Highlander (1986)

With any long-running media franchise, it's possible for the franchise to run out of steam yet still keep trying to have a go at it anyway. But there are cases where a franchise hits the wall just as it begins. This is none more evident than with the Highlander franchise. A ton of sequels, a TV show, an animated series, and two video games have carried the Highlander name, and almost all of them have been negatively received. The only true exception is the first movie in the franchise. A cult classic in spite of having its name dragged through the mud by lousy sequels and successors, Highlander is a tremendous movie that stands high above the crap that followed it.

The story focuses on Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), a man from the Scottish Highlands who, in the year 1536, is seemingly killed in battle by an evil barbarian known as "The Kurgan" (Clancy Brown). He awakens the next day to find himself in perfect health, a recovery that his clansmen believe is the work of witchcraft. Fearing he was in league with the devil, they banish Connor from their village.

Connor spends the next five years roaming Scotland until he is approached by Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez (Sean Connery). Ramírez explains that both he and Connor are part of a race of immortals, destined to be pulled to a far-away land for "The Gathering." It is during the Gathering that every immortal will fight until only one of them remains. The last immortal left will claim a great power known simply as "the prize." To prepare Connor for the Gathering, Ramírez teaches him the perks of his immortality, while training him in the ways of swordfighting and how to avoid decapitation, the only known method of killing an immortal.

Connor's story continues several centuries later, specifically the year 1985. Now living in New York City as "Russell Nash," Connor becomes aware that the Gathering has finally arrived. He, like all other immortals, are called to battle in the streets and back alleys of the city. But the battle becomes personal when the only immortal left standing between Connor and the prize is his ancient enemy, the Kurgan.

I absolutely love Highlander. I'd actually go as far as to call it one of my favorite movies of all time. Granted, it isn't flawless, but the movie makes up for it with a ton of imagination and lots of entertainment value. It's one of those movies that I could watch over and over again and never get sick of it. But what is it about Highlander that makes it so great?

Part of it comes from Russell Mulcahy's stellar direction. Though he had a budget of only 16 million dollars, Mulcahy treats the movie as if he had 160 million. The editing and transitions between the 1530s scenes and the 1985 scenes are excellently done, and Gerry Fisher's cinematography is utterly gorgeous. I can't believe how fantastic the movie looks. Parts of it are dated and some of the special effects are cheesy, but Mulcahy does a great job in the director's chair.

There's also the screenplay, credited to Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood, and Larry Ferguson. Originally written by Widen while a student at UCLA and rewritten after it was sold, the script handles the story in a very cool way. Most movies would have told the story in a more linear fashion, but Highlander instead spreads the Scotland scenes throughout the movie as flashbacks. Doing it this way makes it somewhat easier to understand the motivations of the characters of characters like Connor and the Kurgan while still keeping things mysterious and dramatic.

What makes the script truly great, however, is the characters. They're all very well done, with the protagonists all being very engaging and amiable. You find yourself really liking Connor and Ramírez, while simultaneously being intimidated by the Kurgan. The Kurgan is one of the best villains I've seen in a movie, as he's both very cool and very scary. If the script did anything at all right, it's the characters.

But there are two things about Highlander that I thought set it apart from other fantasy movies. One is its soundtrack. While composer Michael Kamen contributes a beautiful orchestral score, he's overshadowed by the songs Queen performed for the movie. Eight Queen songs appear in on the soundtrack (six of which appear on their album A Kind of Magic), and they're all great. But the best are the Highlander franchise's de facto theme songs, "Princes of the Universe" and "Who Wants to Live Forever." The songs are almost too awesome, but they fit the movie well.

The other thing about the movie is its cast. The actors assembled for the movie give it their all, each of them showing an admirable level of commitment to their roles. Christopher Lambert is great in the lead role, playing the titular Highlander with a wide-eyed curiosity in the flashbacks and a stoic "seen it all" attitude in the 1985 scenes. Lambert plays Connor superbly, making the viewer honestly care about the character.

It helps that he has a fine supporting cast backing him up, though. In the role of Ramírez, Sean Connery is awesome, plain and simple. I can't say I see the logic in hiring a Scotsman to play an ancient Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard, but I don't think Connery did either. He doesn't even try to put on an accent beyond his normal Scottish brogue, which only makes Connery's funny performance even funnier. He's fantastic, though, so I honestly can't complain about him.

In the role of the villainous Kurgan, Clancy Brown is perfect. He's frightening and intimidating, making the Kurgan a presence to be reckoned with. Even his voice is enough to make the Kurgan one hell of a villain. It's weird thinking a hulking brute who gleefully cuts people's heads off in Highlander is the same guy who voices Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants. But Brown's performance makes the Kurgan a man who's not to be trifled with, for sure.

And as Connor's love interests, Roxanne Hart and Beatie Edney do fine jobs. Hart plays a forensics expert helping the police investigate the rash of decapitations throughout New York City, and ends up falling for Conner after he's suspected as a serial killer. Her character never really struck me as being all that important to the story, but I felt that Hart did pretty well all the same. Edney plays Connor's wife during his life in Scotland in the 1530s, and she's quite likable and sweet in the role. If they'd deleted Hart's character and added more scenes with Edney's, I wouldn't have argued.

I've never really been a fan of the fantasy genre, but I'll gladly make an exception for Highlander. It's not the best movie ever made, and the sequels and spinoffs that followed it may not have the best reputation, but the original movie still a fun way to spend two hours. Highlander is a cult classic that is probably deserving of more respect than what it gets. It's a great flick, one that I enjoy a lot and cannot recommend enough. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out on a real underrated treat. So on my usual scale, I'm giving the movie four stars out of five and my seal of approval. And in the realm of movies like this, if I may paraphrase the late, great Freddie Mercury: "Highlander has no rival, no one can be its equal."

Final Rating: ****