Local Hero is a perfect example of a soundtrack that, in many ways, outstrips the film it was meant to complement -- and in this case, at least, it's a pity. Which isn't to say that the score isn't absolutely wonderful. It is, or it wouldn't be listed here. I'm not normally a fan of Dire Straits or of Mark Knopfler's solo work, but the stirring, sentimental but never overdone combination of blues-influenced electric guitar, sweeping synthesizer stings, and Scottish folk music he put together is perfectly suited to the visual, narrative, and emotional arc of the movie. The soundtrack itself sold more copies than the movie sold tickets, and it became so popular amongst his fans that he began to incorporate some of its better tracks into his solo shows. It's an amazing piece of work; the pity is that the movie has, over time, become far less known.
A movie of good grace, light step, and gentle humor, which pulls at the heartstrings in an exceptionally powerful way without ever becoming expressly manipulative, Local Hero is the lost Scottish director Bill Forsyth's best film -- and his last great one, as well. It tells the story of Mac (Peter Riegert, charming as hell), an American oil and gas executive who visits a remote village on the Scottish coastline in an attempt to buy up property cheap and open it up for drilling. Complications set in, as complications do, as the locals prove both quirky and reluctant, difficult to communicate with, seductive, crammed with local color, and worst of all, incredibly friendly and accepting of the alienated Mac, who more and more begins to think that throwing all of these people out of their homes on the cheap isn't what he wants to do with his life. His dilemma lies in convincing his employer, the oil tycoon Felix Happer -- played with hilarious belligerence by Burt Lancaster in one of his best film roles -- to abandon his drilling plans, into which he's already sunk millions.
The music itself, for all its wistful beauty and nearly trascendental appropriateness to the material, isn't all that divergent from the typical Dire Straits experience; Knopfler even drafts some of his bandmates, including bassist John Illsley and keyboardist Alan Clark, to contribue. But what makes it more than just a record of Dire Straits instrumental tracks is Knopfler's sense of restraint. He understands scoring enough to know the importance of returning to a strong melodic theme that runs through the entire work, rather than following the pop-record temptation of trying to make every track sound distinct; and he throws in just enough elements of traditional Scottish folk music to give the soundtrack a very particular feel, but never beats you over the head with ill-gotten 'authenticity'. The end result is a beautiful, listenable piece of work.
BEST TRACKS: The best-known track on the album is "Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)", which appears in the film as the end credits music but has become a regular fixture of Mark Knopfler's concerts as a final encore. It's a fine piece of music, no doubt, but it's not the best on the record: that honor belongs to "The Ceilidh: Louis' Favorite/Billy's Tune", the song featured at the local dance that forms the movie's emotional high point, for which Knopfler brings in a local Scottish folk outfit, the Acetones, who perform gorgeously. Also of note is the recurring main theme, which appears in various forms as "The Rocks and the Water" and "The Rocks and the Thunder", and "The Way It Always Starts", the soundtrack's sole vocal number, sung by Scottish pop singer Gerry Rafferty (who, curiously, doesn't appear in the film).
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