 years ago
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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. While modest in intent and gentle in feel, “Local Hero” is loaded with wry, offbeat humor and is the sort of satisfying, personal picture that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity these days. David Putnam’s first production since “Chariots of Fire” has little in the way of obvious commercial hooks, and Warners will have to give it a chance to breathe if it’s to make its way in the world, but good reviews followed by word of mouth could built it into a steady b.o.

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Essentially, a comedy about a serious situation, pic is dominated by a constantly surprising sense of whimsicality which never becomes predictable and therefore catches the viewer off guard throughout. Basic story has Peter Riegert, rising young executive in an enormous Houston oil firm, sent to Scotland to clinch a deal to buy up an entire village, where the company intends to construct a new oil refinery.

Popular on Variety

Given the ecological consciousness that’s spread in recent years, first switch on normal expectations is that, far from being resistant to the idea of having their surroundings ruined by rapacious, profit-minded Yankees, local Scots can hardly wait to sign away their town, so strong is the smell of money in the air.

Naturally, negotiations take somewhat longer than expected, which means that Riegert can’t help but become involved in the affairs of the natives. But there is no predictable romance, no convulsive occurrence to push the film into false melodrama. Basically, whole story is comprised of delightful human moments, with just enough narrative push to keep it moving.

Back in Houston, oil magnate Burt Lancaster keeps up to date on the deal’s progress with occasional phone calls to Riegert, but is more concerned with his prodding, sadistic psychiatrist and his obsessive hobby of astronomy, which seems to dictate everything he does. Character is a looney conception, and Lancaster gives it a marvelously bonkers reading, although ending of the film falls somewhat flat due to the illogical nature of the man’s climatic decisions.

Almost in the manner of classic American comedies of the 1930s, pic is overflowing with memorable supporting characters. There’s Riegert’s Scottish oil company counterpart, whose accent is so thick one thinks they might not be able to communicate well in English, but who turns out to speak over a half-dozen languages; the local personal, a man named Macpherson, who happens to be black African; the manager and cook of the village’s only inn, who wears another hat as the chief negotiator of the deal; a beautiful young woman with a special interest in the sea, who physically seems to have begun a transformation into a mermaid, and a visiting Russian sailor with an active interest in Western investment markets and a very unusual style as a country-western singer.

Just when it appears that Riegert has finally struck a deal with the locals, a major snag crops up and Lancaster himself turns up on the beach to iron things out. Although it’s been well prepared for, ending nevertheless comes off a unconvincing, given the economic imperatives of the oil business.

Riegert’s underplaying initially seems a bit inexpressive, but ultimately pays off in a droll performance. As his Scottish buddy, the gangling Peter Capaldi is vastly amusing, and Denis Lawson is very good as the community’s chief spokesman.

Two main women present, Jenny Seagrove as the aptly named Marina and Jennifer Black as Lawson’s warm wife, are terrifically attractive and provide ample fantasy material for Capaldi and Riegert, respectively.

Pic not only benefits from the beautiful Scottish setting, but from the remarkable contrast between it and Houston. In look and temperament, two locales could hardly be more dissimilar, an aspect which quietly underlines one of the film’s important themes.

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. Tech work is fine, and a lot of imagination has gone into the fabulous design of Lancaster’s penthouse abode.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a Enigma production for Goldcrest. Director Bill Forsyth; Produced by David Puttnam; Written and directed by Bill Forsyth. Screenplay, Bill Forsyth,
• Crew: Camera Chris Menges; Editor, Michael Bradsell; Music Mark Knopfler; Art Director, Roger Murray-Leach. Sound, Lewis Kramer; Special effects, Wally Veevers. Associate producer, Iain Smith. Assistant director, Jonathan Benson. (Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Reviewed at Burbank Studios on Feb. 8, 1983. Running time: 111 MIN.
• With: Felix Hopper - Burt Lancaster Mae MacIntyre - Peter Riegert Ben - Fulton MacKay Gordon Urquhart - Denis Lawson Mortiz - Norman Chancer Danny Oldsen - Peter Capaldi Geddes - Rikki Fulton Watt - Alex Norton Marina - Jenny Seagrove Stella - Jennifer Black Victor - Christopher Bozycki Rev. Macpherson - Christopher Asante

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