Local Hero (1983 Film)
This soundtrack (along with Ry Cooder's forParis, Texasand  Ennio Morricone's forOnce Upon a Time in America, to name two other  examples) is the kind of music that CDs were made for. Some of it is so  delicate, so quiet, that it could disappear underneath the rumble and noise of a  vinyl LP.  You'd never know this was the score to a comedy--even a gentle wisp  of a comedy like Bill Forsyth's picture. Some of it could pass for Scottish- flavored ambient music by Brian Eno. "The Rocks and the Water" seems  to rise up like the tide with electronic calls that suggest the music of whales  or dolphins.  The sound of the sea whispers behind several atmospheric tracks,  but Knopfler's guitar is also featured up-front some of the more overtly melodic  tunes.  The overall impression is luminous and evanescent as the Northern  Lights.--Jim Emerson