Local Hero (film)

Local Hero
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBill Forsyth
Written byBill Forsyth
Produced byDavid Puttnam
Starring
CinematographyChris Menges
Edited byMichael Bradsell
Music byMark Knopfler
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox[1]
Release dates
  • 17 February 1983 (1983-02-17) (New York City)
  • 17 March 1983 (1983-03-17) (London)
  • 29 April 1983 (1983-04-29) (UK)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£3 million[2] or £2.6 million[3]
Box office$5.9 million (US)[4]

Local Hero is a 1983 British dramedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and produced by David Puttnam. It stars Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi, and Fulton Mackay. Riegert plays an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. The musical score was composed by Mark Knopfler.

The film premiered on February 17, 1983. It received widespread acclaim from critics, and holds a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[5] At the 37th British Academy Film Awards, the film was nominated for seven BAFTA Awards and won Best Direction for Forsyth. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked the film as one of the Top 100 British films of the 20th century.

A stage musical adaptation of the same name, written by Forsyth and Knopfler, received its world premiere in 2019.

  1. ^ "Local Hero (1983)". BBFC. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  2. ^ Walker, Alexander (1985). National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. Harrap. p. 182. ISBN 9780752857077.
  3. ^ Eberts, Jake; Illott, Terry (1990). My indecision is final. Faber and Faber. p. 116. ISBN 9780571148899.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference rotten was invoked but never defined (see the help page).