I have been a huge fan of Highlander ever since I saw this film. It is no coincidence that I decided to move to Edinburgh, Scotland after all! I am a big fan of Queen too.
It's a magic movie of its time. It's a time when movies were entertaining and not over bloated with nonsense.
I watched it when I was 15 and now I'm 50 and I still love it. I can't say that about everything from my youth.
The film introduced me to so many things, especially music. You can tell Russell made music videos first as the soundtrack is as much a part of the films as the actors.
The sequels are horrible and I'd imagine the remake will be too.
There can be only one.. and this is it!
I liked it in the 80's and rewatched it later in the 90's. Queen's album a kind of magic is terrific. But now in 2024, the movie was meh and lame. Bad acting, strange casting, bad editing.
One of the greatest bad movies of all time, Highlander is a landmark of 1980s filmmaking for both its high-concept story and chintzy production quality. The acting is all over the place, but in the moments where it really counts everybody steps up their performances. Sean Connery makes one of his most memorable turns as an ancient mentor, and Clancy Brown is one of the decade's most iconic villains. Looking back from almost 40 years later one can see all of the tropes and plot holes that we'd now call lazy writing, as well as the lackluster fight choreography, but one cannot deny that the world the writers created is one that has endured. Every time I watch, I find myself wishing for more Ramirez, more Kurgan, and more mythology.
One of the best parts about Highlander is how despite itself, it somehow manages to work. The plot has inconsistencies all over the place, the accents are terrible and the cast seem split on whether to take it all seriously or ham it up. But that is part of its charm in many ways. The filmmakers wisely keep much of core mythology vague, doling out key elements that develop the central character, whilst ensuring the larger backstory remains mysterious. Its a lesson the sequels failed to heed. It’s also clear the filmmakers expected no future franchise with the film providing a satisfying closure for the characters and the themes explored. Indeed this focus on the central character is what makes the film work so well, with the location and historical setting lending the film an epic quality that would otherwise be absent and the core idea that immortality is as much a curse as a gift brought to the fore. For all his difficulties with the accent, Lambert takes the character seriously and whilst he endlessly broods in the present, its the exploration of his past that works to make the audience care and relate to his isolation. Both Sean Connery and Clancy Brown ensure the audience doesn’t take it all too seriously and provide some much needed humour and fun. It helps that the film also has a killer soundtrack from Queen.
This is so bad. And to think I was actually looking forward to seeing it based on the cult status it has achieved. Christopher Lambert is terrible. Couldn't they cast someone better in the lead role? Sean Connery is absolutely awful as an older immortal who trains Lambert's Highlander.
This features some of the worst effects I've seen for a mid-1980s action movie. The relationships of the characters are flimsy and hastily established, yet the director asks us to care about them. It's not possible because they are unattractive and uninteresting. Also, why would Connery's character train Lambert if he would eventually need to cut Lambert's head off? It makes absolutely no sense. And speaking of sword, play the sword fights here are some of the poorest I've seen. And it's not just because I'm sick of the glut of Fantasy films we've been forced to suffer through in recent years (thanks "Lord of the Rings"!).
The conclusion of "Highlander" is another cornball happier-than-happy ending with some horse hockey about Lambert's hero knowing the thoughts of all men and being able to father little immortals and some such crap. The only thing I liked about this movie was a couple of the Queen songs on the soundtrack.
Overall a great film. The editing is fairly bad though. Some of the scene changes are so jarring it's hard to watch. However, the back story is interesting and exciting. There is the right level of detail to explain things without explaining anything, which is as it should be. The details are really just trivia and aren't necessary. I have to say, the use of Queen for the soundtrack was fantastic. A quintessential 80s film.
i dont know what i was watching. i am millenial, that's why (?)
1.9 points -> Cinematography (0-3)
1.3 points -> Acting and Characters (0-2)
2.0 points -> Plot (0-3)
0.7 points -> Music & Audio (0-1)
0.6 -> enjoyed the movie. (0-1)
Aka. 6.5 points
How the hell Kurgan managed to live for like 3,000 years and have an IQ of 10 beats me. This is just so bad it's impressive.
I love this movie, the music really makes it for me. Classic movie for mine, a definite must watch.
A "must see"
Probably the only Lambert's good movie
Childhood memories film but definitely not aged well.
Soundtrack is still amazing, but some dodgy special effects and ropey acting pushes into a B movie class that I should have left in the past.
If they are immortal, why don't they pay to die?
Great movie of my childhood. Great to watch after 35 years.
A bad movie with some really great parts. I love it but I can't gloss over the terrible bits.
Like a walking, talking cliché, this is a quintessentially bad '80s blockbuster; loaded with lousy dialog, telegraphed twists and cheesy, overproduced fight sequences, it's a nonstop parade of over-indulgence. That's not to say it's without allure - in fact, the terribly dated references to the era's pop culture and filmmaking techniques are half the fun of sitting down with it today. The world was a completely different place thirty years ago, and though we're doing so through a set of decidedly rose-tinted goggles, it's fun to look back on it in this way.
Plus, buried beneath the film's sillier superficial aspects is a startlingly bright, thoughtful basic plot line dealing with love, loss and the kind of cold, calm emotional distance that any combination of the two will inevitable produce. A pity those deeper, more interesting developments don't enjoy half the investigation they probably deserve, but perhaps that's why the film fueled so many sequels. Sean Connery shines like a beacon amidst an otherwise-sleepwalking cast, which never recovers from his character's jolting premature exit.
after years without seeing it, I see it again, the French accent of Lamber ummm, the fight scenes are not great, but the landscapes and the music of Queen, and what counts make me keep liking
A silly and flawed film that as entertaining as it is over the top. Highlander also benefits from a killer Queen soundtrack. Where they made many songs just for the movie.
My main problem is that Duncan (Christopher Lambert) comes back home. Where his mentor was just killed. Doesn’t take his girlfriend and leave in fear that Kurgan (Clancy Brown) may come back.
Otherwise the film is definitely less flawed and less of a mess than its sequels. Sean Connery and Queen are a good reason why though.
Shout by Dave McAlisterVIP 7BlockedParent2018-09-25T10:28:59Z— updated 2020-03-23T16:28:10Z
An excellent film with an outstanding soundtrack. Ignore the sequels though - as its tagline says:
There can be only one!