Local Hero 1983
I didn't know anything about this movie, but I knew that the theme song was by Mark Knopfler because the song was used on one of my favorite Dire Straits albums, Alchemy. This movie was released on disc by Criterion and has always been on my list of possible purchases from them. Lastly, it has an amazing 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. So it is maybe not that surprising that I didn't like it as much as I hoped. It is a classic character study of quirky characters in a seaside Scottish town when a visiting oil guy visits, instructed to buy the whole town to replace it with an oil refinery. The director has a light touch, hinting at little things rather than showing you everything, but the movie is frustratingly empty. That's to be expected of a character study, I guess. I can see how some people could be enchanted by it and I can see how it could possibly get better with rewatches as you get used to the different characters. It's a good movie and definitely worth a watch, but not as good as I hoped. Also, the Mark Knopfler stuff is there, but I feel like I got as much of it from the five minute version of the theme song on Alchemy as I did in the movie, which doesn't mean it is bad, but I wanted more.
Written: 27 Nov 2025