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Local Hero [DVD]

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Walker, Alexander (1985). National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties. Harrap. p.182. ISBN 9780752857077. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Bill Forsyth’s highly regarded Local Hero makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of The Criterion Collection, who present the film on this dual-layer disc in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The new 2K restoration was handled by Goldencrest Films. Criterion has done some further restoration for this release.

Monica says fans of the film often want to recreate that scene for themselves and she’ll often hear the phone ringing when she and her husband are sitting on the bench nearby having a cup of tea. She always answers the phone although usually the person hangs up - perhaps they’ve had their moment and all they needed was to make the connection; sometimes it’ll be someone from the other side of the world: Australia, America. “It’s because the film still inspires people,” says Monika. “I know people who watch it once a week and sometimes more.” Bill Forsyth told Evening Times journalist Alasdair Marshall that he was keen to keep making films in Scotland: At the Pennan Inn, Monika Focht also feels the pull and legacy of the film – every day. Local Hero lives on in her house, she says. There are film posters on the walls and guests arrive all the time from all over the world. Monika says that it wasn’t Local Hero specifically that made her and her husband buy the B&B some two years, but she’s glad they did. And she knows that one night soon, she’ll be sitting on the bench by the call box and the phone will ring. She’ll answer it and maybe the person on the end of the line will speak, maybe they won’t. They’re just fans of Local Hero, that’s all. They just want to make the connection. The film touches people and the scenes in the phone box is iconic and it sort of focuses the whole film,” she says. “If you love the film, you’ll love the phone box so I understand someone seeing it and crying. We’ve been moaning about making films in Scotland for years. I’d be daft not to do it now that I’ve got the chance.”

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In his Chicago Sun-Times review, Roger Ebert gave the film his highest four stars, calling it "a small film to treasure". He gave particular praise to writer-director Bill Forsyth for his abilities as a storyteller.

Snow, Georgia (3 February 2018). "Scottish film Local Hero to be adapted as stage musical". The Stage . Retrieved 24 February 2018. Ever since I began this project, I have dreamed of staging a screening of Local Hero,” said Amanda Rogers, founder of Cinetopia, the company behind Cinescapes. “Local Hero is an utterly charming film which has stood the test of time. We are particularly excited to be working with Jonathan Melville to explore stories behind the making of the film and its impact on the Aberdeenshire area and on the film industry in Scotland.” Moidart, Highland, Scotland, UK (road scenes for drive to Ferness – A861 descent to Loch Moidart and descent to Inversanda Bay)

Seagrove recognises something else important about Local Hero too, which is that, in the subtle way that Bill Forsyth does things in his films, it was one of the first movies to raise the subject of environmentalism and the damage industry can do to the planet. Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press, p. 314

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