The 1995 film Rob Roy, based on the life of the Highland folk hero, cattle-thief and outlaw, starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, was released in 1995. Although initially overshadowed by Braveheart, many critics now see Mel Gibson's movie as a product of its time, and view Rob Roy as more timeless, a film set firmly within the Scottish tradition of Romantic storytelling. David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide explores the historical and fictional background of the story, and shows how this tale has been retold as a modern film. The book also examines the language of film, and provides a handy guide to cinematography, sound and other elements of the film-maker's art. These notes are suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

«This labour of love is everything a critical biography should be: informative, gossipy, admiring and more than capable of restoring Sharp’s reputation, giving him his rightful place in both Scottish literature and Scottish screen writing history. »(Carl MacDougall, writer and former President of Scottish PEN)«If Alan Sharp’s career was a unique one within modern Scottish culture, it has proved an underexplored one within modern Scottish Cultural Studies. "The Anti-hero’s Journey" remedies that collective oversight by making a compelling and critically informed case for both the individual singularity and international significance of Sharp’s creative voice.»(Jonathan Murray, Senior Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art)Alan Sharp was Scotland’s greatest screenwriter and one of its most important transnational writers. The adopted son of a Greenock shipyard worker, he became a bestselling novelist, a leading playwright, a record-breaking Hollywood screenwriter and the central figure of a new Scottish national film industry. Today, however, his books, television plays and screenplays are forgotten.This study seeks to restore his work to the prominence it deserves. Including previously unknown work available only now in the Alan Sharp papers collection in the University of Dundee Archive, it traces the life’s work of a man who made a unique contribution to Scottish culture and considers his themes, especially his awareness of landscape and his use of the ambivalent male protagonist, the anti-hero.Working in exile but consistently «coming back» to his homeland, Sharp wrote from a point of view which allowed him to love Scottish culture without having to pamper it and gave him the detachment to connect it with others. «The Anti-hero’s Journey» seeks to reposition him as a vital component of Scottish cultural studies from the 1960s into the twenty-first century and proposes that he should be re-evaluated as a major contributor to contemporary transnational Scottish cultural history.

At the time of its release in 1983, Local Hero, starring Burt Lancaster and Fulton MacKay, was the most expensive film ever to be made in Scotland. It remains as important and influential today as it was then. David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide considers the impact of Local Hero on the Scottish film industry and the rest of the world, while evaluating the film's influence on Scottish filmmakers. This study guide explores important aspects of the film, including the story of its production, inspirations for the plot, characters, themes and critical reception. It also examines the language of film and includes a guide to cinematography and a glossary of technical terms. These notes are suitable for media studies students, senior school pupils and students of all levels.

The 1995 film Rob Roy, based on the life of the Highland folk hero, cattle-thief and outlaw, starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, was released in 1995. Although initially overshadowed by Braveheart, many critics now see Mel Gibson's movie as a product of its time, and view Rob Roy as more timeless, a film set firmly within the Scottish tradition of Romantic storytelling. David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide explores the historical and fictional background of the story, and shows how this tale has been retold as a modern film. The book also examines the language of film, and provides a handy guide to cinematography, sound and other elements of the film-maker's art. These notes are suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

«This labour of love is everything a critical biography should be: informative, gossipy, admiring and more than capable of restoring Sharp’s reputation, giving him his rightful place in both Scottish literature and Scottish screen writing history. »(Carl MacDougall, writer and former President of Scottish PEN)«If Alan Sharp’s career was a unique one within modern Scottish culture, it has proved an underexplored one within modern Scottish Cultural Studies. "The Anti-hero’s Journey" remedies that collective oversight by making a compelling and critically informed case for both the individual singularity and international significance of Sharp’s creative voice.»(Jonathan Murray, Senior Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art)Alan Sharp was Scotland’s greatest screenwriter and one of its most important transnational writers. The adopted son of a Greenock shipyard worker, he became a bestselling novelist, a leading playwright, a record-breaking Hollywood screenwriter and the central figure of a new Scottish national film industry. Today, however, his books, television plays and screenplays are forgotten.This study seeks to restore his work to the prominence it deserves. Including previously unknown work available only now in the Alan Sharp papers collection in the University of Dundee Archive, it traces the life’s work of a man who made a unique contribution to Scottish culture and considers his themes, especially his awareness of landscape and his use of the ambivalent male protagonist, the anti-hero.Working in exile but consistently «coming back» to his homeland, Sharp wrote from a point of view which allowed him to love Scottish culture without having to pamper it and gave him the detachment to connect it with others. «The Anti-hero’s Journey» seeks to reposition him as a vital component of Scottish cultural studies from the 1960s into the twenty-first century and proposes that he should be re-evaluated as a major contributor to contemporary transnational Scottish cultural history.

At the time of its release in 1983, Local Hero, starring Burt Lancaster and Fulton MacKay, was the most expensive film ever to be made in Scotland. It remains as important and influential today as it was then. David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide considers the impact of Local Hero on the Scottish film industry and the rest of the world, while evaluating the film's influence on Scottish filmmakers. This study guide explores important aspects of the film, including the story of its production, inspirations for the plot, characters, themes and critical reception. It also examines the language of film and includes a guide to cinematography and a glossary of technical terms. These notes are suitable for media studies students, senior school pupils and students of all levels.