imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
REMEMBERING THE ICE AGE SCARE
.................... "I'd make a great Gordon, Gordon."
In Bill Forsyth's 1983 movie Local Hero, Mac (Peter Riegert) is sent to the remote village of Furness in Scotland to buy it -- the entire village -- for the Houston company Knox Oil & Gas, which plans to turn Furness into a petrol refinery. On his way to Furness, Mac stops at a Knox Oil Lab in Aberdeen. The lab has a room which houses a miniature replica of the village, complete with climate controls. The lab techs show Mac the village as it will look after the refinery is built and explain that it will even survive an ice age, which they tested via simulation. (Paraphrasing) We showed them how they could avoid an ice age by diverting the Gulf Stream, but they wouldn't listen. They want it to freeze.
I can recall the ice age theory was the scare du jour as far back as the early 1970s. Now, of course, the scare is global warming. I figure the pendulum is about due to begin swinging back to the ice age panic again.
Aside from that, this is a great understated movie full of subtle humor. For another great Forsyth film, watch his 1981 Gregory's Girl (not to be confused with the homely 1966 Georgy Girl starring Lynn Redgrave).
*