Last night I stumbled upon a movie at Youtube that had a true effect upon my life when I first saw it back in 1983, at a Westwood, LA theater. First thing it did was knock me out.
Knocked me out to the extent that I went back the next day to see it again. I’ve probably seen it 20 times but many years have gone by since my viewing last night. As I type right now it’s playing again on Youtube on another screen. In fact, I’ll get back to you…
One of my favorite scenes: This American Big Oil executive (Mac) is in Scotland to buy a whole fishing village to drill and so on. He’s talking to some fishermen; not much happens except the point is made that everyone pitches in when something needs to be done; they all have multiple jobs. After a bit, Mac is asked if he has only one job. It’s funny and we think this is the payoff. A bit later, though, Mac looks at a baby in a stroller. ‘Nice baby. Whose is it?’
The half dozen or so fishermen look at each other as if they had never wondered about this, and are just doing so now for the first time. It doesn’t sound that funny, but the subtle way its handled, it’s a belly laugh.
Seeing this movie was near the beginning of my screenwriting career and the importance of it cannot be overestimated. It inspired me in everything I wrote (not counting Cosmic Banditos) from then on.
Local Hero. It’s free now on Youtube.
1983. The above scene would not make it into a movie these days; they’d stick in something about global warming. Local Hero itself would never get made. An oil executive buys a fishing village in Scotland? A possible premise, yes, but how would it play out now? Hey, lets find out, ask ChatGPT.
Title: Emerald Rhapsody
Genre: Drama, Environmental
Logline: A ruthless big oil executive, driven by profit and power, ventures to a picturesque Scotish village after a significant oil deposit is discovered beneath its land. However, as he navigates the idyllic community and encounters its resilient inhabitants, he undergoes a transformative journey that challenges his values and forces him to confront the destructive consequences of his actions.
- Skip to the end.
Act 4:
- The film concludes with the village successfully fending off the oil company, Michael choosing a path of redemption, and the community inspiring others to protect their own precious lands.
Predictable, yes. In Local Hero the story is about the change in Mac and while sticking to reality has a magical quality to it. There would be nothing magical about GPT’s version, I can promise you that.
But what’s my point?
I got no point, other than turning you on to Local Hero, a little piece of cinema magic, and other than one I made a few posts ago: If you’re a writer, your career-days are numbered. No doubt about that.
Allan
If you want to see something that should raise as many eyebrows as the fake Space X (I wonder why he’s calling it X?) missions, for, obviously, different reasons, take a gander at this.
https://twitter.com/Quickwitnitwit/status/1683213251318874112
That’s wild.
That is very very strange. I’m not sure what’s happening though.
OT TWITTER: Elon Musk, of Space X (Fake X) fame, is changing the name of Twitter to “X.” I absolutely hate it. What kind of a name is “X”? Under Musk, my page views are down 90%. All of my new followers are bot accounts with zero tweets. All of the likes on my tweets come from bots. Obviously, I am shadowbanned on Twitter, just like on the search engines. People thought Musk was on our side? https://www.infowars.com/posts/elon-musks-major-rebranding-twitter-name-will-change-to-x-bird-symbols-to-disappear/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2PjiCtGAgQ
Give this a look, folks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIoqSHnSn3o
You’ve seen that before, right? Do you believe that really happens. In the ‘real’ world?
I know next to nothing about aeronautics and physics but I don’t think I need to….to say that is complete bullshit. From beginning to end including all the overplayed fake cheers. Did you catch the gaslighting in the comments?
Good point. they really over did the comments. Here are the first few:
Pinned by Saul Tenorio
@AndreiFarcastheRocketman
2 years ago
Whoever watches this and feels no emotion or excitement is basically already dead.
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Saul Tenorio
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12 replies
@RickHollmer
@RickHollmer
2 years ago
Looks like it’s vectored thrusting. That’s just incredible how it’s balancing.
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Saul Tenorio
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2 replies
@zhongxina9420
@zhongxina9420
1 year ago
The majority of the masses don’t know how important this moment is in our history
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2 replies
@ahmednaim1017
@ahmednaim1017
1 year ago
Really a mindblowing performance.
Talk about an insult to our intelligences.
I doesn’t look real to me.
However, all I see it doing is orientating itself; there’s no indication that it was navigating. I’m not certain a well-controlled, gimballed, thruster could not achieve this – but don’t ask me to demonstrate!
Imagine the monster CGI Crapola and Lies, when they say they are off to Mars!!. Biggest crock of BS “space program” ever!!.
It looks real while viewing in person. Maybe they should just film the hologram. [sarcasm intended].
Great to see you have woken up to nasa bullshit as well!. They had less time and money, and saved a whole lot of pain and expense, by using a film studio of course (no decent CGI in those days).
sarcasm intended
So, a “Roman Candle” flips & slows down this vessel. BTW, the Rooskies accomplished this 50+ years ago, unless theirs went into the Caspian Sea.
Please educate me.
Educate you? EDUCATE YOU? Do you know how much time and energy I have put in to fucking educating you? Did this even occur to you? And you give me one stupid sentence and want to be educated? Sorry if I consider you an asshole. I am so tired of this bullshit.
Thanks for guiding me into Local Hero. I had never seen it. Marvelous. The girls flippers disappearing as she dives is a great moment, and in a quick and distant shot. That’s a film that believes in itself.
The closest thing to this theme is Trump buying land in Scotland to develop his own golf course to which there was much local opposition. I think the community opposition failed. I believe the course is now open.
Yup Jonathan. I remember a farmer who fought Trump back then called Michael Forbes. He wasn’t willing to sell his piece of land where he had lived his whole life.
The course opened in 2012.
What makes Local Hero so moving is that FOR ONCE big money doesn’t win, oil doesn’t win, and we all know that they almost always do. A playwright of my acquaintance said to always consider “audience wish”.
I am really looking forward to watching Local Hero, when I get home to my big screen and more data supply on tap. I had never heard of the movie before, so big thanks to you (again!!) Allan. From what you guys are saying, it reminds me of big corp/money failing, on the island of Rarotonga years ago. The locals “ran them out of town, when they realised a big outfit was wrecking their island, with a big hotel build. Locals put a stop to it, and today the half built hotel/resort complex is one of the tourist’s “points of interest”, to visit, and hear the story of the big money demise – 1 or 2 deaths too.
Thanks for the heads up Allan. I know that Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits did the soundtrack; my mother had a copy of the score and loved it. It’s hard to find a good movie these days without some sort of programming interwined within it, sometimes it’s so bad it’s hard to sit through the whole thing!
Hello Allan. That movie brings back many memories. It gets on air now and then on a local TV station around here. That said as I started taking writing seriously it is now a dead end…let’s take a look at the funny side of the whole thing should we?!
I don’t understand.
The point I was trying to make was that you are right saying days are numbered for writers. Since I have started to write scripts for movies in the last two and something years I should start considering different professional options. GPT doesn’t need to be paid and won’t ask for sick days or holidays.
Take care.
Imagine if some schmuck was relying on Chat GPT for a deadline assignment, and the power goes out, and it coughs it’s lolly as it falls over into the dust :).
That would be funny to witness.
“Local Hero”, an excellent movie, an all-time favorite.
Thx, have never heard about it, will view it when back from the conference we’re attending. In ’83 was dealing with a 6 yr old daughter & a preggie, naggy soon to be ex-wife. Not much time for movies.