‘Highlander’ or — Classic 80’s Film or Witless Overblown Rock Video?

One of the stupidest arguments I’ve ever had in my life (and that’s saying something) was twenty odd years ago when I guy at a party declared that ‘Highlander’ was much better than ‘Flash Gordon’ because ‘Flash Gordon’ was childish, camp and silly whereas ‘Highlander’ was Scottish (?!!), had swords in it and contained the better Queen soundtrack. This guy owned several kilts, two claymores and seemed to be under the impression that ‘Highlander’ was a slice of Scottish history along the lines of Mel Gibson’s ‘Braveheart’ (1995) rather than seeing it for what it was which is an utterly unrealistic, fantastical piece of made-up nonsense… much like Mel Gibson’s ‘Braveheart’.

I felt (and still do) that ‘Flash Gordon’ (1980) is by far the superior film — it’s better directed, expertly constructed, more finely paced and Queen’s music is properly integrated into the picture as opposed to just having their songs dropped into the mix. And at least ‘Flash’ wears its childish, camp, silly fun on its sleeve rather than hiding it (not very well too, may I add) behind “hip” MTV visuals. Although none of my points were conceded or even listened to by this guy as I think, by this point, he was shouting “There can only be one!” whilst frantically looking for his claymores (how can you mislay one of those?).

Since then I’ve always been suspicious of ‘Highlander’ fans. They always seemed quite thin-skinned and defensive, as though they know the film isn’t very good and would rather chop their own heads off than admit it. The thing is, I enjoyed ‘Highlander’ (1986) when I saw it on release as a teenager. It didn’t blow me away and it is stupid as hell but director Russell Mulcahy knew the language of music video’s visual excess and it was kinda fun seeing that transferred to an action film revolving around immortals fighting each other all the way from medieval Scotland to modern day New York. Yet the patina of irritation that had built up on me over the years towards ‘Highlander’ devotees meant I was somewhat loathed to revisit the film. The experience would not be subjective.

So how was it last night? To be honest… not that bad!

In fact, ‘Highlander’, for all its flaws and faults (of which you’d have to be immortal to have the time to count them all) is a fun, silly, camp, childish piece of total nonsense which is less a movie and more Mulcahy’s show-reel re-edited to have the appearance of a narrative.

Okay, that’s a little harsh as even though ‘Highlander’ leaps about in time, space and place in a hyperactive frenzy the central idea of immortals (why is it only men who get to live forever? Is there an underlying gay utopian subtext at play here where, in the future, women no longer exist because they’ve all died off?) decapitating each other for a prize (fuzzy and ill-defined but a clear goal at least) is kinda cool and, thankfully, vague enough to keep a sense of mystery and not get bogged down in endless exposition. It’s both simple and complex — i.e. stupid and clever but mainly stupid.

This combination of stupid and clever in ‘Highlander’ is possibly best exemplified by the training montage between Connery and Lambert. It’s sporran-clenchingly clichéd, aggressively trite and intensely laughable. Yet it’s also downright effective; hey, at least we feel Lambert has actually been trained in swordfighting and is now on a par with his mentor and that’s something often missing in films today. Sure, as a lead Lambert is kinda dozy and half-baked as though he’s been taken out the oven too early and is still a little gooey but he, at least, develops… slowly. In a teeny-weeny way.

However, my big fear regarding ‘Highlander’ wasn’t the rampant idiocy but more — would the pacing drag, falter, slow? I kept waiting for a scene to pop-up that would screech the entire film to a shuddering halt. But that, amazingly, never happened! The film kicks along at a decent clip, Mulcahy keeps throwing a new visual twist into the mix on a regular basis, most notably in his use of transitioning between past and present, and there’s some cool camera moves on display.

It’s really towards the end that things fall apart with a lackluster climatic fight (the sword-play in this film is not very good to be honest and is more “sword-swinging” than actual fighting) that’s idiotic beyond belief as continuity goes flying out the exploding window and we realise the only true victor at the end of this movie is Mulcahy’s music video aesthetic which now dominates the screen. Yet that’s Mulcahy’s tendency — visuals over logic. That’s why we ask questions such as — “Why do the castle walls fall inwards when struck?” and “Where did all the water go when they fell through the roof?” or “How did she get down there so quickly?”

Yet that’s part of ‘Highlanders’ infuriating appeal as it’s not all bad at all: it creates its own distinctive world successfully; the cinematography is surprisingly impressive (this film looks very good on blu ray); Clancey Brown is perfect as The Kurgan and even though I’m not a big fan of the Queen soundtrack it’s worth it for Freddie Mercury’s rendition of ‘New York New York’. There’s a lot to enjoy here.

Although my favourite aspect of the film? It was an unexpected one — I really liked the relationship between Nash and his secretary Rachel. For me this was a more successfully portrayed relationship than the overdrawn, overwrought one Conner has with Heather and at least the accents and that overly histrionic Queen song have gone by this point so there’s that and I can stop laughing.

I had fun, in fact WAY more fun, revisiting ‘Highlander’ last night than I was expecting and it could’ve been the time I’ve enjoyed it the most. This is down to already knowing its deficiencies and flaws going in and what’s left, silly though it may be, has enough energy and flare to keep the attention (I was never once bored during any of this and that counts for a lot). Sure, the end is existentially horrifying as we see Conner MacLeod become a terrifying god who can keep surveillance over the entire planet, so THAT’S pretty scary, but it’s a fun ride along the way as we see this guy go from Scottish buffoon to human DARPA network.

So is ‘Highlander’ a fun 80’s action film or an overblown rock video? The answer is, obviously, a cop-out as it’s both. It’s an example of how films were changing in the 80s for good and bad and Mulcahy wasn’t the only one up to this sort of mischief as most directors of this generation were MTV-ing film. Plus, this is what young audiences wanted. I know I did at that age.

Although I do suspect ‘Highlander’ might be a “so bad it’s good film” and I’m still not sure if I was laughing with it or at it. It’s fun, but maybe not worth losing your head over.