Monday, 11 August 2014

Local Hero


Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
1983
Country:
UK
Predominant Genre:
Comedy
Director:
Bill Forsyth
Best Performances:
None
Premiss:
An oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery.
Themes:
Scotland
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
Cinema

Brilliantly low key comic rendering of the effect of wealth on a village in the Highlands of Scotland because of the (now declining) oil industry.

Lacking the cynicism and realism of an Ealing comedy, this goes for subtle whimsy and magic realism to get across the story of a Texas oilman going native among apparently unsophisticated yokels.

Ultimately a film about the potentially alienating effects of Western Civilisation on the soul of Western Man as He becomes embroiled in the twin obsessions of worrying about what others think of Him and materialism for its own sake. These ideas are gently woven into the weave of this tremendous movie.

A film repaying multiple viewings with faultless acting combined with an unbridled love of, and fascination for, nature – a kind of Visit Scotland film for the Highlands & Islands.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.