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Highlander (1986) Reaction & Review! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!
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- čas přidán 14. 08. 2024
- Highlander was an excellent fantasy film that stood the test of time. The directing, concepts, cinematography, editing and music were excellent and the performances by Lambert, Brown and Connery were not bad too. This is a film that I will be re-watching every couple of years when I want to feel immortal. Thank you for the recommendation guys. By the way, I heard that there might be a remake of this film starring Henry Cavill. Personally, I don’t think it’s a very good idea to remake a cult classic but I’d love to hear your opinion about it.
Full Length Reactions to ALL the films I've watched and Early Access at Patreon: / shanwatchesmovies
0:00 Intro
1:41 The Film
21:04 The Review
29:33 Outro
Hey guys, I'm Shaneel (Shan). Welcome to the channel!
My reaction and review to Highlander (1986) for the first time. Hope you enjoy the video!
*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners.
Clancy Brown as the Kurgan is one of the best movie villains of all time.
I totally agree. He does a perfect villain growl.
But he's not in "The Green Mile" tho! Wrong prison movie, Shan was no doubt thinking of "The Shawshank Redemption".
Clancy's just an all-around badass in any role he inhabits. Funny thing is, more people probably recognize Clancy Brown these days, than Christopher Lambert lol.
The Kurgan is right up there with Darth Vader, The Joker, Hans Gruber, Freddy Krueger, & The T-1000.
Clancy Brown also played on the remake of the Steven King novel turned movie Pet Semetary (I know it's spelled wrong but that's how the kids misspelled it in the movie).
I love this movie and its accompanying soundtrack.
A Frenchman playing a Scot, a Scot playing an Egyptian, and an American playing a Russian; let's go.
real diversity in casting!
Cultural appropriation wasn't a thing back then.
It's called acting.
I thought Connery was supposed to be Spanish?
@@creech54 Egyptian, but worked for the king of Spain.
Christopher Lambert did a fine job in “Greystoke - The legends of Tarzan - Lord of the Apes”. A sort of Tarzan movie not like the others.
Agreed, My mother loves that version. I recommend giving Greystoke a try as well.
Best Tarzan movie ever
They took alot from the original book for that film.
Greystoke is a great movie as a deconstruction of the Tarzan story.
Amen to that. Greystoke is a must see. Lambert's take on Tarzan was so real.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned in the comments - as, seriously, not many know this - Clancy Brown was paid nothing for his role as The Kurgan. The entire budget went on the production, Connery, and Lambert. Even the screenwriter - who wrote this in screenwriting school - got roughly around $10k. So Clancy did the film for free because he was a struggling actor, and loved the script. When he was cast, there was actually no budget left. Remarkable.
I never knew that. That really sucks. Mr Krabs deserves to be paid.
For real? Wow. I figured he'd at least get something given that he'd already been in Bad Boys(the Sean Penn one) and Buckaroo Banzai. He wasn't a complete nobody in 1985.
What a G
And for him to play one of the best villians ever on top of that, amazing.
@@doughbafett Mate, my thoughts exactly. Alas, he didn't take a penny. But I also know he was just so damn happy to be beside Connery, so there's that.
This is an EPIC movie, especially when you see this in the theater as a 12 years old boy!
**** CAUTION****
Highlander 2 will not only let you down, but leave you feeling betrayed by the cinematic industry. It's an even bigger let down than "Weekend at Bernies 2" and "Troll 2".
Even better when you see it at 20, the age that you really want to be forever.
Agreed, the second movie sucked ass. The third was ok. The fourth was again, cringe worthy. Highlander: The series was one of my all time favorite shows. I love Duncan 😍
Well as the movie says "There can be only one."
Troll 2 is a classic.
@@sophiedash4026 Yeah I agree the series is actually pretty entertaining .
"It's better to burn out than to fade away" quoted by Kurt Cobain but originally its from Neil Young's Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) song which is time period correct to the Highlander film.
Actually, it is from My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue). In the other song that you mention the line is different. It is also said in the beginning of Def Leppard’s Rock Of Ages, which is more similar to how it is said by the character in the movie.
Happy Halloween, ladies!
@@ClaytonMacleod Exactly, the album Pyromania was a huge hit when this movie was being made (1983) and topped the charts in the US and UK. The Kurgan quotes it exactly from Rock of Ages.
@@johnmanor5236 I concur 🧐
Gunter gleiben glauchen globen
All right
I got somethin' to say
Yeah, it's better to burn out
Yeah, than fade away
All right
Ow gonna start a fire
Come on
Most of Queen´s album A Kind of Magic is essentially this film´s songtrack.
Sadly, their rendition of New York, New York is still not released.
@@StCerberusEngel I remember Brian May telling in some interview that they did not record the hole song. Just the snippet heard on film.
@@warre1 That'd be a shame, the snippet used was really good.
I made my own soundtrack using this the songs from the movie and Kamen’s score.
True, that was the first CD I ever owned, and still do to this day.
I always thought the Highlander was such a great concept. Definitely a classic.
Glad you watched the Director's Cut. In the original theatrical release, the entire Nazi sequence where MacLeod rescued Rachel was cut out. It makes much more sense with that scene in the movie. It explains how Rachel knew as an adult that he was immortal.
Yeah watch this movie a 100 times and never seen that nazi scene, crazy!
This movie is the first time I watched Clancy Brown. And because of it, in every other movie I saw him, he was always Kurgan for me.
I think I saw him in Bad Boys first(I just didn't know who he was at the time). Nice precursor to his role in Shawshank.
Same here! Even watching the recent short-lived series, "Emergence", where he played a regular guy, the father of the main character, to me he was still Kurgan!
I saw him in the TV show "Earth 2" for the second time after "Highlander" and then in the classic movie "The Shwashank Redemption" and all the time was The Kurgan for me too. The Kurgan is one of the best villians ever.
Especially Mr Krab.
He will always be the Kurgan to me.
Clancy brown was in shawshank redemption. But i can understand how a person can get the two mixed up.
Yeah, there wasn’t long between the premieres of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, they both take place in a prison and both of them were very acknowledged by the critics and the cinemagoers.
" There can be only one!"
Trivia: The scene in the alley where the Kurgan beheads Kastagir and then stabs the vigilante, followed by the explosion, was filmed in an alley in England, even though it was set in New York City. Director Russell Mulcahy was reluctant to set off the explosion in the alley, because the windows were full of Victorian glass, but he was given permission to do so, because that particular site was going to be destroyed in a few months anyway.
I'm not sure 'Thete can be only one!' scans quite as well.
timcliffsmith ...I have no idea what you're talking about. 😓 ...You can't prove anything!
The guy who played the vigilante was the pilot who finds Luke and Han in the Empire strikes back
Aaron 1621 ...Indeed! He was also the father in Labyrinth. 😎
As someone who's father is a retired historical architect, that story makes me even more sad than the news of a remake.
Lambert is almost blind without his glasses. It prevents him from having any realistic swordplay. If you want to see utter folly, watch the pilot ep of Highland the series. Lambert shows up to pass the torch, and it is obvious he can’t see. Blatantly.
I remember him saying in an interview that Adrian Paul nearly cut out his eyes because he couldnt tell how far away he was
@@artygunnar as much as I love Lambert his casting was wholly inappropriate. So many things could have gone wrong. It created a serious liability.
@@JamieLeaFL His casting was great imo. His messed up accent works nicely for a 400-500 year old wanderer.
@@UncleUncleRj I am not saying his casting was a bad choice because of his acting, or presence. I am saying they hired a blind guy to swing a sword. So much could have gone wrong.
His blindness is an important asset in acting. Connor Macleod looks at you as if he were looking through all these 400 years. This is truly the gaze of an immortal who saw the change of eras, the birth and death of generations, civilizations, peoples. This blindness is a gift for the director.
One of my favorite movies with one of my favorite movie villains. And then Queen to top it off. Doesn't get any better. I've even got a replica of Conner's sword on my wall.
Fun Fact: The opening narration by Connery was done by himself with a cassette recorder on his bathroom to get the special sound effect.
(The Queen album with the movie songs are "A kind of magic")
a couple of things: when Sean Connery was honored by the AFI, James Earl Jones came to the stage to tell everyone about Sean, starting with, "It's his voice..."
second, because of this movie with the, "There can be only one!"
when I meet someone with a certain name, I'm compelled to greet them with their name, "There can be only Juan!"
JEJ saying it's his voice is the greatest irony and compliment.
JEJ's voice is incredible.
"But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever!
And we can love forever!
Forever is our today..."
That makes me sad for both Mercury and Kamen who were involved in that track and now gone.
Both musicians who died with so much more to give.
Lambert learned most of his lines phonetically as he didn’t speak hardly any English.
Queen did the songs after the movie was made based on certain scenes. Connor references certain songs through the movie. Most notably, when he saves a young Rachael. After he his shot and comes back he tells her “It’s a kind of Magic.”
The Kurgan is in my top 10 best villains. Clancy Brown was awesome.
Interesting, given he was born on Long Island in New York. He also couldn’t see well at all and had an eye condition that made it impossible for him to wear contacts. So just imagine how rehearsals for those sword fighting scenes went. It all had to be carefully choreographed and I don’t know how he did it while practically blind. That’s scary stuff.
His inflection is very good considering.
That can’t be true
@@ZXSPEX gotta think about my own top ten list but Maladie from the Nevers has been a blast to watch. reminds me of Joker a lot. Simon Fenix up there lol
@@matthawkins8880 It's true. Look it up
"I got sometin' to say, It's better to burn out, than to fade away" was also a line from the beginning of "Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard.
Also, I know I've heard it in a Neil Young song, something about the story of Johnnie Rotten
@@jean-paulaudette9246 "My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" is the song. Jeff Blackburn is listed as a co-writer of the song, and it's believed by some that he came up with the line when he and Young originally wrote the song as members of The Ducks.
*plagiarized
@@independenceltd. Yeah. I have no doubt all that's true. I guess I'd probably know it, if I had eve had any interest in Young's music, It s just not at all my taste, or inteest.
I always heard it as "It's better to burn in hell than to fade away!"
There can be only one ⚡⚡⚔️⚔️ Rip Mr Sean Connery
Oh wow, I didn't know he had died!
"I apologize for calling your wife a bloated warthog, and I bid you good day.
"
Please watch *The Thirteenth Warrior* (1999)!
Yes, yes, and yes. I love The Thirteenth Warrior. Had to read the book after watching the movie
“It also left a man’s decapitated body line of the floor next to his own severed head. A head which at this time has no name.” I have no idea why but this quote was used by my friends and I more times than i can count.
Love this movie even with its many faults.
(Kurgan)'...I know his name.'
(Freddy Mercury):'Here I am... I'm the master of your destiny ! I am the One, the only One, I am the God of Kingdom come, gimme the Prize ! Just gimme the Prize !'
My favorite lines to quote are when a man is teasing the cop with the story in the newspaper: “What does baffled mean?” and “What does incompetent mean?”
The lyrics in the Queen songs are perfectly written summations of the story. They really highlight the stages of the story.
That's because they were written for the movie!
24:57 "I appreciated the fact that their immortality and how they became that way was not addressed".
I used to appreciate that too, then I watched Highlander 2. Don't watch Highlander 2.
Yep, an explanation is neither needed or wanted, so *never* watch Highlander 2 (which of course has *many* issues beyond "explaining", even there a *better* explanation is possible.... "A Wizard did it", there you go, 10× better than H2's explanation 😁
The scene where his wife died of old age was absolutely heartbreaking. I always reference that as, 'the curse of immortality'. Having to watch everyone you love die off, while you carry on. Truly sad.
I still remember, absolutely clearly, the day my "Highlander" loving friends and I went to see "Highlander 2", full of excitement to see what happens next. I am STILL pissed off! "The horror...... the horror....."
One of the few times where the projector issues they had when I went to see it (opening night, too) actually improved the movie.
A dishtinctive voicshe, like none other!
Who wants to live Forever was probably one of Queen's top 10 songs of all time, such a deep and emotional track.
Seal chose it as his Queen song to sing at Wembley in April 1992 at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.
He too had heard it in this very film and said it was one of the few songs that actually made him cry, and thought even back then that he would like to sing it but when he tried he thought OMG I cannot sing this it would be the end of his career.
So, he ended up having to change a few notes on the song because he just couldn't do a Freddie.
Freddie Mercury was indeed a legend.
RIP Freddie Mercury.
I was 15 when this came out and I have always attributed my love for the movie to seeing it at that age, so it's really interesting to see an adult watching it more critically and for the first time so many years later and enjoying it to a similar degree.
14:10 not only is it a beautiful song that's relevant to the story, but Freddy wrote and recorded it after knowing he was dying of AIDS.
Singing a song about wrestling with your own mortality as you're living on borrowed time, what an absolute legend.
"Who Wants to Live Forever" was written by Brian May.
Why does the scene at the end where Connor hears Ramirez's voice in his head get me so emotional every time I watch this film
Cause we don't want our beloved one to go away yet we know we will share the same fate in the future
Shan, I highly second the Greystoke suggestions for Christopher Lambert's performance, as well as the movie Subway!
Agreed. For me it's the greatest Tarzan story. Lambert is amazing. Though, Johnny Weismuller has the greatest roar
I'm so glad you reacted to this. It's one of my favorite cult classic movies. I really think it's a very enjoyable experience! Slightly trashy in some ways, but actually a really brilliant fantasy film!
How to make a great movie? Queen as the soundtrack is a great start!
Flash Gordon !!!
Highlander is an unforgettable movie ! The Queen soundtrack , performances by Lambert ,Sean Connery and Clancy Brown are memorable !
18:32 -- Silvercup was originally a bakery, but went out of business.. The building (and iconic sign) was purchased and turned into the Silvercup Studios. Oddly enough, they produce the show "Manifest" which stars Clancy Brown. One can only hope that Clancy went up to the rooftop and had a moment with the iconic sign.
I watched this movie almost daily when I was a teenager. Lambert, Connery and Mercury. A most perfect combination in a brilliant story
I love so many of the supporting and minor characters like the newstand guy ("What does 'baffled' mean?") and the gun-nut vigilante and Candy...
Candy was played by Corinne Russel. A pretty well known Page 3 Girl, a topless model.
What does 'incompetent' mean? bwahaha
One of my all time favorites! So glad you watched and enjoyed it. I still have to hold back tears when I hear "Who wants to live forever".
Also another aspect of The Prize is the ability to communicate with the dead. It's an old debate amongst my friends. Remeriez says "You are generations born and dying" and "the thoughts and dreams of men are yours to know". Also he's having a full conversation with Connor, not just being remembered by him. Because of that, i believe that Connor is fully capable of speaking with people who have passed on. It's a theory and the subject of hours and hours of drunken babbling! Lol
The scene with Rachel as a child was a post production add in. They wanted to give context on why Rachel cared for him so much and why she was devastated he was leaving no matter what happened. That scene adds so much weight that is it almost as tragic as when his wife dies of old age.
It's actually an unfortunate thing that there wasn't only one, as all the movies afterwards have sucked like crazy!
TV show was good though, at least the first few seasons.
@@ADADEL1 That's true!
What other movies? LOL
Yeah, that was maybe the only time I was actually angry walking out of a movie... after seeing Highlander 2 in theaters. lol And yeah, I love the TV show. At least it was just sort of an alternate universe sort of idea to it... and Duncan was a good character.
The third one was ok.
But the best is of course the animated one.
My friends and I loved Highlander. It had one of the most interesting premises of any film I'd ever seen. The movie spawned a couple of sequels and a TV series.
Christopher Lambert also starred in Greystoke as Tarzan.
Technically it spawned two TV series, though I can understand if you want to pretend the Highlander 2 cartoon series did not exist.
I know he's a bad guy, but Clancy Brown really stole my heart in this film. He makes such a good villain! Finding out he was also the voice of Mr Krabs was very interesting.
Is it weird that I thought he was hot before he shaved his head?
@@kck9742 as someone who also thought he was hot. Not at all
Pet Sematary Two
My favourite part of the movie is Mcleod and Heather together for an entire life with the song "Who wants to live forever" playing in the background as she was aging and, finally, she dies as an elder women. As a kid impressed me a lot to understand the concept that the scene implies.Also Rachel, who was a minor part of the movie, but imagine took a little girl, you see her as your daughter, to see her growing to be an old woman and finally you have to say her "good bye" forever. The concepts are really amazing.
The opening monologue - Sean Connery recorded it himself in his bathroom. 😂😂😂 He liked the echo in there.
One of the last bits recorded for the film, I think. Was near literally phoned in, and yep director liked the echo too so kept it :D
I'll give you the advice from a friend of mine. When Highlander 2 came out, we were all pumped to go see it. For some reason, I couldn't go with my friends (we were all in college at the time so I might have had a lab or something) but figured I'd see it later. When they came back, a friend told me to never, ever watch Highlander 2 for any reason. It was so bad that it spoiled the first one. To this day, I've never seen any Highlander movie except the first one. There can be only one.
I see what you did there xD (but I completely concur, I'm sorry I ever saw it)
I echo what your friend says. Highlander 2 is probably the worst sequel to any film ever made. I saw it once, when it first came out, and I have *never* wanted to watch it ever again.
Yeah the rest of the movies were poor to terrible. The series was very good though (minus the last season).
(17:01) I recall this line from a Def Leppard song, Rock of Ages, and I heard the band got this line from a Neil Young song.
The Kurgan was originally written as a somber, world-weary immortal who was ready for peace through death and he was supposed to be portrayed that way in the first Highlander film, but Hollywood reworked the character into a maniacal, one-dimensional villain.
I don’t always click new reaction channels, but when they react to Highlander, I do.
I watched this in the late 80s on HBO and was blown away. Took me a while to figure out what the hell was happening.
In the original the back story to Rachel wasn’t included.
Great reaction and review as always Shan. In relation to the planned remake/ reboot, while normally skeptical of them, I'm actually excited to see how this turns out. Henry Cavill is an actor I have a growing amount of appreciation for, both for his dedication to projects he takes on and the respect he shows to fanbases of already established franchises. Also the director currently attached to the film I believe is Chad Stahelski who has directed the John Wick movies which I'm a big fan of. All the best!
This is a real wild one, conceptually. A classic too.
Fun Fact:
The guy who saved Connor from burning was also the father of 'Sheamus' in Braveheart.
😉
To this day the Highlander soundtrack is one of my favourite Queen albums. I had it on cassette tape.
There should be only one!
Despite this film being an entirely contained story with a very definitive end they somehow managed to keep trying to milk it. The second movie is one of the worst movies of all time, but it's cardinal sin is in trying to explain all the things left to the imagination in the first movie (and doing an appalling job at it too). The next sequel is just generally, but not quite _offensively,_ bad.
Then there is the TV series about a younger immortal born into the clan McCloud (only 300yrs or so) called Duncan. This series retcons the movie so that Connor didn't win the prize and there are still dozens if not hundreds of immortals still around. From this series another one tried to spin off (or was it two?). It also had some increasingly terrible 'made for TV' movies that made no sense and even managed to outdo Highlander 2 for garbage.
There was also a kids cartoon series set in a post apocalyptic future where the immortals have returned and have been awaiting the second coming of 'the Highlander' so they can all pass on their powers to him in a kid safe ceremony that leaves them mortal afterwards, but there is of course one bad guy that refused the oath and sticks to the 'beheading everyone else' thing. Entertaining enough when I was a kid, despite being a kids cartoon it was more credible than everything else listed above.
There is also an anime movie called Highlander: Quest for Vengeance which is actually pretty good. It does the one thing every other spin off _should_ have done and simply reimagines the story instead of setting it in the same reality as the original movie. It takes a completely different angle on the questions asked in this film and has its own poignancy.
Broadly speaking it follows a Celt in his quest for revenge on the Roman immortal who killed his wife and so covers a much longer period of time than Connor's life. Oddly enough I'd say that this anime's biggest fault is _also_ its fight choreography.
Personally I'd say just read the outlines on all the sequels and spin-offs and _maybe_ watch the anime movie in your own time.
I heartily agree. Quest for Vengeance is the ONLY decent spin-off from the main movie (I actually enjoyed it quite a lot), and the fact that it avoids the whole 'Connor MacLeod' timeline is a saving grace.
Highlander 2 is ATROCIOUS and a cardinal sin. Highlander 3 is pointless. The 'made for TV' movies following the Highlander series range from bad to terrible. The series itself is barely decent. The kids cartoon, I luckily had experience only with a couple of episodes.
The only one I missed is the 'Director's Cut' of H2, which I read was still horrible but at least avoided the whole nonsense about Immortals being ALIENS.
This movie however ? It's a kind of magic.
I rather enjoyed the TV series. I never thought about it being a retcon to the original movie. I just always figured that happened before the end when Connor was the last one.
@@toddjackson3136 I was the same way when I first watched it, I just came across it while channel surfing and thought ‘cool, this must be set before the film happens’. But no, it pretty much replaces the movie, especially with what happens in one of its feature lengths (in an epic failure in mathematics).
@@Darkja hahaha I hear you. Ya I like it for its own thing. Never got into the Raven. I burned out on her during the regular show.
All the sword fights are done with real swords which makes the fight choreography harder but really impressive in my eyes.
This guy Shan is one of the most likable people on CZcams! Great content and I love hearing his reviews of movies I love!
Sean Connery’s opening voiceover was recorded in his bathroom, because he liked the sound in there. Queen had done a great score for Flash Gordon, so the company gave them a 20-minute reel of different scenes and they went: “Wow!” They’d only expected them to do one song, but the members of Queen wanted to write one each. Freddie Mercury did Princes of the Universe, Brian May did Who Wants to Live Forever, Roger Taylor did It’s a Kind of Magic.
I once said my favorite part of the Expanse was watching Thomas Jane slowly turn into Christopher Lambert.
Funny, I kinda thought the same thing. Lol
Same here. Sort of like Al Pacino slowly turned into Alice Cooper.
I honestly found Clancy Brown utterly terrifying in this movie when I was a kid.
26:31 - I also loved Queen's songs, but the score composed by Michael Kamen was also fantastic
Before The Kurgan said, "It's better to burn out than fade away," Def Leppard said it in 1983 in "Rock Of Ages." And they were probably not the first to say it.
Nice, no one else has done this yet!
As classic as this movie is, I feel like the best of highlander is the tv show which follow ducan mc leod, another immortal from the same clan as connor. It's an absolut gem of a show
In my opinion, it took a season or 2 to really get into the character of Duncan. His motivations are slightly different than Connor. And he doesn's emotionally avoidant with others, especially his friend.
The transitions, music and Sean Connery make this a new classic. Clancy Brown FREAKED ME OUT as a kid when I first saw this. Two thumbs up 👍👍
80s/90s Sci Fi films catch phrases " I Come In Peace" , "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" & "There Can Be Only One". 👍👏👏👏👏👏
Lets Go! THIS....is one of my favorites!.
#ClanMcloud..."There can be only one"!!!
Fun fact...Clancy Brown never made a $ for that role.
@@klasyk1532 aye practically the whole budget went on big Sean and Chris lol
0:14 Russell Mulcahy also directed the movie The Shadow (1994) you should watch that.
6:01-6:17 Hahaha!
6:58 Clancy Brown's voice is fantastic and 16:21 he looks so creepy :)
17:00 It is from a song by Neil Young from 1979
I love this movie, I watched it so many times that I know it by memory, the story, characters, cinematography and direction are awesome, the music by Queen is amazing but even greater than that is the score by Michael Kamen. A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to watch it again with a friend who never saw it, after that I commented that I do miss these kind of movies where a fantastic element is portrayed in a dark & gritty, (mostly) contemporary, realistic, grounded world. Nowadays either they go full fantasy wether it's high or dark, full sci-fi, or in the rare cases when they try to create something similar, they still miss the grittiness of the atmosphere that Highlander had... Of course something set and filmed in the '80s or the '90s would always appear more "grounded" and dark than an equivalent filmed and set today, but I still think we could get something along those lines but the general audience seems to have shifted in taste. Also another problem is that we tend to overcomplicate things, in an era of shared cinematic universe (which I love) they tend to add too much stuff instead of adding ONE single extraordinary element (like "immortals unless beheaded" in Highlander) and leave the rest of the world as it is. In an effort to create franchises they seemed to have forgotten how to craft one simple but compellingly stylish story, and that's a shame because those usually make the basic for some damn awesome cult movies.
That said I'm actually looking forward to the reboot with Cavill, I think he is a fantastic actor and he himself is a big fan of the movies & tv series, but my hope is that they do a complete reboot ignoring everything but the most basic concepts and go on a brand new path from there, also keeping most of the action during present time and leaving only a few flashback for the other time period, just like the original. They can add a bit of lore regarding the nature of immortals themselves (including their powers) but I believe it's best if they only vaguely hint at everything instead of openly explain how everything works: the more is left to the imagination and interpretation of the viewers and the best it is. :)
There's a reason the soundtrack fits perfectly with the movie. All the Queen songs were written specifically for the film. Brian May wrote "Who Wants to Live Forever" after watching scenes of McLeod and Heather.
Apparently, they're going to make an updated version of "Highlander", with Henry Cavill. Although I like the choice of Cavill in the lead role, I would rather they didn't remake this film at all. All the of the quirky charm that made this film so fun will be replaced by over the top fight scenes and cgi. Thanks for nothing, Hollywood.
Agreed. Remake after remake, and have any of them been good lately? ...I certainly can't think of any. They are almost all garbage cash grabs that rely on nostalgic name recognition to nab a quick buck.
Not to mention that they'll drop Queen from the soundtrack which is sacrilegious.
"Better to burn out than fade away" is from the Neil Young song, Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black), released in 1979, and Kurt Cobain did include it in his suicide note.
Also, with regards the fight choreography, I'm guessing they couldn't afford Bob Anderson for very long.
The actor who played Inman Fascil is also a sword master called Peter Diamond. He became the main sm because Bob Anderson got sick and Lambert could barely see a thing due to an eye condition so he couldn’t see the people to fight. During the sword fight in the pilot episode of the Highlander tv series, Lambert almost did serious damage to Adrian Paul
@@mortonsomerville6271 I hadn't known about Lambert having sight issues during production. Apparently the producers were looking to cut costs everywhere (Clancy Brown said the producers decided, on the first day of filming, they weren't going to give the extras breakfast, which nearly caused a walkout), so it stands to reason they'd not delay shooting for anything, maybe short of a death on set.
The theory my friends and I have is that Ramirez was strong enough to beat the Kurgan, but grew tired of immortality and chose Connor to pass his knowledge down to before intentionally losing to the Kurgan.
Queen's music really helps make this movie.
Also a nod and a wink to Scottish actor James Cosmo who played Conor's Dad or Uncle in the early stages and who helped save his life at that point.
The lyric of "Better to burn out, than fade away" is also the opening to Def Leppard song Rock of Ages. Not sure if this is the origin of the quote, but this is the one I am familiar with.
I Read an old interview with clancy brown recently and he said that he was listening to pyromania during filming.
@@adambrown67 very cool, thanks for the info.
Deep rabbit hole, Highlander is. You will end up having to watch at least part of the TV series in order to fully "get" the last movie(Highlander: End Game, I think it was). But definitely a rabbit hole worth going down!
Edit: Also, this will help make sense of the meme "Whenever a musician dies, Keith Richards experiences a Quickening."
Or you could simply ignore all the garbage that came after this film and leave it as a great film watching experience.
@@Trainwheel_Time Yeah I second that.
Shan doesn't need to do anything of the sort. Highlander was created to be a unique and standalone movie so there's no need (unless he wants to, of course) to watch a series that tried to capitalize on this movie's popularity but which by necessity had to change established or implicit aspects of the lore in order to make it kind-of-sort-of work. The post-sequel movies turned up these lore changes up to 11 to the point that they have almost nothing to do with the original.
The director put the final fight in that warehouse because he wanted it to be purely about the sword fighting without gimmicky camera work or props. I respect that. Fight movies (and dance movie) often make you want to tell the director "This is where you have to stop trying to show off how dramatic you are and just let the audience appreciate some good fighting (or dancing)."
Fun fact, there was an entire deleted scene where the Kurgen is first introduced in the present duelling another immortal near the beginning of the film. The immortal finding the fight hopeless submits and allows his head to be taken. Due to a warehouse fire where the footage was kept, the scene has been completely lost and only exists in a few still shots.
Clancy, Connery, Christopher and Queen. Pure 80s awesomeness perfectly preserved.
One of my favorite movies. I also loved Highlander the TV series.
"It's better to burn out than fade away."- Def Leppard song Rock of Ages.
Better to burn out than to fade away was used well before Curt Cobain. First used by Musician Neil Young which was taken from the original saying its better to burn out than to rust by Neil's friend Jeff Blackburn from a band called The Ducks in 1976. Also used By Def Leppard in 83 in the song Rock of Ages.
"It's better to burn out than to fade away" is from the Neil Young song Hey Hey, My My (1978)
The idea behind this movie is super captivating. It has so much potential in imagination that it couldn't help but create sequels and spinoffs. Unfortunately, none of those movies or the several TV shows actually lived up to that potential. Most big fans like to forget everything after this movie, wished it had just stopped there. The third movie qualifies as a sequel for some people, but it all really works better as a stand alone movie. The only movie I can recall blowing up bigger on TV is, Stargate, that series actually complimenting the movie well.
"Hello, I'm Candy." "Of course your arrre!" Always cracks me up that line!
I find his "Of course you are" and "Nuns. No sense of humor" much funnier than I should.
Technically, the first time "It's better to burn out than to fade away" was used in something popular was in the Def Leppard song "Rock Of Ages" from their 'Pyromania' album from 1983, and The Kurgan is actually quoting the full opening lines of the song "I've got something to say...It's better to burn out...Than fade away!!!!"
Russell Mulcahy (Mul-kay-hee) was a visual genius who was best known for being a director of music videos at the dawn of the MTV era. My other favorite Mulcahy film is 'The Shadow' ((1994) starring Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, Ian McKellen, and John Lone based on the old radio shows of the 1930s that starred Orson Welles. It's a wild fantasy that is underrated in my opinion.
The 4th movie was the introduction of the TV series as it is the only movie with both Connor MacLeod and Duncan MacLeod in it
"It's better to burn out, then to fade away." Lyrics from Neil Young's "Hey, Hey, My, My" from 1979.
I never watched this version of the movie. I like the flashback of how him in WWII. It explains how he met his assistant, and where the "It's A Kind Of Magic" comes from.
Little explanation here: like a surprising amount of 80's movies, it had a US cut and an International Cut, I think the latter cut was called the Directors cut when it finally got a US release on DVD? It has a few other minor differences, like you see that Kurgen is trailing them on their day out so him knowing Brenda's address isn't out of no where, but the WW2 flashback is the most obvious difference. I guess that version is now the "default" these days on streaming etc even in the US
I watched this in 1986, when it came out. It was such a cool concept, one of my favorite movies. This wasn't the end. There were three more Highlander movies with Chris Lambert (Chris passed the torch to Adrian Paul in End Game), then the TV series, and yet another movie by Adrian Paul. I would love to see a new Highlander. It wouldn't put a shadow on the classic, because fans love the series and that won't change no matter if a new movie is made.
8:44 "Ohhhhhh...." Yup, that was my reaction the first time I saw Connor's loft... If I ever win the lotto, I'm getting something identical made 🙏🙏🙏🙏😍😍😍😍
At the church, Kurgen's words:
"I got somethin to say,
It's better to burn out,
Than fade away!"
The opening lyrics to Def Leppard's 'Rock of Ages'
Russell Mulcahy's work prior to this was as a music video director.
Sir Sean Connery recorded his opening monologue in his bathroom. And it made it sound epic as hell! He also only had a few days to film his scenes and he bet the director that it couldn't be done. Mulcahy won that bet.
They built a custom computer operated camera rig to get that opening shot at the wrestling arena. Good shit.
19:30 They strapped the camera to a chair and pushed it across the room to get these sweeping shots. Guerilla filmmaking executed beautifully.
QUEEN will live forever! 🤘
Glad you enjoyed this, though I was sure you would. I love this movie. You mention that it was a good idea to keep the immortality unexplained...yeah, I'd avoid the sequels, if I were you. While the third isn't awful, it's a pale imitation, sadly. The TV series has some great elements to it, but it doesn't really work with the movie, and it's supposed to be canon with it somehow. Entertaining, but otherwise unnecessary.
There can be only one!
I had once heard that Christopher Lambert‘s vision was so bad that he couldn’t see at all what he was doing during those choreographed fight scenes, so they had to be carefully planned and executed so that no one got hurt on set.
True. I saw a behind the scenes about Highlander that talked about it while showing him cautiously rehearsing a fight scene on a catwalk.
Actor Alan North, who plays Lieutenant Moran, was also the original Captain Ed Hocken in the TV series POLICE SQUAD. Only lasted six episodes. George Kennedy replaced North in the NAKED GUN film trilogy.
My favorite movie. The first Highlander is a great fantasy action adventure movie and the Queen songs is outstanding.
First time I saw this was as a freshman in college with about 500 other students, all singing along with Queen. It was a crazy experience.
I was obsessed with Highlander for a while. Great movie, great soundtrack, Clancy Brown rules. Bald, modern Kurgan was one of the first cosplays I started wearing to conventions.
There's a great movie called He Never Died. It's about an immortal, who is bored, and just done with life. It's odd, and I recommend it.
"It's better to burn out than to fade away" was a quote from the Def Leppard song Rock of Ages.
Just a note to say your channel has become a huge favorite of mine thanks to a good mix of technical analysis and human reaction. Please keep up the good work.
Great reaction video! I love that you gave the movie a chance and took it seriously enough to appreciate what they were doing. The other reactors I've seen have just laughed too much and didn't really seem to allow themselves to get into it. Keep up the great work!
I'm so glad you were actually seeing this for the first time and knew nothing about it. It reminded me of the first time I saw it. You probably know by now but the reason the music matches the movie so well is Queen were hired to make the music for the movie.