The equation of 1980s cinema goes like this: Add great creative ideas to mountains of cocaine, substract a proportional amount of fuck given in regards to the situation, multiply by the coefficient of unexplainable scenes and it'll always equal an awesome movie. The production pace of the eighties was so glorious and frantic that it's the gift that keeps on giving. Whenever you think you've found the holy grail, there will be another movie to challenge its ''eightiesness''. I hadn't given much thought to HIGHLANDER since I watched it, back when I was six or seven years old. I remembered the killer fight scenes and the immortal haircut of Christopher Lambert. Turns out I was overdue for another viewing that would reveal to me the Greater Truths of this movie. HIGHLANDER still rocks today for all the right, and the wrong reasons.
Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) is a 450 years old Scot and lives in New York City under the name of Russell Nash. He once was a simple man, who lives a quiet life with his wife Heather (Beatie Edney) after mysteriously surviving a mortal blow in battle. He was awakened to his condition and trained in combat by an awesomely dressed Spaniard named Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez (Sean Connery). Connor is one of the few immortals. They are bound to fight each other in battle at the mysterious ''Gathering'', where the winner will be awarded the fabled and elusive ''prize''. None of the immortals know exactly what it is, but they put their fate in the Cosmos. In order to become the last immortal standing, Connor will have to beat The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) a 7 foot tall bloodthirsty berzerker who just loves to rape and pillage.
There can be only one, BRO.
Zone of Truth: HIGHLANDER aged like a piece of bread you forgot in the cupboard for too long. It doesn't look half as good as it once did, but if you decide to eat it anyway, you're going to be tripping balls. There is actually nothing wrong with the story. HIGHLANDER is some of the best ''in-your-face'', unapologetic fantasy out there. It's just way too ambitious for its time and director Russell Mulcahy was in too much of a hurry to tell the story. Scenes like the battle between Juan and The Kurgan must've wowed the crowds back in 1986, but they could be probably be made in somebody's backyard today, with cardboard and these duct taped swords that people use in LARP. It's an absolute blast to see Sean freakin' Connery take this setting with the utmost serious and give his 110% to the scene.
There can be only one European Next Top Model, pendejo.
The alternating New York and Scotland scenes would've been confusing if I didn't already know what the movie was about. HIGHLANDER keeps going back and forth between the two eras because it really want to stress its own sense of scope. If efficiency was the point, we could've probably done with a couple of key flashbacks but who are we kidding here? Who gives a fuck about efficiency? This is HIGHLANDER, for God's sake. Nobody wants narrative efficiency. The more immortal dick swinging, the better. There is a ridiculous amount of physical confrontation and swordfights in HIGHLANDER, both necessary to the storyline and not, and it's one of these perfect imperfections. Even the mystery is not really a mystery. Everybody knows that Connor MacLeod is an immortal, including the viewer, except his love interest Brenda (Roxanne Hart). Everything is an excuse for the immortals to duke it out in this movie and it's what makes it magical.
Zone of Truth #2: HIGHLANDER is one of the few movies who could really use a remake. The entire point of remakes is to introduce a new generation of fans to the legends of our past, in a language that they understand. Most of them are exercises in pointlessness and cynism, but I think HIGHLANDER would actually benefit a makeover. I don't think any 15 year old would ''get'' the beauty of cardboard and duct tape cinema if he didn't grow up with it like we did. They would miss out on a great story and one of the seminal fantasy movies. HIGHLANDER aged all sorts of wrong, but it became a museum object. It's a testament to an era where we did things differently, with less budget and a lot more drugs. I'm not the most nostalgic person you will find, but HIGHLANDER makes me nostalgic for the good ol' days like a motherfucker.
Zone of Truth #2: HIGHLANDER is one of the few movies who could really use a remake. The entire point of remakes is to introduce a new generation of fans to the legends of our past, in a language that they understand. Most of them are exercises in pointlessness and cynism, but I think HIGHLANDER would actually benefit a makeover. I don't think any 15 year old would ''get'' the beauty of cardboard and duct tape cinema if he didn't grow up with it like we did. They would miss out on a great story and one of the seminal fantasy movies. HIGHLANDER aged all sorts of wrong, but it became a museum object. It's a testament to an era where we did things differently, with less budget and a lot more drugs. I'm not the most nostalgic person you will find, but HIGHLANDER makes me nostalgic for the good ol' days like a motherfucker.
