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THe is a dangerous madness of a fictional journey of time from co-writer Gregory Widen and director Russell Mulcahy, which has now been released for 40 years, can be described as Terry Gilliam meets James Cameron. The visuals of its Franco-American star Christopher Lambert – the VHS version of Marlon Brando – are disturbing in their own right and his Scottish accent has to be heard in disbelief. And Celia Imrie’s small role as an adulterous but reclusive 16th-century Scottish villager sealed the deal for the Highlander cult.
Forty years on, this relies more than ever on his appreciation of deadpan black comedy. Highlander’s satirical story revolves around Connor MacLeod, played by Lambert, a young firefighter in the Scottish Highlands in the 1530s, who appears to have been killed in battle against the Fraser tribe. But he came back to life, leading happy people to think he was possessed by the devil. Banished from the village, his only friend is his great love Heather (Beatie Edney), but the couple are surprised to meet a well-dressed Spanish nobleman, who was played. Sean Connerywho luckily shows in the film some very effective horsemanship. He tells Connor that he is one of the hidden people who die, a revelation that Connor receives coldly: “You look like a woman, you stupid haggis!”
But Connor has no choice but to accept his fate, to live for many years. He fights in Europe in the 18th century, and during the second world war he saves a child from the Nazis, who grows up to be Rachel (Sheila Gish), his secretary in the old business that he runs today in New York under the name of Russell Nash. Every 40 or 50 years, he has to keep changing his name using invalid birth and death certificates, meaning Highlander can be added to the long list of movies and books that have borrowed Frederick Forsyth’s fake ID trick from The Day of the Jackal.
But NYPD officer Brenda (Roxanne Hart) finds out that something is wrong with Mr Nash, who is planning a big show with an evil immortal named Kurgan, played by Clancy Brown; like Connor he is a great sword, and immortals can only be killed by beheading. The stupidity of the film does not end, although it is an acquired taste: those who cannot participate can be reminded. Quentin Tarantino’s belief that the 1980s was one of the worst years of cinema.. But those who can do it will find it amazing, funny and very ambitious.
