donn (05/08/83)
Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP Message-ID:<532@sdchema.UUCP> Date:Sat, 7-May-83 21:03:12 EDT LOCAL HERO is written and directed by Bill Forsyth, who was responsible for last year's GREGORY'S GIRL. If you enjoyed GREGORY'S GIRL (as I did) then you should have fun with LOCAL HERO. The premise of the story is that the gigantic Knox Oil Corp. of Houston, Texas, wants to build a suitably immense refinery and deep sea storage depot on the site of a small village on the northwest coast of Scotland. The village and its neighboring countryside are breathtakingly beautiful and are populated by a clan of warmly sympathetic but rather eccentric Scotsmen and, er, Scotswomen. The standard movie formula would have the brave villagers fighting off the clutches of the foul multinational corporation, but instead the villagers are all desperate to get their hands on the millions of dollars which the oil company is sure to spend to buy their land. It's everything that the town accountant (and hotel-keeper and bartender and...), named Urquhart, can do to keep them calm while he beats up the price with the "acquisitions manager" who represents the company. Meanwhile the poor manager MacIntyre is falling in love with the place and is becoming more and more reluctant to deal. Mix this with Burt Lancaster playing Mr. Happer, the chairman of the oil company and a man who is fascinated by astronomy to the point of hilarious obsession, and you get a wonderful combination that kept the theater audience laughing steadily (despite the fact that the house was barely a quarter full). The only thing I have to add is that the production values on this film are much improved from GREGORY'S GIRL and the result is visually very pleasing (with a lot of help from nature and Scottish village architecture). Go see it. Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn
bukys (05/11/83)
Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP Posting-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site rochester.UUCP Message-ID:<1548@rochester.UUCP> Date:Tue, 10-May-83 17:22:03 EDT Sender:bukys@rocheste.UUCP Organization:University of Rochester From: Liudvikas Bukys <bukys> Plot: Oil company junior exec goes to Scotland to buy 12 miles of coastline from the locals. Amusing things happen. Exec goes home. Warning for Environmentalists: This is not a big bad corporation story. Go see a propaganda film instead. Warning for the TV Generation: The people I was with thought that it was slow. Definitely not an action picture. Go see Superman III instead. Quiet, absurd, relaxed (relaxing) comedy. Wonderful. I'll probably spend another $4 to see it again. Liudvikas Bukys rochester!bukys bukys@rochester