the lore of this movie feels like an XFiles episode cranked up to 11. I can already see Mulder in my head, passionately rambling about certain individuals beeing immortal and then at the end of the episode decides to not blow the cover of the friendly immortal he met.
The thing that makes the Kurgan a perpetually interesting villain even after so many sequels is that he more or less plays fair. He doesn't hide behind minions like Kortan or General Katana, doesn't abuse his magical abilities to gain the upper hand like Kane or the Guardian, and he doesn't make a mockery of the rules of the game like Jacob Kell, and yet, that never diminishes his threat, nor does cheating make those other villains overshadow him.
@@christopherwall2121 Id rather have a marathon of all the Highlander films than ever look back at the memory of watching spoonys or any other various "internet drama reviewers" of that time, just saying.
Clancy Brown played the bad guy in this movie. He’s also the voice of Mr Krabs. Has anyone asked Mr. Brown to sign a Highlander poster with one of his famous quotes from SpongeBob?
“Scruffy around the edges” is a good way to put it. Not a perfect film but no less a fun one that as you said sparks the imagination. In some way the ambiguity of certain things about the nature and origins of the immortals helps with that despite the fact that part of us does want an explanation. I guess it could be supposed that there was a first immortal who through a connection (presumably) god or fate or time or whatever knew what the game was for and why it must be played and why holy ground is the only refuge. Looking back on it you could build a bigger tale out of the Gathring itself and make an interesting cast of characters out of “the few who remain”. But then since there can be only one we’d have to see them all go so maybe it’s better for the focus to be squarely on MacLeod and Kurgan.
I first came upon Highlander by accident, back in the late 1980s when a friend brought a bootleg VCR cassette with the German dub to a birthday party and we watched it with a a whole group. I'm not even sure to this day if the movie was ever shown in German cinemas? (When it came out I would've been 12 or 13 yrs old, as back then American movies often took a year or more to pop up in German cinemas, not simultaneously as today.) I was instantly hooked on the premise of the story, the music, the cinematography. Then when the Internet became a thing, I was saddened to read that allegedly many in English-speaking parts were mocking the movie because Christopher Lambert was playing a Scottish Highlander with a French accent, while Sean Connery the real-life Scotsman was playing an ancient Egyptian masquerading as a Spaniard but kept his perosnal Scottish accent. In that regard, the (excellent) German dub has the advantage that the German voice actors all use accent-free _Hochdeutsch_ ("High German").
Connery wasn't the only Scot playing a non-Scot in Highlander. The actor who plays the ex-Marine who shoots the Kurgan in the alley was also Scottish. So you have a Frenchman playing a Scot, an actual Scot playing an Egypto-Spaniard, and another Scot playing an American. Only in Hollywood...
It only matters in this case for the accents otherwise they're just picked for the role. It would be a little weirder if you had a Japanese person playing a Spanish inquisitor.
_Highlander_ was that rare film in cinema that became a cult classic on the strength of its concept and charm even though the execution was a bit hit-and-miss. It had *heart* and that came through in the entire production, chaotic and frustrating as it often was.
Looking back, Highlander was a film that I think I wanted to love but I feel was much better at its ideas than its actual story. I think its pacing for a "back and forth" storytelling was very much by the numbers and whilst dividing the story, I feel pretty much all the basic plot was revealed in the Scotland scenes and almost nothing really happened in the New York scenes save for the climax. Having heard about the "original darker version" I think I selfishly would have preferred that since it does lean a bit to how I would have structured the film. If indeed the original meant more of a bleak depressing tone I think we can agree it would have meant this: no Queen score!
Yeah. This movie does have its flaws, and the series expanded the lore better (though as you point out here, the film does some things differently that might have been even more compelling), but I'd forgotten how much I love Christopher Lambert's performance in this. The energy and the concept combine to create something really interesting. But at the end of the day, it does kind of have a "rough draft" feel. Still, an interesting and unique entry in the Urban Fantasy genre.
Origin aside, anyway. The transfer of knowledge, meaning the prize may actually just be the combined wisdom of the past immortals...essentially making you the Immortal Matrix Of Leadership (Transformers reference)...could come with bonus abilities like we see here, the ability to connect with others around you like that stag. The idea of the Watchers makes sense as this movie shows you can't hide immortality from everyone. Somebody is due to stumble on it even if the world at large is still unaware because nobody's having a sword fight in the middle of Times Square.
@@ShadowWingTronix Right. Though, tragically, the idea of the Quickening wasn't really utilized. I'm thinking specifically of the episode "The Innocent," where Mikey loves trains and has an encyclopedic knowledge of them, and Richie ends up getting his Quickening. The episode ends with Duncan and Richie hearing a train whistle in the distance and remembering their friend, but it would have a been a lot more poignant if Richie had identified the train by the sound of the whistle, the location and time of day, as Mikey would have. They did do the episode where Richie picks up the habits of an Immortal he killed, including something of the connection between that man and his mortal girlfriend, and did the two-parter with Dark Quickenings and implied Darius had gotten a "Light" one, but on the whole, it's a really underutilized concept in the franchise.
Yeah, more could've been done with the idea of learning everything a immortal knows though the quickening but the writers were probably afraid of overexsplaining it and have another 'Planet Zaxs' situation
One of the things I find funny: There is a certain Generation (Mine) that will always remember Clancy Brown as this Scary MuttaF*kka....... And there is another Generation that will remember him primarily as the voice of "Mr. Krabs" on 'Spongebob Squarepants' 😂
@@Zeithri yeah 😁 As I understand it, he actually asked to play the role, as he was such a fan of the book. He even voiced Zim again in the CGI animated "Starship Troopers Chronicles", but only one episode.
@@starwarsnerd100That would be second in my mind as well. Probably the Best Luthor ever portrayed, with MIchael Rosenbaum from 'Smallville' doing the second best Luthor.
Great episode dude. Hope you plan to cover the series at some point. Itd be cool to see an episode by episode format like youve done for Star Trek and Babylon 5
Tragically, Clancy Brown doesn't get any royalties for this movie. His big break and one of his greatest roles. But he was a young actor and got screwed.
I am not entirely sure how the immortality works in this. Like the Kurgan walks off the bullets like it is nothing but even five hundred years later he still has the slit throat and needs to keep it sewn shut. Do wounds inflicted by other immortals not heal?
He doesn't need to keep is sewn shut. It's healed, but left a scar. Late in the film when he's "in disguise" he stuck safety pins through the scar tissue just as part of an extreme look so he wouldn't be recognized by the police before he got to have The Prize. It's hypothesized by fans of the franchise that, because beheading is the only thing that can kill an Immortal, the neck is something of a vulnerable spot, and wounds to that area don't heal as perfectly as wounds anywhere else. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I grant, but the series got a lot of mileage out of Kalas, a villain who suffered a neck wound from Duncan in a manner similar to the Kurgan. Kalas already had it in for Duncan because Duncan had unraveled one of his evil schemes earlier, but when Duncan slashed his throat and ruined his amazing singing voice, Kalas REALLY took that personally and made Duncan his arch-enemy.
Also, in the series, we see that Immortals can regrow severed body parts. A character named Xavier Saint Cloud gets his hand chopped off but escaped and later shows up with a Hook hand. So damage to the throat and dismembered body parts can't be healed....makes me wonder, what if they're shot in the head or gets a shotgun to the face or has the top of their skull blown off? Would they heal that? I don't remember ever seeing a Immortal with a facial scar so maybe?
@@ericwhite1942 There was one, in the Kalas episodes with the Watcher database, an Immortal was pointed out by pictures and paintings showing his distinctive scar. But he might have got it before his First Death. We don't know for sure they can't regrow body parts, Xavier might have eventually grown his hand back if his next appearance hadn't been his death. It just might take years. Or if he'd been able to find his hand, he might have been able to reattach it. But in general, yeah, the series tones down how powerful Immortals might be (likely due to having to work within a syndicated TV show budget in the 90s).
Highlander is one of those franchises that should be a guilty pleasure, but I have no guilt at all. I love this film, I like(most) of the sequels and I have to admit I love the TV show. Okay I'm not blind to the flaws in all of them, but at the same time I love it. And I agree with Chuck's coda here. Those same flaws just help make it great. It's all part of the magic. As pointed out you have to take into account when this was made and just how much has followed in its footsteps. What is now old hat was original and fresh and Highlander wasn't afraid to experiment. To take the chance. It's from a time where we were looking and finding something new. But I have to say this. If you haven't check out the TV series. It's no where near perfect and has more than it's fair share of misses but when it hits... There is a lot that it did five to ten years before other, more recognised, "influential" shows.
In addition to enjoying the _Highlander_ series, _Forever Knight_ was another favorite of mine that clearly owes a lot to _Highlander,_ using that same format of weaving relevant flashbacks into the episodes.
A modern retool of Highlander: The Series as a streaming show, six-to-twelve episode seasons to build and resolve an arc, build up an Immortal villain for the hero to conquer, would be great. The main failing of The Series looking back is it's reliance on the "Villain of the Week" format, making Immortals ridiculously plentiful. Kalas being a recurring villain in Season Three was great, and the payoff when Duncan finally got him was intensely satisfying.
I would love some looks at the series... but with the exception of 3, which was largely just a mediocre version of 1, every one of the sequel films just... makes me sad.
Thank you, loved this film since being young and seeing it in the 80's, Highlander is the poster child for an incredible film, that was let down by what followed it. Possible one of if not the worst ever direct sequels. Follow by a string of other sequels a lot of the time ret-coning the preceding sequels out of existence. Followed by sub-par (dumbed-down) TV series . Now that I think about it, It is weird that Highlander as a whole is indicative in what was to come with modern films for this kind of nonsense. And all after the simple fact that there should NEVER have been a sequel the story of the original film is a TERRIBLE idea to try to make a sequel to. As the whole premise is there are limited immortals left, they've just fucking killed each other! Till none but one is left, and he now has ultimate OP power. Really "there can be ONLY one!"
the lore of this movie feels like an XFiles episode cranked up to 11. I can already see Mulder in my head, passionately rambling about certain individuals beeing immortal and then at the end of the episode decides to not blow the cover of the friendly immortal he met.
The thing that makes the Kurgan a perpetually interesting villain even after so many sequels is that he more or less plays fair. He doesn't hide behind minions like Kortan or General Katana, doesn't abuse his magical abilities to gain the upper hand like Kane or the Guardian, and he doesn't make a mockery of the rules of the game like Jacob Kell, and yet, that never diminishes his threat, nor does cheating make those other villains overshadow him.
> or the Guardian
Holy crap you watched The Source. Highlander 2 looks like a masterpiece compared..
@@BlazingOwnager Nooooo, I watched Spoony's review of it many eons ago.
@@christopherwall2121 I miss pre-meltdown Spoony.
@@BlazingOwnager We all do
@@christopherwall2121 Id rather have a marathon of all the Highlander films than ever look back at the memory of watching spoonys or any other various "internet drama reviewers" of that time, just saying.
I first saw this movie as a kid, when it was still relatively new, and it's STILL one of my favorites to this day.
Best part of this movie went completely undiscussed; the newspaper vendor mocking the cops.
"What does 'baffled' mean? What does 'INcompetent' mean?"
Clancy Brown played the bad guy in this movie. He’s also the voice of Mr Krabs. Has anyone asked Mr. Brown to sign a Highlander poster with one of his famous quotes from SpongeBob?
I didn't know that. McCloud, Mr. Crab, and Lex Luthor. Neat
Forgive me, for I am a crab
No, but I have considered getting to him sign a copy of Crash Bandicoot for PS1 as Rawhide.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE MR.SQUIDWARD!
@@ericwhite1942 Don't forget Sergeant ... sorry Private Zimm.
I loved the it's a kinda magic bit at the end.
I love Highlander, especially the TV show.
I don't feel like making a long comment about it. I just wanted to mention this ^^
That scene of the Kurgan driving his Caddy is my favorite thing from this movie.
"Pincushion Punisher" is hilarious. I never realized the similarities before.
What a great review, and yeah you're totally right about how incredible that power up is at the finale.
“Scruffy around the edges” is a good way to put it. Not a perfect film but no less a fun one that as you said sparks the imagination. In some way the ambiguity of certain things about the nature and origins of the immortals helps with that despite the fact that part of us does want an explanation.
I guess it could be supposed that there was a first immortal who through a connection (presumably) god or fate or time or whatever knew what the game was for and why it must be played and why holy ground is the only refuge. Looking back on it you could build a bigger tale out of the Gathring itself and make an interesting cast of characters out of “the few who remain”. But then since there can be only one we’d have to see them all go so maybe it’s better for the focus to be squarely on MacLeod and Kurgan.
I first came upon Highlander by accident, back in the late 1980s when a friend brought a bootleg VCR cassette with the German dub to a birthday party and we watched it with a a whole group. I'm not even sure to this day if the movie was ever shown in German cinemas? (When it came out I would've been 12 or 13 yrs old, as back then American movies often took a year or more to pop up in German cinemas, not simultaneously as today.) I was instantly hooked on the premise of the story, the music, the cinematography.
Then when the Internet became a thing, I was saddened to read that allegedly many in English-speaking parts were mocking the movie because Christopher Lambert was playing a Scottish Highlander with a French accent, while Sean Connery the real-life Scotsman was playing an ancient Egyptian masquerading as a Spaniard but kept his perosnal Scottish accent. In that regard, the (excellent) German dub has the advantage that the German voice actors all use accent-free _Hochdeutsch_ ("High German").
Kurgan may have invented ride sharing, but he perfected the convertible.
_Heeeerrrreeee we are, born to be kings, we're the Princes of the Universe..._
Connery wasn't the only Scot playing a non-Scot in Highlander. The actor who plays the ex-Marine who shoots the Kurgan in the alley was also Scottish. So you have a Frenchman playing a Scot, an actual Scot playing an Egypto-Spaniard, and another Scot playing an American. Only in Hollywood...
It only matters in this case for the accents otherwise they're just picked for the role. It would be a little weirder if you had a Japanese person playing a Spanish inquisitor.
_Highlander_ was that rare film in cinema that became a cult classic on the strength of its concept and charm even though the execution was a bit hit-and-miss. It had *heart* and that came through in the entire production, chaotic and frustrating as it often was.
Looking back, Highlander was a film that I think I wanted to love but I feel was much better at its ideas than its actual story. I think its pacing for a "back and forth" storytelling was very much by the numbers and whilst dividing the story, I feel pretty much all the basic plot was revealed in the Scotland scenes and almost nothing really happened in the New York scenes save for the climax. Having heard about the "original darker version" I think I selfishly would have preferred that since it does lean a bit to how I would have structured the film. If indeed the original meant more of a bleak depressing tone I think we can agree it would have meant this: no Queen score!
Who hates this film. It's so damn good. Great series of videos.
Clancy Brown in the church is a great scene; he looks like he's having an absolute blast
He's actually not, he was refusing to keep the characther between takes and was apologizing to nun at the church.
5:41 what I want to know is who was he quoting "Its better to burn out than to fade away"? Neil Young or Def Leppard?
........he doesn't really strike me as a Neal Young fan, so...
Yeah. This movie does have its flaws, and the series expanded the lore better (though as you point out here, the film does some things differently that might have been even more compelling), but I'd forgotten how much I love Christopher Lambert's performance in this. The energy and the concept combine to create something really interesting. But at the end of the day, it does kind of have a "rough draft" feel. Still, an interesting and unique entry in the Urban Fantasy genre.
Origin aside, anyway. The transfer of knowledge, meaning the prize may actually just be the combined wisdom of the past immortals...essentially making you the Immortal Matrix Of Leadership (Transformers reference)...could come with bonus abilities like we see here, the ability to connect with others around you like that stag. The idea of the Watchers makes sense as this movie shows you can't hide immortality from everyone. Somebody is due to stumble on it even if the world at large is still unaware because nobody's having a sword fight in the middle of Times Square.
@@ShadowWingTronix Right. Though, tragically, the idea of the Quickening wasn't really utilized. I'm thinking specifically of the episode "The Innocent," where Mikey loves trains and has an encyclopedic knowledge of them, and Richie ends up getting his Quickening. The episode ends with Duncan and Richie hearing a train whistle in the distance and remembering their friend, but it would have a been a lot more poignant if Richie had identified the train by the sound of the whistle, the location and time of day, as Mikey would have. They did do the episode where Richie picks up the habits of an Immortal he killed, including something of the connection between that man and his mortal girlfriend, and did the two-parter with Dark Quickenings and implied Darius had gotten a "Light" one, but on the whole, it's a really underutilized concept in the franchise.
Yeah, more could've been done with the idea of learning everything a immortal knows though the quickening but the writers were probably afraid of overexsplaining it and have another 'Planet Zaxs' situation
@@ericwhite1942 It's Zeist.
And yes, I am ashamed that I know that.
@@erikbjelke4411 it's OK, bro....(Brings you in for a hug) it's ok
One of the things I find funny: There is a certain Generation (Mine) that will always remember Clancy Brown as this Scary MuttaF*kka.......
And there is another Generation that will remember him primarily as the voice of "Mr. Krabs" on 'Spongebob Squarepants' 😂
For me it’s always his role as Lex Luthor in the DCAU.
Don't forget Starship Troopers, Sergeant Zim.
@@Zeithri yeah 😁
As I understand it, he actually asked to play the role, as he was such a fan of the book.
He even voiced Zim again in the CGI animated "Starship Troopers Chronicles", but only one episode.
@@starwarsnerd100That would be second in my mind as well. Probably the Best Luthor ever portrayed, with MIchael Rosenbaum from 'Smallville' doing the second best Luthor.
Hakon, Wolf, Tomas Brod. Face it, Gargoyles owes a lot to Highlander.
Great episode dude. Hope you plan to cover the series at some point. Itd be cool to see an episode by episode format like youve done for Star Trek and Babylon 5
Tragically, Clancy Brown doesn't get any royalties for this movie. His big break and one of his greatest roles. But he was a young actor and got screwed.
I am not entirely sure how the immortality works in this. Like the Kurgan walks off the bullets like it is nothing but even five hundred years later he still has the slit throat and needs to keep it sewn shut. Do wounds inflicted by other immortals not heal?
He doesn't need to keep is sewn shut. It's healed, but left a scar. Late in the film when he's "in disguise" he stuck safety pins through the scar tissue just as part of an extreme look so he wouldn't be recognized by the police before he got to have The Prize. It's hypothesized by fans of the franchise that, because beheading is the only thing that can kill an Immortal, the neck is something of a vulnerable spot, and wounds to that area don't heal as perfectly as wounds anywhere else. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I grant, but the series got a lot of mileage out of Kalas, a villain who suffered a neck wound from Duncan in a manner similar to the Kurgan. Kalas already had it in for Duncan because Duncan had unraveled one of his evil schemes earlier, but when Duncan slashed his throat and ruined his amazing singing voice, Kalas REALLY took that personally and made Duncan his arch-enemy.
Also, in the series, we see that Immortals can regrow severed body parts. A character named Xavier Saint Cloud gets his hand chopped off but escaped and later shows up with a Hook hand. So damage to the throat and dismembered body parts can't be healed....makes me wonder, what if they're shot in the head or gets a shotgun to the face or has the top of their skull blown off? Would they heal that? I don't remember ever seeing a Immortal with a facial scar so maybe?
@@ericwhite1942 There was one, in the Kalas episodes with the Watcher database, an Immortal was pointed out by pictures and paintings showing his distinctive scar. But he might have got it before his First Death. We don't know for sure they can't regrow body parts, Xavier might have eventually grown his hand back if his next appearance hadn't been his death. It just might take years. Or if he'd been able to find his hand, he might have been able to reattach it. But in general, yeah, the series tones down how powerful Immortals might be (likely due to having to work within a syndicated TV show budget in the 90s).
Hey, it's a kind of magic.
Clancey Brown is a treasure to us all.
THis franchise has a lot of potential, but I doubt anyone will ever d o anything more with it.
I loved the Vietnamese joke. 😆
7:46 "NOT YOU TOO, LAMBERT!"
Great video, as usual. Keep up the good work!
Love Highlander, warts an all
It's difficult to take Alan North seriously in a cop role after seeing the entire Police Squad.
This movie needs more Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln
@stevena488 this dude knows. Nice!
Really, people hate Highlander now? Since when? And I always thought that this is beloved classic film from the 80's - and there was a lot of them...
I'd have been disappointed if we'd gone this whole review without getting an "and they fight and they fight and they fight and they fight".
0:44 No... No sir you are not.
"Pin cushion Punisher" 😂
Highlander is one of those franchises that should be a guilty pleasure, but I have no guilt at all. I love this film, I like(most) of the sequels and I have to admit I love the TV show. Okay I'm not blind to the flaws in all of them, but at the same time I love it.
And I agree with Chuck's coda here. Those same flaws just help make it great. It's all part of the magic.
As pointed out you have to take into account when this was made and just how much has followed in its footsteps. What is now old hat was original and fresh and Highlander wasn't afraid to experiment. To take the chance. It's from a time where we were looking and finding something new.
But I have to say this. If you haven't check out the TV series. It's no where near perfect and has more than it's fair share of misses but when it hits... There is a lot that it did five to ten years before other, more recognised, "influential" shows.
In addition to enjoying the _Highlander_ series, _Forever Knight_ was another favorite of mine that clearly owes a lot to _Highlander,_ using that same format of weaving relevant flashbacks into the episodes.
@@boobah5643 Agreed.
Also have a look at Buffy/Angel and just why they were called Watchers again
A modern retool of Highlander: The Series as a streaming show, six-to-twelve episode seasons to build and resolve an arc, build up an Immortal villain for the hero to conquer, would be great. The main failing of The Series looking back is it's reliance on the "Villain of the Week" format, making Immortals ridiculously plentiful. Kalas being a recurring villain in Season Three was great, and the payoff when Duncan finally got him was intensely satisfying.
@@erikbjelke4411yes, that would work nicely. By the end of the series just about everybody in the world was either another immortal or a Watcher
Please tell me you are doing every movie and maybe touching the series.
I would love some looks at the series... but with the exception of 3, which was largely just a mediocre version of 1, every one of the sequel films just... makes me sad.
Clancy Brown could have been a Terminator if Arnold was not available.
Thank you, loved this film since being young and seeing it in the 80's, Highlander is the poster child for an incredible film, that was let down by what followed it. Possible one of if not the worst ever direct sequels. Follow by a string of other sequels a lot of the time ret-coning the preceding sequels out of existence. Followed by sub-par (dumbed-down) TV series . Now that I think about it, It is weird that Highlander as a whole is indicative in what was to come with modern films for this kind of nonsense. And all after the simple fact that there should NEVER have been a sequel the story of the original film is a TERRIBLE idea to try to make a sequel to. As the whole premise is there are limited immortals left, they've just fucking killed each other! Till none but one is left, and he now has ultimate OP power. Really "there can be ONLY one!"
I hope Connor at the very least let Heather know he lived
I have to be honest, I really thought this was a review you'd already done.
He did a written essay on it a decade ago