Local Hero (1983) on Netflix
Knox Oil sends Mac MacIntyre from Houston to buy the Scottish village of Ferness for a refinery. The residents, tired of hard lives, feign indifference to raise the price.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.3/1030,388 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mac MacIntyre works for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston. Felix Happer, who owns the company, picks him for an assignment because his surname sounds Scottish, and sends him to acquire Ferness, a village in the Scottish Highlands, where a refinery is to be built. Mac, who is of Hungarian extraction, would rather do business by telephone and telex. In Scotland he works alongside Danny Oldsen, the local Knox representative. The villagers, tired of a hard life, are willing to sell but pretend not to care.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Local Hero (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Warner Bros. and Goldcrest both refused to fund Local Hero at first. Goldcrest changed its mind and financed the entire film after producer David Puttnam won a BAFTA for Chariots of Fire in 1982, with Warner Bros. paying $1.5 million for US rights.
- Burt Lancaster wanted $2 million to play Happer, almost a third of the whole budget. Once Warner Bros. heard he might be involved it offered a US distribution deal and the extra money, and David Puttnam came out of the negotiations $200,000 better off.
- Bill Forsyth pursued both Michael Douglas and Henry Winkler to play the oil company man MacIntyre before the role went to Peter Riegert.
- Burt Lancaster's character has a piece of the solar system named after him: the minor planet 7345 Happer takes its name from him and from his on-screen quest to have a comet named after himself.
- Mark Knopfler's theme outgrew the film. "Going Home: The Theme of the Local Hero" is the walk-on music for Newcastle United at St James' Park, the club Knopfler supported growing up in the city.
- In March 2024 Knopfler re-recorded the theme with Bruce Springsteen, Brian May and Jeff Beck among the guitarists, billed as Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes, in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The single reached number 18 in the UK.
- Local Hero seeded an American television hit: it was a favorite of writer Joshua Brand and became the inspiration for the series Northern Exposure.
