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.

Just as the island of Todday was a character in ‘Whisky Galore’ Edinburgh is a clear presence in this morality tale of middle-class foolishness that won Maggie Smith an Oscar for her fine portrayal of a confused moralist.  The poetic presence of Rod McKuen’s song ‘Jean’ didn’t do any harm either.

One of the best films to be made anywhere in the last 50 years is The Wicker Man, directed by Robin Hardy in 1974.  There is an argument that this is a horror film, and another that it is a musical featuring folk tunes that are still memorable thirty years later.  Initially the film was the second half of a double bill but took on a life of its own in the age of the VHS and DVD, becoming not just a cult classic but inspiring a festival of the same name held in the Borders area.

The story, like all the best tales, is simple enough.  Edward Woodward is a policeman who comes from the Scottish mainland to Summer Isle to investigate the disappearance of Rowan Morrison the daughter of a local shopkeeper.  In the course of his investigations he discovers that sex and rituals inordinately obssess the locals.  He concludes that the girl was the victim of a ritual sacrifice. 

The sight of schoolgirls dancing naked around a monument, Christopher Lee in a Kilt, and Britt Ekland (actually her body double) dancing naked against a wall to tempt him into the sexual act, and the fact that everyone bursts into song at every opportunity, makes the policeman become more and more confused until the horrific but entirely understandable ending. The Wicker Man is a triumph of British Film making, and one of the best horror films ever made.

When we think of Danny Boyle, we think of Trainspotting.  However Shallow Grave, which he directed in 1995 is another cult classic from this Northern filmmaker with soul.  Three flatmates decide to rent out their spare room to Keith Allen, who is found dead.  He has left behind a suitcase full of stolen money, which they decide to keep while disposing of their temporary flatmate in the aforementioned shallow grave. 

Unfortunately the money is soon the target of the original thieves who understandably use some degree of violence to get their cash back.  This is a film which gave the Scottish film industry a healthy kick up the backside and led to Ewan McGregor getting his first starring role. 

Jonny Lee Miller (right) played Sick Boy in Trainspotting Photograph Courtesy of Theninth ©

The film tuned perfectly into the Thatcherite zeitgeist that money was money no matter where it came from and that there was no such thing as society, so if you got it you kept it. Really, it was a wry commentary on the ethics and the morals of the middle-class that hit a nerve in the general populace, making it a major hit still fondly remembered today.

Danny Boyle gave Scotland a lot more credibility in his next film Trainspotting made in 1996. Irvine Welsh had brought out the cult novel a few years previously and it is possible to say that Braveheart made Scots come out of the cinema raving against the English, while Trainspotting made them feel cool.  Boyle and Hodge might have created a dark, depressing tale about the side of Edinburgh that millions of visitors never see.

But despite the heart of darkness in the tale there was an essential truth about the tale and a series of comedic takes on the characters that allowed them to make something much lighter than might have been supposed from the source material. The film makers did not make drugs cool – in fact their vignettes depicting the use of drugs and the lifestyle that followed thereof were a dramatic example of why taking banned substances was bad for you. 

But the filmmakers also examined the problem of drugs with an unflinching glare that gave an insight into a twisted and interesting world.  Many people were cheering for Renton – Ewan McGregor – when he said he was nicking the money to get out and ‘chose life.’

In 1995 Gillies McKinnon directed Small Faces in which he worked with his brother Billy to use their autobiographical experiences to show what it was like for three brothers growing up in the rough areas of Glasgow in the 1960’s. It is a classic take of conflict.  The youngest brother is torn between becoming an artist like one brother, or a gangster like the oldest.  His emotions are shown as he is torn between following one path or another.

For a new filmmaker Gillies MacKinnon is good at getting his story across, making excellent use of both camera and actors. The early nineties were a time of rising talent on both sides of the camera in Scotland.  Small Faces featured many actors such as the young Kevin McKidd who was given a part in Trainspotting thanks to Danny Boyle having spotted him in the former film.  Other faces from the film crop up regularly in both film and television.

Though not strictly speaking set in Scotland when Harry Potter arrived the Scottish film changed forever.  The spectacular and beautiful Glen Nevis is the setting for both Hogwart’s and for the game of Quidditch.  The fact that these settings are supposed to be in some alternate Universe does not detract from the fact that when Harry and Ron are in a flying car swooping over a viaduct with a steam train puffing over it, they are flying over a train going along the West Highland line. 

The falls featured are the falls of Nevis and the films use extras, including distance doubles, from the town of Inverness, which is close to Glen Nevis. 

Glen Nevis itself is at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the landscape is a character in the films, adding to the magic of Harry, Ron, Hermoine’, Malfoy, Dumbledore and the rest.  Glenfinnan Viaduct (right)  Photograph Courtesy of Nicolas17.

Scotland has contributed to the film industry much more than is often realised.  The above films are just the tip of the iceberg and I could have reviewed another twenty films made, or associated with Scotland quite easily.  It is obvious that this is a country with a large amount of acting, writing and production talent. Let us hope that the film industry can make use of these talents in the future.