I consider this one of the 10 best movies I've ever seen (and to paraphrase John Cleese from LIFE OF BRIAN, I've seen a few). It is definitely the funniest movie of the 80's, just ahead of RAISING ARIZONA. And although LOCAL HERO and RAISING ARIZONA are quite dissimilar films, they do share one distinction: they were both made in the 80's, yet they go totally against the grain of movies made during that decade. All the shallow, cheap, go for the simple-minded lowest common denominator audience garbage that was so much a part of the 80's is missing here.
What is most special about LOCAL HERO to me is how it not only respects it's audience, but seems to show an against-all-odds affection for humanity that INCLUDES the audience. Bill Forsyth cares about every character that inhabits his film, and in a very gentle, open-handed way he seems to want to share his characters with the audience so that the audience might see the best of themselves in some aspect of those characters.
I can understand why Forsyth didn't develop into a major moviemaker in Hollywood, in the same way that I can understand why some people find this movie boring. But somehow, to me, keeping this movie alive along with all its' other fans is part of a cockeyed optimism about people that, these days, seems to be very much against-the-grain.
What is most special about LOCAL HERO to me is how it not only respects it's audience, but seems to show an against-all-odds affection for humanity that INCLUDES the audience. Bill Forsyth cares about every character that inhabits his film, and in a very gentle, open-handed way he seems to want to share his characters with the audience so that the audience might see the best of themselves in some aspect of those characters.
I can understand why Forsyth didn't develop into a major moviemaker in Hollywood, in the same way that I can understand why some people find this movie boring. But somehow, to me, keeping this movie alive along with all its' other fans is part of a cockeyed optimism about people that, these days, seems to be very much against-the-grain.