The (not so) Gritty 70's: Bill Forsyth's That Sinking Feeling (1979)

Bill Forsyth is probably best known to film lovers for the handful of iconic movies he made in the early 80’s, including Gregory’s Girl (1980), Local Hero (1983) and Comfort and Joy (1984).

Back in 1979 however, Forsyth was an unknown trying to put together his first feature length movie. Lighthearted comedy That Sinking Feeling (1979) was made for a paltry £10,000, or even lower going by some online claims. Either way, the budget was so low that Forsyth was unable to afford proper actors, instead opting to use youngsters from the Glasgow Youth Theatre, with Forsyth offering them points in the film rather than actual pay.

This approach paid off dividends, with the amateur cast all giving extremely natural performances. Sure, there is the odd stilted line delivery, but nothing you’ll not have seen from more accomplished performers. In addition, many of the young actors featured would continue to work with Forsyth as his career progressed, most notably lead actor Robert Buchanan and John Gordon Sinclair.

While Buchanan did go on to appear in both Gregory’s Girl and Comfort and Joy, he would mostly retire from acting thereafter, with only brief roles since then and now. This is a shame, as he is such a natural actor and could have had quite the career as a character actor. However, this clearly wasn’t for him. Reportedly, Buchanan now works behind the scenes at the Stirling Tolbooth Theatre.

Of the supporting cast, John Gordon Sinclair will probably be the most recognisable, and one of the only cast members to have an extensive acting career. His role here is relatively small, but he still manages to make an impression. He clearly made an impression on Forsyth with him garnering the lead role in Gregory’s Girl a year later. He would later reprise the role of Gregory for Forsyth’s belated sequel Gregory’s Two Girls (1999).

Typically for Forsyth, even at this early point in his career, That Sinking Feeling has a lightness of touch, an almost surreal quality that makes it stand apart from any other Scottish set films of the time, or since. Other filmmakers tend to show Glasgow as this gritty, crime riddled city, and although That Sinking Feeling also deals with crime, it takes a whimsical approach in its depiction of Glasgow. This is a city filled with funny, quirky characters rather than the drug dealing gangsters that seem to be the norm for any Scottish drama. Perhaps that is why Forsyth jokingly introduces the film by stating that this is set in a fictional city called Glasgow and any resemblance to the real Glasgow is purely coincidental.

The main focus of the film is unemployed teenager Ronnie (Robert Buchanan) and his friends who are all at a loose end. While they are thinking of alternatively ridiculous ways to commit suicide, Ronnie comes up with the idea to rob a local warehouse of stainless steel sinks. Ronnie seemingly thinks they can make their fortune, coming up with a hilariously dumb plan that involves two of the group dressing up as women to distract the night watchmen whilst the others make way with the sinks. One with an interest in chemistry also seems to concoct the strongest tranquiliser known to man, one that puts a delivery driver to sleep for over 60 years.

Obviously, none of Forsyth’s script is to be taken seriously. This much should be obvious with the inclusion of the “stop motion potion”, where the van driver who drinks it won't wake up until the year 2068. Even the heist isn’t taken seriously, with it mostly being played for laughs, with the only tension coming from our criminals in drag fending off the advances of a night watchman.

Whilst That Sinking Feeling may be rougher round the edges, it can easily stand shoulder to shoulder with Forsyth’s better known films. In fact, being less polished than the likes of Local Hero makes That Sinking Feeling stand out more, with the 16mm photography of D.O.P Michael Coulter giving the film some striking imagery. It also helps ground the film, even when Forsyth takes some flights of fancy as the film progresses, as typically for Forsyth the movie becomes quite whimsical, albeit less so than his later films.

Coulter would continue to collaborate with Forsyth, going on to shoot Gregory’s Girl, Housekeeping (1987), Breaking In (1989) and lastly Being Human (1994). As well as them he also worked on both Local Hero and Comfort and Joy as a camera operator, which may seem like a step down, but this gave him an opportunity to work alongside legendary Director of Photography Chris Menges.

Since his and Forsyth’s collaborations, Coulter has gone on to receive numerous awards and nominations, including a Bafta nomination for his work on Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995). He has also worked on numerous big budget movies such as Notting Hill (1999), Love Actually (2003) and the Bank Job (2008).

If we were just focusing on Coulter’s camera work, That Sinking Feeling would still be a worthwhile watch, with it being a terrific time capsule of a Glasgow that is now mostly gone. Thankfully, the film has more to recommend than just a historical look at days gone by.

After the success of Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero, MGM decided to release That Sinking Feeling in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, they felt the accents would be an issue, because as we all know Americans speak so eloquently and are never hard to understand themselves. The dubbing hilariously cost MGM more to carry out than the entire film's production, and unsurprisingly sounds a load of shite.

For anyone interested, the earlier DVD release of the film from 2 Entertain has this frankly atrocious audio as its only audiotrack. As expected, this release wasn’t met with much acclaim. Thankfully, the BFI restored the original soundtrack in their release of the film, so finally everyone could finally get to see the film as it was meant to be viewed.

I shouldn’t be too hard on the U.S. distributors, as I would be lying to say that certain words and phrases would mean nothing to people not from Glasgow, let alone Scotland. At least the U.S. release, as horrible as its audio was, gave audiences stateside an opportunity to see an unheralded gem from Bill Forsyth.

Watching That Sinking Feeling again after all these years not only made me appreciate the film all the more, but made me realise how much Bill Forsyth is missed, with it now being 27 years since he last directed a feature length movie.

Rating: 4.5/5