Local Hero freebie DVD
Posted by Gatz on 24 September 2008 - 7:57pm.
A quickie to let everyone know that The Observer is giving away the DVD of Local Hero this Sunday. It's one of my all time favourites, and I'm sure I can say the same for many here. For some reason it was unavailable on DVD in the UK at all until earlier this year, so I've only got it on VHS and just this once I'll make a special purchase of the paper, rather than waiting for it to show up for 15p in the local charity shops.
http://www.guardianmarketing.co.uk/localheroDVD/?RAC-TrObLocHer&link=gum...
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Local Hero
Will buy that, it's a good film and soundtrack.For once a worthwhile free DVD with a newspaper
Wonderful
It's an absolutely wonderful film, one of my all time favourites.
And the soundtrack contributes hugely to it.
Just bought that DVD...
...but I don't buy the Observer as a matter of principle, so that's OK.
Just curious (and not in the least challenging)
What principle, innominate?
It's very feeble
The standard of journalism was so poor on a particular issue that it practically libelled an acquaintance of mine about ten years ago. I haven't read it since. (The same is true of the Mail on Sunday, which printed a completely false hatchet job on the father of a friend of mine. However, I have never read that paper.)
I am still quite fond of the Guardian -- we always had both papers delivered when I was growing up. However, these days I only buy the Friday and Saturday editions (because of the Film & Music, and Guide/Review supplements, respectively). Otherwise, I just leech off the web-site. (Of course, this does mean that I am exposed to Observer content, but I am not that principled.)
Fair enough!
Thanks for explaining.
I buy it because I like a Sunday paper and, while the Observer isn't all that good, the rest are all completely rubbish .
Why?
Just curious.
I also shun it on principle
I've never been able to get further than its name, which is obviously a sly reference to the Nazis' official organ, the Völkischer Beobachter.
Due the shunsters...
..extend this to the full Guardian? I find it the only Saturday Newspaper worth reading (I just tend to get online news during the week). The Observer has a bit too much padding rather than decent content though.
The Guardian: another no-no
Again, the name is enough for me - too close for comfort to Franco's jackbooted Guardia Civil.
How do you know the names of all these political papers?
Know your enemy
Research his ass.
If you take the names literally...
..would you then recommend one who follows Cricket should read The Daily Sport?
i'm a bit partial to the music of Duke Ellington
and Count Basie...
Could you recommend some Jazz Mags as well, please?
Readers Wives,
Razzle and Shaven Ravens.
He said "jazz"
with an "a", not an "i". (Although thanks for reminding me that I have a couple of subscriptions to renew.)
Jazzy Jeff
And he meant jazz mags.Archie, as I guess you probably knew...
It's Lucas's fault
I seem to have been even more impressed than I thought by his conjecture about on-air emissions.
Don't mind me. As you were.
Not previously available??
...hmmm. I've had a copy for a year or two, now. Perhaps it's an import. One of my favourite films, too.
Local Hero is crap
It just doesn't work. It's boring, unfunny and dramatically inert. It sets something up and then kind of doesn't dramatise it. I LOVE Gregory's Girl. That's a masterpiece. Local Hero is just a plodding film.
Worse than that
It set the stage for the host of wonky feelgood Britflicks that followed.
And the casting of the Burtster was so screamingly obviously a case of a director, riding on the back of a hit film, indulging himself by fulfilling a lifelong fantasy that it smacked of "Look, Ma, I made it! I'm Billy Wilder!"
Oh, and Clare Grogan wasn't in it. Best just forget the whole thing.
Which
Brit feel good flicks are you referring to??
To me Local Hero fits perfectly in the middle of Bill Forsyth's trio of lovely understated British comedies. So there!!
And LOUD I would not describe it as as a "plod" more of a quiet Sunday stroll with a couple of malts in the pub afterwards.
That's enough launderettes and girls' foopball teams
In fact, I'm probably referring to pretty much every British film made since Local Hero that wasn't directed by Guy Ritchie or Danny Boyle - because they're feelcrap Britflicks.
On the contrary...
....it is truly wonderful and is, in fact, my favourite film, hence I have owned it on DVD for several years and have no need of the Observer. Actually it was the only reason I first bought a DVD player back in, oooh, 2000.
The Burt Lancaster casting is inspired, as is Fulton Mackay. There are two lines from the film that regularly crop in conversation in my world:
"Are there two Gs in 'bugger off'?"
"You're a shit, Happer."
Also notice a strange mirror in which 20 years later Peter Capaldi turns up in The Thick of It and Peter Riegert turns up in the West Wing.
Peter Capaldi's film Soft Top, Hard Shoulder should also be watched and loved.
Casting to budget
Isn't it obvious he wanted a fifties hunk but couldn't afford Brando? And if he'd been a few quid short of Burt's fee, wouldn't it have been Rod Steiger or Ernest Borgnine? (All along, of course, it should have been George C. Scott, as any fule kno.)
Errr
Well is it really THAT obvious??? I too thought that Burt was fantasmo, as was the rest of the cast. It was and still is a fun film. Dinner, drinks, a bottle of malt, Local Hero DVD and a few friends over has once in a while made for a good evening at Bingham towers. But what do I know?? Jesus perish the thought of Brando as Happer, more mumbling and "acting" Yikes!!