HIGHLANDER
There can be only one thousand.
With the honor of reviewing the 1,000th movie for AndersonVision, I realized how very, very long it took us to arrive at this milestone. Thereby, this film should be an appropriate review subject for this occasion, for which we thought it would take forever to reach.
“Highlander” was a movie that came and got decapitated in theaters in 1986. It escaped obscurity into that of a cult classic with the help of a very dedicated fan base through years of video and cable TV airings. It later spawned about three sequels (all terrible) and a popular syndicated television series that quite frankly was too cheesy and silly for my taste.
With good reasons, I ignored this sucker for years. Maybe it’s my allergies to most cinematic entries of the fantasy genre. Perhaps it’s the fact that it looked like an incredibly goofy swordplay picture. Of course, the painful fact that I was exposed to the sequels and TV series beforehand didn’t help the issue.
With the urging of fellow AV writer Thomas Luster, I finally watched the so-called Director’s Cut (or the version of the film that Europe has always known) and I tell yeah, I’m shocked.
It’s really a pity that people only know this movie from the chopped-up American theatrical edit, or the even more hacked TV cut. After seeing the director’s cut, I watched a film with a captivating and actually smartly crafted narrative storytelling structure. When I saw the American edits, I see a silly sword picture that didn’t make any sense.
In the garage of Madison Square Garden in New York City sometime in 1985, a mysterious foreign stoic person (Lambert) with an equally strange accent fights another non-American stranger with mighty swords. Lambert defeats him by decapitating him and then absorbing some sort of life-force energy from his fallen adversary. We cut to Scotland in 1536, where Lambert now looks younger, speaks with a heavy Scottish tongue, and appears to actually be alive. He is critically wounded by the absolutely creepy Kurgen (Brown) and is given last rites, yet he is breathing centuries later.
Inter-cutting between 1985 and the past, we learn that the stranger is in fact highlander warrior Connor MacLeod. He is immortal, much like hundreds of other men throughout time. The only successful method of killing these immortals is by decapitation, to which then the victor would then take the loser’s power for himself in the “quickening” process.
They fight each other throughout the centuries for the vaguely described “prize” itself, given to the last remaining immortal warrior. Now the remaining handful has gathered in New York City, where in the grand finale duel, Connor MacLeod fights the Kurgen for the Prize…and for the future of humanity.
A key reason for this film’s success is the emotional tale being woven from the parallel stories being told of the same character. In our present, he is distraught and wields a cold personality. We see that with his transformation to immortality, he is exiled from his superstitious village. He falls in love with a woman, and slowly watches her decay to time. The feeling of losing personal love is enough to isolate him from the rest of humanity. It’s better to never love at all than to have only a brief moment in time.
Better yet, the Director’s Cut restores sequences that not only pour cement into some rather annoying plot holes, but as well some historical scenes that further enhance the protagonist’s tale through history. A humorous sketch from monarchial France and as well a rather touching and lengthy subplot set back in World War 2.
I think it should be noted that unlike the infamous sequels, this picture actually tries to make logic of how these immortals actually blend into society without being detected, or even how the hero explains for his massive collection of artifacts from across time.
The only problems encountered from this film is that Russell Mulcahy, despite delivering a moody and stylish picture, really tried to be Ridley Scott, but there is only one Ridley Scott (yes, you can groan on that). Second, the sword fight cinematography will look primitive and weak compared to those of recent efforts, especially from China. Third, the penned-lightning effects will probably make a few wise guys giggle.
Then there is the soundtrack composed by Queen. While they are indeed one of the great rock acts of all time, their works in the 1980s can either be digested or nastily rejected. For example, you have the haunting “Who Wants to Live Forever?” song played during a key scene, and it so greases up the viewer’s emotions. Then you have ear-cringing pop tunes like “Princes of the Universe” that make you embarrass to openly admit that you like the band. Fan favorite “Hammer to Fall” and guilty pleasure “A Kind of Magic” round out their soundtrack.
Maybe the movie works as well for a genre-effort is due to the greatly underrated Clancy Brown as the baddie. His acting gives the automatic presence of evil under his skin, and he revels in it as truly that certain evil that has persisted for ages within society.
I think this film wraps itself nicely in a definitively finite package to the point that sequels should never have been considered. Then again, where would Christopher Lambert have found the work?
Final Film Rating - ****
