MovieChat Forums > Local Hero (1983) Discussion > So what happens to the townfolk now - st...

So what happens to the townfolk now - still rich?

posted 14 years ago by rkw2705
8 replies | jump to latest

As the deal isn't going ahead as originally planned, will the people still be 'stinking rich'?

At the end Mac mentions that the deal is in 'a very advanced stage' Happer says ' I still want the place make no mistake about this'

Was Happer still going to buy the area meaning the people all still get money?
I just was a little puzzled by this scene, you would be pretty devastated - one minute your going to be really rich and another your back to where you started!!

[–] Mickyfinn 14 years ago

No. Not stinking rich. I always took it as the deal would be much smaller. Happer wants "an offshore facility- but just for storage". Urquart says that "at least there will be work and money", so Happer's presence will create some jobs. No, no one was 'devastated'. The idea of cashing out intrigued them and gave them a little excitement, but remember, they were pretty content with their situation beforehand, and were the kind of people who could shrug that kind of thing off.

You just have to be resigned-
You're crashing by design

[–] coolbluegreen 14 years ago

Happer wants to create an institute to study the sea and stars there. So, there is no need to buy the town, but there will be jobs. Nothing will be destroyed -- not the town, not the beach, nothing. And people won't be stinking rich, but they will be employed.

[–] coolbluegreen 14 years ago

[–] ViolentRhapsody 13 years ago

The juxtaposition of Mac, when he returns to Houston as a changed man in his upscale but empty condo overlooking an impersonal big city, is to show that money can't buy happiness and that the people in Ferness, despite their hardship, had something more valuable than money all along.

They lacked materialism but had a community -- something that is missing in big cities often fraught with trying to "be better than the Joneses" instead of trying to get to know the Joneses.

Therefore whether they made big money is not relevant. In fact, perhaps it's left ambiguous.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] backofthevan 12 years ago

The inn is open now and has 3 small double rooms to let and full meals in the dining room using local products where possible. I was in touch with the owner today, as a matter of fact, inquiring about staying there next summer.

[–] hugh1971 12 years ago

Watching the film again, it seems to me a little less sentimental. Somebody says 'you can't eat scenery' and the locals are very keen to get the biggest price they can for selling off their homes. The old boy on the beach is the only one who resists, and the locals start to turn a bit nasty because of it - he's only saved by the arrival of the oil baron. So I'm not sure it's such a 'feelgood' film after all...

[–] Jamesir_Bensonmum 12 years ago

^
^^ I never considered it to be a "feel-good film" in the first place.

At least, I don't see this to be a film about a old beach-combing rebel who saves his picturesque town from destruction (although that is certainly a plot point)...

...Instead, I've always felt that the main theme of this film is Mac's slow (almost imperceptibly so) transformation. All that "saving the town" stuff happened around him, and was germane to his transformation, but "saving the town" was not the film's main theme.