poster

Highlander
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Year: 1986
TRT: 1:51

Reviewed: 8/7/2024
VIDEO REVIEW

The time of the Gathering is upon us! Well, at least, that’s what the legend tells us. And when I say legend, I mean what a Spaniard Egyptian tells us with an Anglo-Scottish accent. Sean Connery says it with such conviction though, I believe him. So should you! He’s, like, reeeeeally old.

Connor MacLeod of the clan MacLeod is a young pup going into his first major battle on the moors of Narnia circa 1536. It’s dark. It’s foreboding. There’s this evil-lookin Kurgan guy wearing some kind of animal skull on his head. That does tend to have an intimidating effect. Aw shit. I’m telling this in, like, chronological order. It actually starts in New York at a cheesy Wrestling match at Madison Square Garden, then there’s a phenomenal sword fight in the parking garage underneath. With swords. It’s kind awesome. There’s weird explosions after one of the guys gets his head chopped clean the fuck off. This is not that guy’s story. Because he dead. Alas, he was not the Neo of this story.

It has been some time since I watched this last, and it continues to be a pretty kick-ass movie. The story can be a little suspect at times. The special effects are decently done for what they are trying to pull off. But the way this is shot? Some great crane shots. The transitions from what usually would be pretty jolting are handled expertly here, and when it isn’t involving the somewhat sketchy Mythology involved, makes for a nice pseudo-mystery fantasy action flick? I do remember watching Highlander 2 once. Once. And it just pretty much pissed on everything this one establishes. I guess there was like 5 movie sequels and a television series too, but after the Fuckoffery of the second movie, it and the rest were dead to me. This one is kinda lightning in a bottle, so to speak. The Queen soundtrack can be both great and awful, but usually awful, but also very pertinent to the film, so I give them cred for that since they basically wrote the soundtrack for the film. The ending? Well. It’s a big build-up, ain’t it? Something about there can be only Juan. Then there’s a helluva finale sequence. And then like 3 more minutes. They should’ve cut those last few there, methinks. Still a great story with some interesting historical points highlighted along the way, pretty enjoyable ride, some emotional points that are earned. Some nice banter too, throughout. Even serious movies about The Juan needs some lighter moments too.


Great Scene: There’s a scene in a church, with some of the best lines ever uttered on film by the oft-overlooked screen legend known as Clancy Brown, playing the baddie known as Kurgan. “Nuns. No sense of humor.” Fucking classic. His follow-up to that ain’t bad either.

Film Notes: I ain’t kiddin when I mentioned some nice scene transitions before. Overall there’s some well done camera work that maybe subliminally sank in when I first saw it, but after seeing a lot more films since then and watching this again, it really is some decent fkn storytelling. I guess that’s why I have the poster of it hanging on my wall. It’s in German. There sure are a shitload of words there I don’t understand, seems a bit excessive wordology to me though. Being only Juan isn’t that verbose.


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