Best 10
Scottish Films of All TimeBest 10
Scottish Films of All Time
( Last updated Saturday 14 December, 1996 )
A readers competition in the Scotsman Weekend Magazine of 16th November, 1996, nominated the
following all time ten best 'Scottish' films:
| 1 | My Childhood | (1972) Director: Bill Douglas Unsentimental portrait of a boy (Stephen Archibald) growing up in a Scottish mining village after the Second World War. Best (worst) bit: The death of the pet canary and the vengance wreaked by the cat. |
| 2 | Whisky Galore! | (1949) Director: Sandy Mackendrick Islanders steal whisky from a grounded cargo ship. The one truly subversive anti-establishment Ealing comedy. Cast: Basil Radford, Joan Greenwood, James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson. Best bit: The scene in which whisky is poured into every conceivable household container. |
| 3 | Culloden | (1964) Director: Peter Watkins The battle recreated in the style of a Sixties' documentary. Battle scenes were, by necessity, close-ups - Watkins could afford only 25 redcoat uniforms. Best bit: Grubby Highlanders interviewed by a posh BBC type. |
| 4 | Gregory's Girl | (1980) Director: Bill Forsyth What Rebel Without a Cause was to disaffected LA youth in the Fifties, Gregory's Girl was to spotty Scottish teenagers in the Seventies. Cast: John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Clare Grogan. Best bit: A chance encounter between Gregory and his father leads to the latter's attempts to arrange a breakfast appointment with his son. |
| 5 | Trainspotting | (1996) Director: Danny Boyle Fifteen years have transformed the Scottish youth from a gawky schoolboy into a junkie waster, albeit a strikingly articulate and witty one. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle. Best bit: Spud's speedy job interview. "People get all hung up on details ... How many O Grades did I get? Could be six. Could be one." |
| 6 | I Know Where I'm Going | (1945) Directors: Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger Young woman from London comes to Scotland to marry a vacationing millionaire, is charmed by the country and has second thoughts. Cast: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie. Best bit: The wedding dress is lost overboard. |
| 7 | Local Hero | (1983) Director: Bill Forsyth Texan comes to Scotland to buy land for oil development, is charmed by the country and has second thoughts. Forsyth's distrust of material things is sweetly rendered in a light comedy that makes the most of its landscape. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay, Peter Capaldi. Best bit: Telephone kiosk as symbol of wanting to be somewhere you are not. |
| 8 | Small Faces | (1996) Director: Gillies MacKinnon Growing up on the mean streets of Sixties Glasgow. Cast: Ian Robertson, Joseph McFadden, J S Duffy. Best bit: Death on ice - the chibbing of Bobby. |
| 9 | Braveheart | (1995) Director: Mel Gibson Mel succeeds whwre Sean Connery failed and leads Scotland to independence. Cast: Mel Gibson, Catherine McCormack, Angus McFadyen. Best bit: Bruce turns to his men and says: "You have bled with Wallace. Now bleed with me." |
| 10 | Rob Roy | (1995) Director: Michael Caton-Jones Cowboys in kilts. Cast: Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt. Best bit: The sword fight between Rob Roy and Cunningham, with strength of character triumphing over technical skill. |