Local Heroes take
UNDER normal circumstances Donald Trump would probably cherish a starring role in his own movie but I doubt the tycoon will be queueing up with popcorn to watch himself in The billionaire property developer and selffancying US presidential candidate is exposed as a charmless, mendacious bully in this riveting, ire-raising documentary about the construction of his golf course and leisure complex in Aberdeenshire.
Like a real-life version of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (which was also filmed in the area) but without the happy ending, the picture shows with shocking effectiveness how Trump bulldozed local opposition and acres of beautiful, environmentally unique coastline (described as Scotland’s Amazon rainforest) to build a resort no one seemed to want apart from a few politicians, notably Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister.
The result is a striking morality tale about the corrupting influence of money and power. We witness how Trump’s bank balance and celebrity were sufficient to erode long-standing laws and to rubbish and intimidate opponents, aided by a sycophantic media and, most chillingly, by a partisan police force.
One of the most disturbing sequences shows the picture’s softly-spoken director Anthony Baxter being handcuffed and bundled off to the slammer for simply asking a few questions; specifically why farmer Michael Forbes and Trump irritant-in- chief had lost his water supply.
It is at this point, about halfway through, that the unassuming Baxter becomes a character in his own film, having previously hung back unseen. A journalist and filmmaker he is no grandstanding Michael Moore ( Fahrenheit 9/11) but has a quiet authority that is equally, if not more, effective.
As he attempts to expose the unscrupulous tactics and grandiose claims of New Yorker Trump, he is as much the underdog as farmer Forbes.
One very funny scene sees him hijack a press conference after Trump receives an honorary doctorate from Robert Gordon University, a spectacular bit of toadying from an establishment that should know better.
Intercut with scenes from Local Hero, the film is a classic David and Goliath story that follows the resistance of a plucky group of inhabitants refusing to sell to Trump and living under the threat of compulsory purchase orders.
Trump bought the land on the Menie Estate, eight miles north of Aberdeen, in 2005 but his plans to construct two golf courses, a hotel and 1,500 holiday homes were initially rejected by the council before being overturned after an unprecedented intervention by Salmond.
Baxter’s film takes up the story as construction gets underway, observed from the perspective of anxious neighbours, including farmer Forbes, his 88-year- old mother Molly and a one-time producer for The Clash, Mickey Foote.
Will they be evicted from their homes and, more to the point, will their homes be worth living in?
One resident has his property surrounded by a colossal mound of earth, others have their land invaded by diggers and workmen as fences are ripped up and boundaries disputed.
Goons patrol in 4x4s. Trump, meanwhile, jets in for vainglorious photo opportunities on the dunes ( before his bulldozers flatten them) and mounts what can only be described as an anti- charm offensive, trashing his opponents and deriding Forbes’s home as a “slum” and a “pig-sty”.
As a portrait of Trump, it is damning and in dramatic terms he is a gift; a panto villain who really gets the blood up. Against him are an eclectic
You’ve Been Trumped.