Highlander was one of those films that was really ahead of its time. Immortals hadn’t become commonplace, there were no television shows in which characters were two or three thousand years old, and immortals characters in films were hardly seen.
Highlander's Plot and Characters
Highlander follows a man named Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), a Highlander born in 1518, and killed during a battle in 1536 by a towering figure known as The Kurgan (Clancy Brown). The Kurgan was immortal already and wished to decapitate Connor before he became aware of his own powers. Connor’s clan saves him from getting his head cut off but not from being mortally wounded. That night he lies dying surrounded by his family and friends, and the next morning rises again completely healthy and injury free, now immortal himself.
The film jumps back and forth through time tracking Connor’s ‘death’ to his banishment by his clan believing he is now possessed by the devil, to 1980s New York where the last few immortals are coming together for the Gathering. A final battle for the Prize.
Back in 1541 he is found by a much older immortal named Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez (Sean Connery), who acts as his mentor training him in sword fighting techniques and teaching him about the immortals. Ramírez urges him to abandon his new wife Heather (Beatie Edney) because he will outlive her and he cannot give her a child. The pain of her death will also crush him one day if he stays with her.
In New York, Connor is the suspect in a murder case after he decapitated a fellow immortal, and traces of his sword are found in the wall. A forensic scientist Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart), who is also well versed on ancient weapons, becomes intrigued by the fragments because they are from a samurai sword that existed several hundred years before the samurai did. She focuses on Connor now calling himself Russell Nash, believing that he knows where that ancient sword is and if he gives it to her she could rewrite the history of ancient sword making.
Wyatt acts as Connor’s love interest, and her investigations of him lead her to realise that he has been around for hundreds of years. The Kurgan, also drawn to New York by the Gathering, is on hand to make sure that their new love is fraught with danger.
There Should Have Been Only One
Christopher Lambert plays the world-weary immortal, and although seems to struggle with his Scottish then American accents during the film it doesn't ruin the otherwise original fantasy action. Clancy Brown also obviously relishes playing the terrifying Kurgan, and adds some comic-relief to the film. His conversation with Connor in a church (it is against the rules for immortals to fight on holy ground) is especially enjoyable.
Highlander is a cult film that deserves more recognition than it has. Queen provide almost the entire soundtrack, with all of their songs (with the exception of Hammer to Fall) being written just for the film.
Unfortunately Highlander is an example of a film that should have been a one-off. The idea that immortals battle until there is only one of them left pretty much means that when Connor and Kurgan fight until only one remains there can’t be more films because there are no more immortals left.
4/5
Highlander was ahead of its time and is well worth watching, however, stick with the original and don’t bother with the sequels.
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