JohnB_Toronto

Whisky Galore
Local Hero
Geordie
The Bridal Path
The Maggie
The 39 Steps (1959)

iswoboda

Thanks for those excellent leads guys! My dream is to visit your country, see those cottages and country lanes... your movies are 'eye candy' to me... even the TV shows are great.

TimR

I concur. I have been to England several times, but never to Scotland. Hopefully that will be corrected within a couple of years.

These films are travelogues for Scotland. Kidnapped: Fine film in two versions and an introduction to another country. The Prime of Jean Brodie : well acted. Not my type of film - but definitely worth seeing for Edinburgh alone.

silverwhistle

The Michael Caine version of Kidnapped is a travesty of the book (and, hilariously, was shot when the feral rhododendrons – a 19C import, now rampant all over the Highlands – were in bloom); the Peter Finch one is better. Also, bear in mind it's based on 19C romantic adventure fiction.

I cannot say that Scotland has been well represented in film at all: too much tartanised, mythologised garbage on the historical front, and either saccharine rural sentimentality or over-grimy urban squalor. The Scotland I inhabit (of urban, educated, coffee-house-frequenting folk) rarely makes it on to screens small or large. I recall, a few years ago, showing an American friend around Edinburgh. He hadn't known what to expect, because all he knew of Scotland from the cinema was the execrable Braveheart and Trainspotting (which made my social worker father despair, because some junkies actually regarded it as a celebration of their lifestyle…).

"Trust me, I'm a doctor...!"

hankoler

Can we include tv series on this thread, if so I would put TAGGART, REBUS, and HAMISH MACBETH as examples.

TimR

Yes, certainly. But I read the book after seeing the Caine film - which for me as a very small boy was still a very exciting story.

I take your point. The same holds true, I believe, for England, with the dramatic extremes of Look Back in Anger, on one hand, and Cavalacade on the other: either passive squalor or sentimental pageantry.

I was warned by English friends before I traveled there that the reality would include both extremes and a lot of mundane detail in between. But I wasn't disappointed. On the contrary. I think Scotland might be the same.

My own work brings me into regular contact with Scots on a regular basis- and I am aware that the Glasgow of 2007, especially, is not really reflected in films. Although Edinburgh as presented on screen looks to me like a beautiful city from any angle.

BruIrn

What about Shallow Grave?

Nick Dando

The Crow Road
Your Cheating Heart
Tutti Frutti
Monarch of the Glen (ducks and runs for cover!)

Red Ensign
Edge of the World

Nick

D Cairns

Shallow Grave: good film, not really about Scotland. "It could have happened anywhere" says the VO. I suppose it does capture the cosmoposlitan side: the flat contains a Scot, an Englishman and an Australian. Plus Lily Allen's dad.
I guess there's a bit more Edinburgh in HALLAM FOE.

Steve Crook

EotW isn't Scotland, it's Shetland

Steve

Cypher

Would none of you include Loch Ness in your lists? This film certainly made an impression on my children who were for weeks running around asking "Have you seen the water kelpie Dr Dempsey?"

My first choice would probably be The Wicker Man; I could almost believe this happening in one of the more remote Scottish communities.

Chris W

christoph404

hilarious film....for all the wrong reasons!....and whats a water kelppie?
aye well, as long as the bairns enjoyed it, no harm in that!...

batman

You don't know what a kelpie is? Shame on you Chris!

Kelpie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would be happy to include Secret of the Loch (1933) to my list .....



Bats.

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"

christoph404

....shame indeed!.......

Nick Dando

Does anyone remember the Stingray episode where they chase after the Loch Ness monster? Troy Tempest in tartan - there's alliteration for you!

Nick