As has been an odd but important Christmas tradition for over a decade, I watched LOCAL HERO tonight. One of my desert island films, it always enchants me and moves me.

But looking at the imdb boards tonight, I was frankly shocked and amazed by the readings of it's marvelously understated ending. So shocked that I wondered if maybe I'm the one with the problem, that I'm too jaded and pessimistic.

We all know what goes down just beforehand. MacIntyre, shaven and back in his three-piece suit, is sent back to Houston by Happer. Knox Oil and Gas is still buying the entire town of Furness but Happer has chosen to build a research institute instead of an oil refinery.

MacIntyre returns to his high-rise apartment, empties out his souveniers, and goes to the ledge to look out over the night and the city, and is clearly sad and missing everything back there.

Fade to black.

Ringing phone in an empty callbox. Music and credits.

3/4 of the posters at imdb considered this an ending of hope, that it's likely MacIntyre calling back that night, his call arriving just as the sun comes up in the town and people are still asleep, planning to return in the same fashion of the Russian fisherman and the transplanted African priest.

To me, there was never any doubt that it was MacIntyre calling, but the black screen suggests days, even weeks, have passed, and that yes, he wants to return, or at least touch base with someone there. But it is too late: the homes are empty, the villagers have moved...the town is gone. He's reaching out for something that is irretrivably lost.

I have read up on how Forsyth scrapped his original twist ending during shooting, and how WB demanded a new ending (his first cut ended with Mac on the balcony) and Forsyth used B-roll footage of the phonebox with the ringing underneath, so I'm not really looking for an argument of intentions. I just want to know from the people here who have seen the movie what they took away from the ending.

Maybe it's just me but I read it as simply that the story isn't entirely over, that (to use a cliche) life goes on. Which is hopeful. Anything beyond that (who it might be, what they might want) can't be supported by the film and is irrelevant if not actually detrimental to the film. It's like some ambiguous endings to say City Lights, The Graduate or Lost in Translation that we can extend further (cf David Thomson's Suspects) but in the end all we have is the film.

Up until now, I'd count myself among those 3/4 IMDb users - I'd always gone along with the hopeful ending. I rather like downbeat and/or miserable endings to films though, so it's surprising that I've never thought about this possible interpretation until Marc brought it up. I may have to watch it again some time and see if my mind has changed.

The only thing that makes me still think the happy ending is the answer is that I don't recall there being much in the way of negative reaction to the institute being built instead of the refinery - almost as if everyone was happy for that to take place and that the villagers would remain. However, it's a long time since I saw it so that may well not have been the case, in which case I'm sure someone can correct me (and win me over to the miserable ending).

The irony of the film is that Mac becomes one of the locals during his stay; he begins to dress like them, stops shaving, falls in love a bit -- but he's there to sell those people out. Ultimately he doesn't even receive credit for setting up the deal for Knox to buy the properties. Marc's interpretation of the ending is perfectly valid, but where he and I differ is that I don't see the black screen as representative of passing time. I see it as a flash of the void Mac feels, which can only be obliterated by staying in touch with the friends he's made abroad. Someone there is always passing by to pick up the ringing phone in the callbox and I have no doubts that someone will: "Ah, hallooo, Mister Mac!"

I know from my own comparatively limited travel adventures that places change, whether they've been sold out to oil companies or not, and people move on, but good friendships can be sustained by continued contact. So I don't see the ending as downbeat, only ironical. I can well imagine a sequel (too late now, alas) in which Mac returned to Scotland, after finding a loophole in the contract, and tried to convince the town to seize their opportunity to renege on the deal -- only to learn the ultimate lesson that everything is relative, even happiness, and that he's really out to preserve and contain his own sense of paradise that he's found there, and not those of the locals.

I remember going to see Local Hero at my local theater when I was about 13. Thinking back on it now, I can’t imagine a point in my young life where I should have been less susceptible to its charms; it instantly became my favorite film and remains so to this day.

My reading on the end – no matter how charmed I am by people or places, I’m always happiest returning home. Mac’s home in Texas couldn’t be further away from the magical Scottish town beneath the dancing Northern Lights that he just returned from, but the way that he wistfully walks around his own apartment and gazes out his own window makes me feel like he is finally able to see the beauty around his own home. It’s also worth noting the music playing at that point is titled “Going Home”. However it makes you feel is the right answer.

I'm really more of a Telex man, anyway.

Though this dances close to topic's edge, does anyone else make a holiday tradition of watching Comfort & Joy?

It's been some time since I've treated myself to watching the film, but my recollection of the ending accords with yours, Marc. In fact, I see the whole movie as a bittersweet phonecall back to that mythical randy, spirited island, a more whimsical and melancholy version of THE WICKER MAN. That would also be in keeping with the steady slide into seriousness and unfulfilled expectations that marks Forsyth's work and career as a whole. Was his GREGORY'S GIRL sequel ever released in America?

I think his GREGORY'S GIRL sequel got a token release. It does turn up on cable from time to time.

I was hoping for a HOUSEKEEPING DVD in this, its 20th anniversary year, but no luck. His last really satisfying film.