Well, I'm still fixated on ways this movie is a lot like Brokeback Mountain, even though Local Hero is a comedy and BBM is a tragedy. It strikes me that in both movies there are some Texans that have a craving to be in another place...Wyoming or Scotland (and both places are rural and northern and more primitive).
And another thing... a prominent prop in both movies is...a telephone booth! The booth in Local Hero is the traditional red British phone booth. When "the gentleman from the states has to make a very important call" everyone in the local pub chips in to contribute coins. The Local Hero phone booth on the beach was just made of paper mache and went away after the movie. But people kept searching for it who came on a "pilgrimage" to visit the movie sets. Finally the townsfolk had one installed.
Even though it's a "cult" movie, a lot of people have come to Scotland to find the locations that appear there. Some of the townsfolk got upset at the director for disrupting their quiet rural lives. And that was the case with the people of Wyoming too. I've met some who were very upset with Annie Proulx for setting her stories in their state and for implying that Wyoming men could be cowboys or ranch hands and also gay.
