Line #36 Film/ScotlandPA


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3	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scotland_pa_movie_poster.jpg]]
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5	->''"We're not bad people, Mac, we're just... underachievers that have to make up for lost time."''
6	-->-- '''Pat [=McBeth=]'''
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8	''Scotland, PA'' is a 2001 film written and directed by Billy Morrisette, starring James [=LeGros=], Maura Tierney, and Creator/ChristopherWalken.
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10	It's 1975, and in the small Central UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} town of Scotland, Joe "Mac" [=McBeth=] and his wife Pat are too old to be flipping burgers at Duncan's Cafe. Both of them receive a brief vision of what life would be like with Joe as the head of the restaurant; naturally, Pat decides the best way to accomplish this is to kill Duncan and make it look like a robbery. So that's what they do.
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12	Under new management and a new name, the restaurant does great business. But forces, internal and external, threaten to tear everything apart. Mac's best friend Anthony "Banko" Banconi, and [=Lt. McDuff=], the detective investigating Duncan's murder, both have their suspicions about the local fast-food king and queen, while the happy couple themselves are driven mad by their guilt and paranoia.
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14	That's right, you've seen this story before. It's [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} The Scottish Play]], [[SettingUpdate only this time it's in rural Pennsylvania]] in [[TheSeventies the '70s]], and [[BlackComedy it's all played for laughs]].
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16	Incidentally, there really is a village of Scotland in Pennsylvania. It's along I-81 about 50 miles southwest of Harrisburg.
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18	----
19	!!In addition to the tropes in [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} the source material]], provides examples of:
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21	* AmbiguouslyGay: Donald. It gets pretty blatant at the end. Hell, it's pretty blatant at the ''beginning''.
22	** The two male witches have a lot of innuendo between them, even though they're supposedly two non-sexual partners in a polyamorous relationship.
23	--->'''Witch 1:''' Why do I have to be in the back?
24	--->'''Witch 2:''' You said you ''liked'' it in the back!
25	* BlackComedy
26	* BloodlessCarnage: For the most part. Doesn't make Duncan's murder any less grotesque.
27	* BrokenAce: Joe and Pat become incredibly successful business owners. But their rampant paranoia and fear over being arrested means they are unable to revel in that success.
28	* BumblingDad: Duncan doesn't get much respect from Donald and Malcolm.
29	* BurgerFool: Allow us to repeat: This movie is [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} The Scottish Play]] with the ''entire Kingdom of Scotland'' replaced by a small-town BurgerFool in south-central Pennsylvania.
30	** Unsubtly called [=McBeth's=] with a giant letter M as its logo.
31	* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Fryolator]] (also a bit of FiveSecondForeshadowing)
32	** Also, [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Cow Horns]]
33	* ClimbingClimax: The showdown between [=McBeth=] and [=McDuff=] happens on the roof of the restaurant.
34	* ClusterFBomb: Pat [=McBeth=] goes from delivering an occasional PrecisionFStrike to this by the end of the film.
35	* CookedToDeath: Lt. [=McDuff=] confronts Joe about him killing Norm, who died from having his head shoved into a deep fryer in a fast food joint.
36	-->'''Joe:''' Norm was an accident.
37	-->'''[=McDuff=]:''' Accidentally got tied up and fell in the fryilator?!?
38	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ed in the end, when he [[spoiler: outsmarts [=McBeth=] by pretending that his gun is loaded, when it isn't.]]
39	* DeepFriedWhatever: Even the boss' head.
40	* DescriptionCut:
41	-->'''Pat:''' You know, the most important thing is that we carry on [Duncan's] legacy. You know, keep his name alive!\
42	''[Cut to the "Duncan's" sign being torn off the front of the restaurant.]''
43	%%* TheDitz: Officer Ed.
44	%%** Banko is also an example.
45	* EvilVegetarian: Inverted. Joe and Pat own a BurgerFool while the SympatheticInspectorAntagonist is a vegetarian.
46	* FisherKing: Completely inverted from the original play. Business at the restaurant does far better under the [=McBeths=] than it does before or after.
47	* GoryDiscretionShot: All of the deaths as well as [[spoiler: Pat's chopping off her hand (which may have resulted in her death)]] are presented this way.
48	* GreasySpoon: ''Duncan's'' was closer to this than a true BurgerFool, which is what Pat and Mac turn the restaurant into.
49	* HardWorkMontage / GoodTimesMontage: The renovation of Duncan's into [=McBeth's=], and the resulting prosperity for the [=McBeths=].
50	** The "prosperity" is charmingly white trash too, such as upgrading from a trailer to a ranch.
51	%%* HeroAntagonist: Lt. [=McDuff=].
52	* HoodHornament: When Joe [=McBeth=] becomes owner of a successful restaurant, he buys a new car with steer horns on the hood as a status symbol. They're a ChekhovsGun as well: [[spoiler:he dies at the end by falling off a roof and getting impaled on those same horns.]]
53	* HuntingAccident: Subverted. Joe [=McBeth=] considers faking a hunting accident to kill Banko for [[HeKnowsTooMuch knowing too much]], and it briefly looks like he did so. Then it turns out the death was just deceptive editing, and Banko's just unconscious. Joe finds another way to kill him later.
54	* HypocriticalHumor:
55	-->'''[=McDuff=]:''' What do you think of Malcolm? \
56	'''Mrs. Lenox:''' Oh, well. I think he's rude, selfish and evil. But I never once judged him.
57	%%* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice
58	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Joe and Pat begin with ''just'' killing their boss, but gradually become more violent and unhinged as their lives start to crumble.
59	* JunkieProphet: A trio of EruditeStoner bohemians replaces the witches.
60	* LadyMacbeth: Pat plays a particularly strong one, insisting to Joe that killing Duncan is the right way to go.
61	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Joe breaking up a near-foodfight, which is the incident corresponding to Macbeth winning a great military victory.
62	%%* NewAgeRetroHippie: [=McDuff=]
63	* PointyHairedBoss: Duncan is very inept at actually running his business, and is one of the reasons why Joe and Pat plot his death.
64	%%* RooftopConfrontation
65	%%* SettingUpdate: The setting is shifted from feudal Scotland to 1970s rural Pennsylvania.
66	* SanitySlippage: Joe and Pat, with the former becoming increasingly murderous and paranoid and the latter becoming obsessed over a non-existant grease burn.
67	* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Though [=McDuff's=] wife and kids are mentioned, there is no indication of anything ever happening to them. Presumably [=McBeth=] knew how suicidally stupid it would be to go after a cop's family and had no way of getting to them even if he wanted to.]]
68	* StealthPun: Prior to his cafe, Duncan used to run a donut shop.
69	* TastesLikeFeet: "I can't believe I just drank that. Your water tastes like ass."
70	* VillainProtagonist: Joe and Pat start out just wanting to kill their boss, and the former gradually becomes more murderous and unhinged as his life comes crashing down around him.
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Context Film / ScotlandPA