Lord David Puttnam: Local Hero | FilmInk

In the 1970s and 1980s, Lord David Puttnam became one of most storied and respected British film producers, playing an instrumental role in seminal films including The Mission, Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields, all watershed British films of the post-WWII era. Collectively, Puttnam’s films have amassed an impressive total of 10 Oscars and 25 BAFTAs.

Puttnam began his career in the advertising industry, a field in which he had enjoyed significant success but was left feeling creatively frustrated, as well as stymied by its limited ethical and moral accountability.

He recalls early in his career, a crisis of conscience, which motivated him to get out of advertising.

“I had a very ‘aha’ moment. I was doing extremely well in advertising, and I was asked to handle a big cigarette account. I don’t smoke. I’ve never smoked, and I refused. And that caused a tremendous stir. They said, ‘look, you’re very well paid. You’re not here to pick and choose what accounts you work on’.

“Here was an opportunity to start doing things I cared about.”

Spurred on by a desire to make works which were meaningful and had an impact, in the late 1960s, Puttnam brought his skills to producing films.

In his early years, he played a key role in discovering, producing and nurturing some of the most respected filmmakers to emanate from the UK in the last 50 years, including Ridley Scott (The Duellists), Alan Parker (Midnight Express), and Bill Forsyth (Local Hero). Puttnam also worked with more established filmmakers, including Jacques Demy and Ken Russell. One of his early projects, was Demy’s English-language feature, The Pied Piper (1972).

Puttnam’s involvement as a producer was at arm’s length, yet it made him realise that he needed to have creative participation in the films. “I realised that, as a producer, I was just a money guy. I was the guy who raised the money, and I didn’t wanna do that. I had been making very good money in advertising. I thought, ‘hang on, if I’, gonna make this switch into a risky business, I want a lot more input than just being the guy that raises the money’.”

Determined to produce features which took on major issues and had a conscience, Puttnam would have one of his biggest triumphs with the 1981 British feature Chariots of Fire, based on the true story of two British athletes competing in the 1924 Olympics. Uncannily, like its subject matter, Chariots of Fire was considered a complete underdog and an outsider at the Oscars. After winning the Best Picture Oscar, the film helped revitalise the ailing British film industry and took Hollywood by storm, cementing Puttnam as a major player.

Two years later, Puttnam would have another unlikely success with the seminal Scottish feature Local Hero, directed by Bill Forsyth, starring Peter Riegert as a Texan oil executive sent to a small Scottish village by his boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy out the town and build an oil refinery. The film was conceived by Puttnam after he was inspired by an article that he had read about a Scottish man suing an oil conglomerate.

Puttnam, who is a lifelong environmentalist, and served as President of The Council for the Protection of Rural England, also wanted to make a film which addressed environmental issues.

He brought his proposition for Local Hero to Forsyth. “I was very interested in working with him after seeing That Sinking Feeling, which I thought had wonderful things,” he recalls, referring to Forsyth’s 1979 feature debut.

While Puttnam had been struggling for years to find the financing for Local Hero, he would get backing almost immediately following the triumph of Chariots.

“The Warners deal was entirely off the back of the success of Chariots,” he recalls.

Like many of his films, Puttnam had a key role in steering the film creatively. It was Puttnam who introduced Forsyth to Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, and suggested that he do the score for the feature, which would become one of its most iconic elements. Yet, prior to their meeting, Forsyth was against the idea of Knopfler’s involvement, and had little interest in working with the musician.

It was the experience of making the film in Scotland, by the sea, which inspired Puttnam to move to West Cork, Ireland, where he has resided with his wife, Patsy, for over 30 years. He still has fond memories of making the revered cult film.

“It was like going on holiday and someone bringing a camera, it was an absolute pleasure to make. The weather was great. We were lucky in that respect. it was a joy. Everyone got on,” he recalls.

Reflecting on the feature now, Puttnam says he is disappointed that Local Hero did not inspire more films to tackle environmental issues.

“What’s disappointing is, I can’t think of what I would regard as an important environmental film. You’ve got things like Contagion, but it should have been a precursor to half a dozen not dissimilar films,” he says.

Puttnam says Forsyth is toying with the idea of a follow-up, set 40 years after Local Hero.

“What had happened to Pennan, did an oil company arrive? What would things be like 40 years on? Peter Riegert clearly would be retired for the oil company. But the more important thing is what have been the outcomes for the environment and for the community.”

A year after Local Hero, Puttnam produced the acclaimed feature The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of American journalist Sydney Shanberg and his Cambodian interpreter Dith Pran, during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, starring Sam Waterston and real-life survivor Haing S Ngor. For the feature, Puttnam chose director Roland Joffé to make his debut, in another example of his perspicacity in finding new talent. The film would be nominated for seven Oscars and win three.

Another one of Puttnam’s biggest achievements, was Joffé’s 1986 historical epic The Mission, starring Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro. The film followed 18th Century Jesuit missionaries trying to defend a remote South American tribe from pro-slavery Portuguese rule. Featuring a young Liam Neeson, and a resonating score by Ennio Morricone, it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

For Puttnam, working with Irons, who plays Jesuit missionary Father Gabriel in a stellar performance, was one of the highlights of his career.

“Jeremy’s superb in the film. He underplays it. I think his performance is beautiful, and I don’t think any of us realised at the time how good it was. It’s the tougher part because De Niro’s (role) has all the dash and excitement, Jeremy’s part is brilliantly understated.”

While Puttnam remains very proud of the feature, due to several challenges, production on the film was difficult.

He says having an actor with the stature of De Niro, complicated things.

“De Niro is one of the greatest actors, no question, he’s a very nice and rather kind man. I’m sure he is unaware of this, but from a producer’s point of view, holding a unit together where the attention in a sense is focused each day on a person, is very hard. If you get someone with his degree of presence and clout, it dominates the set.

“By that time, I had got used to a style of working in a very, very collegiate way, Killing Fields being a good example,” he adds.

After producing The Mission, from 1986 to 1988, Puttnam was Chair and CEO of Columbia Pictures. It was a period which was extremely difficult, where Puttnam attempted to focus on projects of quality, yet faced immense pressure to prioritise more commercial features.

Yet, after enormous success in the film industry, Puttnam traded producing for politics, with a focus on one of his biggest passions: education. He has also concentrated on humanitarian and environmental causes.

In 1998, he founded the National Teaching Awards, and was its first chairman until 2008. Puttnam served as president of UNICEF UK from July 2002 to July 2009. He says his decision to pivot to education has been incredibly rewarding.

“I teach at six universities, so education is central to everything I do.”

One of the institutions at which Puttnam lectures virtually, is Queensland’s Griffith University.

For years, Puttnam, who founded online education company Atticus Education in 2012, has had an interest in how technology and innovation can be used in classrooms to make learning more effective. Yet, it was Griffith which pioneered online classes, and allowed Puttnam to tutor students digitally. Puttnam credits the University and its film school head, Heman Van Eyken, with allowing him to pursue his passion of teaching.

“The reason I teach and I’m able to teach is entirely thanks to Griffith University, and the then Vice Chancellor, Heman Van Eyken, the director of Griffith Film School. They encouraged me to teach the way I teach. I did our first course in June 2012. It was a huge call on their part because no one had done what we were doing, which was online film courses. It was totally unique. This is my 13th year with them. I owe him everything because I love what I do. It wouldn’t have happened without Griffith,” Puttnam says.

In 2018, Puttnam became an adjunct professor at the University. He also sponsors The Lord David Puttnam Scholarship for Producers at the University.

Looking back on his incredible career, Puttnam says he is grateful for the films he made.

He says supporting the next generation is his key focus. He believes cinema can be a powerful tool to address social issues.­

“I’m very interested in immersive technology and the way that will be applied to filmmaking.”