''Whisky Galore!'' is a 2016 British film, a remake of the 1949

Ealing Comedy The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the ...

of the same name, itself based on the novel by

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish independence, Scottish nation ...

. It was directed by

Gillies MacKinnon Gillies MacKinnon (born 8 January 1948, Glasgow) is a Scottish film director, writer and painter. He attended the Glasgow School of Art where he studied mural painting. Following this he became an art teacher and cartoonist, and about this tim ...

and stars

Gregor Fisher Gregor Fisher (born 22 December 1953) is a Scottish comedian and actor. He is best known for his portrayal of the title character in the comedy series ''Rab C. Nesbitt'', a role he has played since the show's first episode in 1988. He has also ...

Eddie Izzard Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Izzard's stand- ...

Sean Biggerstaff Sean Biggerstaff (born 15 March 1983) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for playing Oliver Wood in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, appearing in ''Philosopher's Stone'' (2001), '' Chamber of Secrets'' (2002), and '' Deathly Hallows – P ...

and

Naomi Battrick Naomi Faye Battrick (born 11 April 1991) is an English actress. Career She was born in Kettering Northamptonshire and her first television appearance was in a guest role on ''The Bill'' as Miranda Roscoe, following which she won the part of 15- ...

. The film premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival and went on general release in Scotland from 5 May 2017 and the rest of the UK, Ireland and the US from 19 May 2017. The principal film location was

Portsoy Portsoy ( gd, Port Saoidh) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, Portsoy was in Banffshire. The original name may come from ''Port Saoithe'', meaning "saithe harbour". Portsoy is located on the Moray Firth coast of northeast Scotlan ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland.

Plot

Set in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when whisky

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

is in effect, Scottish islanders on the fictional Isle of Todday try to plunder cases of whisky from a ship that is stranded on rocks just offshore. The SS ''Cabinet Minister'' was carrying 50,000 cases of

Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial distil ...

to the United States when she ran aground, affording the islanders the opportunity to get their hands on the "water of life". There are problems, though; the local minister (a strict

Sabbatarian Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments. The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...

who will not allow work to take place on a Sunday); Captain Waggett, the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

officer who wants to stop any looting; and Farquharson the customs officer who also searches for the whisky in the islanders' homes afterwards.

Cast

– Joseph Macroon *

– Captain Waggett *

– Sergeant Donald Odd *

– Peggy Macroon *

James Cosmo James Ronald Gordon Copeland , known professionally as James Cosmo (b. 1947), is a Scottish film and television actor known for his appearances in films including '' Highlander'', ''Braveheart'', ''Trainspotting'', ''Jagame Thandhiram'', ''Tro ...

– Macalister the Minister *

Ellie Kendrick Eleanor Lucy V. Kendrick (born 8 June 1990) is an English actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC's 2009 miniseries ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', Ivy Morris in the first series of the 2010 revived '' Upstairs Downstairs'', and Meera ...

– Catriona Macroon *

Kevin Guthrie Kevin Guthrie (born 21 March 1988) was a Scottish actor. His best known roles are Ally in '' Sunshine on Leith'' (2013), Ewan Tavendale in Terence Davies's '' Sunset Song'' (2015), and Abernathy in the first 2 Fantastic Beast films - ''Fanta ...

– George Campbell

Production

The production spent ten years in

development hell Development hell, development purgatory, and development limbo are media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in development for an especially long time, often moving between different crews, scripts, game engi ...

. Producer Iain Maclean had initiated the project in 2004 with writer

Bill Bryden William Campbell Rough Bryden (12 April 1942 – 5 January 2022) was a Scottish stage and film director and screenwriter. Early life and career He worked as a trainee with Scottish Television before becoming assistant director at the Belgrad ...

attached and producers Stephen Evans, Maggie Montieth and Ed Crozier. He raised £400,000 through private investment to finance the development of the film through the company, Whisky Galore Development Ltd. After firing Bill Bryden,

Peter McDougall Peter McDougall (born 1947, Greenock, Scotland) is a Scottish television playwright whose major success was in the 1970s. McDougall claims to have had very little schooling and to rarely read books, He began his working life at the age of fourteen ...

was brought on board and wrote a script for a planned filming in the summer of 2006. The film never commenced production. Between 2006 and 2010, Stephen Evans and Ed Crozier left the project. In 2012, Iain Maclean, disheartened by the lack of production finance, had to let Whisky Galore Development slip into administration. In 2014 he decided to rekindle the project when he met Irish farmer and businessman Peter Drayne, who agreed to finance the film completely and resurrected the project, as long as the project was started from scratch. It was finally green-lit in 2015 and

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

commenced later in 2015 in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. In the interim Peter McDougall wrote a second screenplay. According to director Gillies MacKinnon, the film is a modern interpretation, not a proper remake: "The style is contemporary, embracing drama, romance and comedy, with an array of colourful characters providing a platform for a wonderful cast."

Release

''Whisky Galore!'' has gained theatrical distribution in UK and US by Arrow and was scheduled to be released in cinemas in the UK on 5 May 2017.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews, with a critics' score of 42% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

Kate Muir Kate Muir is a Scottish writer and documentary maker. Her book, ''Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)'' was published in 2022, and she is the creator and producer of two documentaries on the menopause incl ...

, writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', gave the film four stars out of five. She praised the "zippy farce" and in particular, Eddie Izzard's portrayal of Captain Waggett played "with psychotic, obsessive joy and a nod to '' Dad's Army's''

Captain Mainwaring Captain George Mainwaring () is a fictional Home Guard captain, first portrayed by Arthur Lowe in the BBC television sitcom ''Dad's Army''. In the 2016 movie he is played by Toby Jones and in the 2019 remake of three missing episodes he is p ...

". Muir also said that "fans of the original film may find little or no improvement in this remake, but for a new generation this ''Whisky Galore!'' will be a pleasure". Toby Symonds, of The Film Blog also praised the film, describing it as "visually and aurally gorgeous". However Helen O'Hara of Empire Magazine described the film as "Too restrained and polite to really grip the attention" and feeling "more like comfortable Sunday night TV than cinematic fare", while Jeannette Catsoulis of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

wrote that "Beyond simple nostalgia...the appeal of this limp retread is difficult to discern".

References

External links

* {{Compton Mackenzie, state=collapsed 2016 films Scottish films Remakes of British films Films scored by Patrick Doyle Films set in the Outer Hebrides Films directed by Gillies MacKinnon Films about alcoholic drinks English-language Scottish films