Scotland in Film by Kyle Young ©

You might think it would be hard to write an article about Scottish films, but in fact the contribution Scotland has made to the world of film has been almost as enduring as the difference made by Scots in the field of invention.

In this article I will look at several Scottish films in no particular order whether from quality, or time period.  The reason for this is quite simple: I grew up seeing the films listed in no particular order and some of the older ones had more of an impact, because I was younger when I saw them, than the more modern ones.

Also the more obvious ones like ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Rob Roy’ are not at the top of my favourites because they milked part of Scottish history in a way that ranged from being inaccurate to downright misleading.

Not all the directors of Scottish films were even Scots.  Danny Boyle has created such wonderful works as ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Shallow Grave,’ both of which were Scottish by dint of using actors such as Ewan McGregor (right), Peter Mullan and Kevin McKidd, all actors who made the Scot a modern film icon.  Then, of course the actor with one of the most recognisable voices in the world is Sean Connery, who even at 76 is still an icon for others to admire.  Photograph of Ewan McGregor Courtesy of Rita Molnár.

When Bill Forsyth created Local Hero in 1983 this was just one more work added to what had become a one-man Scottish film industry.  He had already made That Sinking Feeling and Gregory’s Girl.  These were low-budget comedies, with teenage actors and did not have much funding.

To make Local Hero, he head-hunted Burt Lancaster and retreated to the Highlands. The Hollywood star played the head of an oil company that wants to buy land for a refinery, but changes his mind when he sees the beautiful landscape.  Bill Forsyth was accused of pandering to stereotypes of what Highland Life was like by critics.  This criticism was largely mistaken for a good reason.

Forsyth played on a series of Scottish stereotypes only to subvert them, and this made for good comedy. There is a remote village where although the minister has a Highland accent, he is black.  The tranquillity of the village paradise is shattered by low-flying jet aircraft; and the meal in the hotel turns out to be the injured rabbit Peter Capaldi had rescued from the roadside earlier in the film.

Whisky Galore! Was directed in 1949 by Alexander Mackendrick.  Many critics of the day were to dismiss Mackendrick’s comedy about the islanders of Todday as stereotypical, patronising and tame.  However this underrated comedy film is extremely funny while managing to be highly subversive.

"A happy people with few and simple pleasures," says the opening voice-over, as nine children appear, one after the other, through a crofthouse door. The story is simple: by attempting to salvage 50,000 cases of whisky from a grounded ship, a criminal Celtic brotherhood outwit the English Home Guard captain.

Mackendrick was a Presbyterian with a strong work ethic.  He eventually fell out with producer Monja Danischewsky over the latter’s romantic vision of a remote community fighting foreign interference.  But producers are the funders of a project and Danischewsky got his way.  In America the film was retitled Tight Little Island, which encapsulates this vision. 

The screenplay was written by Compton Mackenzie (who also wrote the book Monarch of the Glen.)  He was inspired by the grounding of the SS Politician off Eriskay and the real theft of whisky supposedly bound for America.  Ealing was busy at the time the film was made, so the cast and crew made the long trip to shoot on location on Barra.  This was an inspirational move that made the picture more funny and realistic.

How many films can say they have inspired three sequels, a live action TV series and an animated series?  Well it’s time to turn to Highlander directed in 1986 by  Russell Mulcahy.  This was another film that was hated by critics. 

In one of the strangest pieces of casting seen, Frenchman Christopher Lambert plays Conner MacLeod, one of a race who are (virtually) immortal and must battle each other through the centuries for the simple reason that "there can be only one". Sean Connery is his Egyptian-Spanish mentor but naturally with his trademark Edinburgh accent.

The film is a combination of swashbuckler and urban thriller. The action jumps between modern New York and 16th Century Scotland.  We see Highlanders in multi-coloured kilts stride off to war across the causeway of Eilean Donan Castle (right) the famous castle in the middle of a loch that everyone knows. 

I would liken this film to sucking something sickly sweet through a straw that you know is bad for you, but feels so good at the time. Photograph of Eilean Donan Castle Courtesy of Puccaso.

Highlander is pure rubbish, some would say. Yet this is a film that carries the viewer along. Freddy Mercury singing ‘Who wants to live forever?’ and Sean Connery’s wife aging while he stays the same, are two scenes that are genuinely moving.   

When you look at the history of Scottish films, one stands out as the crème’ de la crème’ and this is The Prime of miss Jean Brodie directed by Ronald Neame in 1969, based on the book of the same name by Muriel Spark.  This is a middle and upper class Edinburgh showing up the scruffiness of the Glasgow proles and the ancient but romantic Highlanders.

This film captures the spirit of the 1930’s perfectly.  Miss Brodie is a supporter of Italian fascism and Franco in the days before the rise of Hitler and the Second World War.  She is also a snob, who teaches at the Marcia Blaine School for young girls and so has an inordinate amount of influence on growing minds.  She admires art and culture but her sensibilities are rooted in a classic tradition that is about to be overthrown by modernity.