Restless Natives

In 1985 two American directors came to Scotland to make a movie and jump on the Bill Forsyth bandwagon.

Cary Parker made The Girl in the Picture. Michael Hoffman made Restless Natives.

To be fair you would be hard pushed to think that both movies were made by Americans. However they did fail to capture the fabled Scottish whimsy which Forsyth could do effortlessly.

Restless Natives is about two friends living in Edinburgh and their lives is going nowhere.

Ronnie (Joe Mullaney) works in a joke shop. Will (Vincent Friell) worked as a street cleaner but was soon fired.

They decide to become modern highwaymen by robbing tour busses usually full of American tourists that traipse around the highlands. To hide their identity Ronnie wears a clown mask and Will wears a wolf mask.

Pretty soon both become local heroes courtesy of throwing some of their money away to people in need.

The police and one CIA agent (Ned Beatty) do not see the funny side of these robberies.

The movie was regarded as quirky and charming at the time of its release. Now it looks like a hotchpot screenplay. It is hard to root for two teenagers robbing older holidaymakers with guns.

It was a surprise that their identities remained undiscovered given that all the kids in the neighbourhood knew who they were as well as so many others.

Even the love interest between Will and a young Scot tour guide was a bit of a stretch.

You really have to take the movie as a flight of fancy and fantasy.

The best thing about the movie was the music from Big Country. Back in the day they were regarded as equals with U2 with their rousing Celtic guitar sound.