{"id":6725,"date":"2024-10-25T10:17:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6725"},"modified":"2024-10-25T10:17:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:17:10","slug":"highlander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/highlander\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlander"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Highlander<\/strong> (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong action violence, a scene of sexuality, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Russell Mulcahy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Kamen (with original songs by Queen)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gerry Fisher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery, Beattie Edney, Alan North, Sheila Gish, Jon Polito, Hugh Quarshie, Christopher Malcolm, Peter Diamond, Billy Hartman, James Cosmo, Celia Imrie, Alistair Findlay, Edward Wiley, James McKenna.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $5.9M (US)\/$12.9M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I am proud to be one of the first people to discover Highlander<\/strong>. It didn\u2019t become popular until it came out on video. I was already a fan by that point. I saw it during its one-week run at the movies and LOVED IT! I knew I would when I saw the ads for it. I didn\u2019t care what the reviews said about it being jumbled and confusing with the frequent time shifts between 16th<\/sup> century Scotland and 20th<\/sup> century New York. I had no problem at all following it. I championed Highlander<\/strong> like mad, recommending it to everybody I knew. I like to believe I influenced a few folks to rent the video or watch it on cable, but I\u2019ll never know for sure. All I know is that it\u2019s FREAKING GREAT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Christopher Lambert (Greystoke) plays the title character, Connor MacLeod, a young man originally from the Scottish Highlands now living in NYC. What\u2019s so unusual about that, you ask? He was born in 1518 making him 467YO in present-day 1985. You see, MacLeod is immortal. He can\u2019t die unless somebody cuts off his head which is a very real possibility in his situation. It\u2019s explained in the opening titles (via voiceover by co-star Sean Connery) that immortals have been around since the dawn of time living silently among us waiting for the time of \u201cThe Gathering\u201d when all remaining immortals will gather in a distant land to do battle with each other until only one is left- i.e. \u201cThere can be only one!\u201d The last man standing wins a great prize.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MacLeod first learns he\u2019s different when he survives a fatal wound sustained in a battle with a rival clan. Instead of celebrating, his loved ones accuse him of being in league with Lucifer and banish him from their village. A few years later, he\u2019s married to a beautiful woman named Heather (Edney, In the Name of the Father) and working as a blacksmith when he meets his mentor Ramirez (Connery) for the first time. The older man, an Egyptian born circa 898 BC, teaches MacLeod all there is to know about being an immortal. Among other things, he explains when one immortal kills another; he absorbs the dead man\u2019s energy which makes him more powerful. It\u2019s called \u201cThe Quickening\u201d. It basically entails the recipient being surrounded by light while all hell breaks loose around him- e.g. windows break, cars explode, etc.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In \u201985, MacLeod lives in NYC under the name of Russell Nash. An antiquities dealer, he comes to the attention of police after a man is found decapitated in the parking garage of Madison Square Garden. It\u2019s the result of a sword fight between the victim and MacLeod\/Nash. With the time of The Gathering drawing nigh, immortals have begun to converge in the Big Apple. The dead guy was an immortal until he lost his head. The case also attracts the attention of police forensic scientist\/metallurgy expert Brenda Wyatt (Hart, Oh, God! You Devil) who finds shards of metal from a rare sword at the scene of the crime. She wants to find out more, but MacLeod\/Nash rebuffs her at every turn. He doesn\u2019t want to re-experience the pain of watching a lover grow old and die without him. Naturally, this means they\u2019ll fall in love by the final act.<\/p>\n

\u00a0MacLeod\u2019s primary foe is a large fellow known as \u201cThe Kurgan\u201d (Brown, Bad Boys), an evil psycho who will plunge the world into darkness if he wins The Gathering. He\u2019s the same guy who dealt the non-fatal blow to MacLeod in battle in 1536. He\u2019s been trying to kill McLeod down through the centuries. He is one crazy MF!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Highlander<\/strong> is that rare movie that succeeds on every level. Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Razorback), he takes a nifty sword-and-sorcery tale and transplants it to a modern-day NYC that resembles film noir reimagined as a heavy metal video. I love the contrast between the rugged wide-open spaces of medieval Scotland and the urban jungle of the 20th<\/sup> century with its looming buildings and dark alleys. The director also makes excellent use of dark and light. Highlander<\/strong> truly is a sight to behold. I don\u2019t ordinarily go for movies that overdo it stylistically with showy cinematography and other forms of camera trickery, but this is one time where it works in the movie\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0French actor Lambert manages a passable Scottish accent as McLeod, at one point calling Ramirez a \u201cstupid haggis\u201d. He has a dark, brooding quality that serves him well as a man alone in a world that would fear him if they knew his secret. He\u2019s also quite handy with a sword. Connery camps it up nicely as the fancily-dressed Ramirez called a \u201cSpanish peacock\u201d by one character. Brown gives an incredible OTT performance as Kurgan, a menacing creep with a big scar across his neck, a gift from Ramirez when they fought in the 16th<\/sup> century. He gets some of the best lines like when he tells a doomed opponent \u201ctonight you sleep in hell\u201d before killing him. Hart is good as MacLeod\u2019s love interest, a woman of science who takes the news of her lover\u2019s immortality surprisingly well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Highlander<\/strong> benefits from great special effects and well-mounted sword fights. Rock band Queen contributes several cool songs including \u201cPrinces of the Universe\u201d, \u201cA Kind of Magic\u201d and (my favorite) \u201cWho Wants to Live Forever\u201d. As a Scotsman, I dug the scenes in Scotland. It has action aplenty and a sense of humor about itself. It never takes itself too seriously. It\u2019s actually a lot of fun with its dippy dialogue, silly story and grand action scenes. It\u2019s exciting, humorous and, at times, emotionally heartfelt. It\u2019s absurd and brilliant at the same time. It\u2019s totally deserving of its cult status.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: The original US theatrical cut was eight minutes shorter and did NOT include the scene explaining MacLeod\u2019s relationship with his secretary Rachel (stage actress Gish). Why on earth did the American distributors cut it? It\u2019s important to the story. It bothered me to no end until I saw the longer UK version in \u201990.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highlander (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong action violence, a scene of sexuality, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Russell Mulcahy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Kamen (with original songs by Queen)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gerry Fisher\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Highlander-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6725"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7052,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6725\/revisions\/7052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}