Today’s classic movie song of the day is a beautiful instrumental from Mark Knopfler, formerly of Dire Straits. The tune is “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero),” and it’s the music you hear at the end of the 1983 Scottish film, Local Hero. This is music that always settles my soul; it is gentle and calming, perhaps Knopfler’s best work in a long career of terrific musicmaking.
Mark Knopfler, guitarist extraordinaire, wrote and performed all the music for Local Hero. In addition to its inclusion on the Local Hero soundtrack album, “Going Home” was released as a single in several countries, peaking at #26 in the Netherlands, #18 in New Zealand, and #56 in the UK. Sadly, it was not released as a single in the U.S.
“Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” starts off with Knopfler’s wistful rubato guitar arpeggiating over a sympathetic synthesizer pad, then adds Michael Brecker’s saxophone in response to Knopfler’s statement of the theme on electric guitar. About two-thirds of the way through there’s an eighth note build and the entire rhythm section comes in, at tempo, with Brecker playing the main theme on sax. Then Knopfler adds a brilliant lead guitar behind the theme as the song builds to its uplifting climax. It is magnificent.
Local Hero is a gentle comedy about a young American oil company rep reluctantly traveling to a small Scottish fishing village with the intent of buying the entire village for the oil company to exploit with a new refinery. The somewhat-quirky villagers are hip to the plot, however, and eager to sell out and become rich. The kicker is that “Mac” Macintosh, the oil company guy, soon has second thoughts about the plan as he falls in love with the village and its people.
The 1983 film was written and directed by Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsythe, who had previously directed the equally delightful Gregory’s Girl. Peter Riegert starred as Macintosh, Burt Lancaster played the eccentric CEO of the oil company, a young Peter Capaldi (of future Dr. Who fame) played a naive but enthusiastic gofer from the Scottish arm of the oil company, Jenny Seagrove played a Scottish scientist who may have been a mermaid, and Denis Lawson, Fulton Mackay, Jennifer Black, and Rikki Fulton played some of the villagers. Oh, and there was also a Russian fishing boat captain, played by Christopher Rozycki, who added even more color to the proceedings.
Local Hero was filmed at several locations in Scotland. The fictional village of Ferness was actually the real village of Pennan, 36 miles north of Aberdeen on the east coast, while the beach scenes were filmed at Morar and Arisaig on the west coast of the country. It was a small film that punched well above its weight, drawing enthusiastic reviews from critics here and abroad. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave it four stars and called it “a small film to treasure,” adding:
“What makes this material really work is the low-key approach of the writer-director, Bill Forsyth, who also made the charming Gregory’s Girl and has the patience to let his characters gradually reveal themselves to the camera. He never hurries, and as a result, Local Hero never drags: Nothing is more absorbing than human personalities, developed with love and humor. Some of the payoffs in this film are sly and subtle, and others generate big laughs.”
In the film, a variation of “Going Home” plays near the end as Mac is leaving the Scottish fishing village for home; he looks down longingly from his helicopter as the locals wish him goodbye. This scene transitions to Mac back home in Houston, silently reminiscing over his time in Ferness. The “Going Home” theme proper starts as Mac empties his pockets of seashells from the Scottish beach and stares wistfully from his balcony over the bright lights of Houston at night, obviously still thinking the little village and its people he fell in love with. There’s now a shot of the famous red phone box in the village, ringing and ringing, as the second part of the theme kicks in, at tempo, and the credits roll. The perfect end to a perfect movie.
As you can tell, I am a huge fan of the movie Local Hero and of Mark Knopler’s soundtrack, especially the “Going Home” theme. It may be my personal favorite movie of all time, just because it makes me so happy to watch it. I’ve yet to travel to Scotland but I’d still like to; the film made me (and audiences everywhere) fall in love with the land and its people. If I ever get to Scotland, I’ll be sure to visit Pennan and have my picture taken next to that red phone booth, which still stands. As the Russian captain, Victor, says in the film, you can’t eat scenery—but you can certainly marvel at it.
In 2024, Mark Knopfler got together a legion of famous guitar players (dubbed Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes) to record a new version of “Going Home” to support the UK’s Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. To accommodate all these legendary guitarists, Knopfler extended the theme with several more choruses, so the song runs about twice as long as the original, which is just fine by me. Listen closely and you’ll hear the guitar stylings of Jeff Beck, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Steve Cropper, Duane Eddy, Peter Frampton, David Gilmour, Vince Gill, Buddy Guy, Albert Lee, Steve Lukather, Brian May, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Nile Rodgers, Joe Satriani, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Walsh, and Ronnie Wood, along with Mark Knopfler himself and a few dozen others (including Ringo Starr and his son Zak Starkey on drums). To me, this was just another chance to listen to some very talented musicians play a brilliant song.
Finally, here’s our daily bonus video of the day, the original American trailer for Local Hero, complete with lots of Mark Knopfler’s music. Okay, I’m going to go home now and watch this one again.
