There Can Be Only One: Highlander

Jim got me to watch "Highlander"; only after the fact I yelled “There can be only one.” Of course I have never seen this movie before, so here we are in this situation. With the knowledge that Sean Connery is in this film, I was a bit excited. See what I thought after the jump.


Now I think there is a story in this movie, but I really didn’t get it. It takes place in 1700 Scotland and modern day (1980’s) America, with MacLeod. He is part of the few immortals who are out to be the last one alive because “there can be only one”. But of course this movie needs an antagonist so we have “The Kurgan” who is the evilest looking mother fucker out there. He goes throughout time with the only goal of hunting down the last immortal, McLeod, to gain all the power of the world.

Ramirez shows McLeod the way.

The part about this story that’s so confusing is that the film switches from the 1700’s and to present time often and with no hint on the connection to why. And even McLeod had a different name in the present, so you can see where my confusion came from. The especially annoying part was the old Scotland scenes were vastly better than the modern America scenes. But once I figured out why we were switching time periods, the movie started to flow along a lot easier.

The best part of the movie is the sword fights. They were well choreographed and fun to watch. There was no “shaky cam syndrome” and stupid close ups - it was the exact opposite. The sword fights were on epic mountain ledges or in mystical forests. The combination of both beautiful scenery and enjoyable fights make watching them all the easier for the eyes.

The terrifying Kurgan

But there is a particular problem: it felt that everything in between the sword fights were dull and uninspired. The story was lacking, the acting was borderline boring and the special effects were dated. The movie drags on a lot for the most minor development in the story. If felt like if they cut out a lot of the modern day scenes, it wouldn’t be greatly missed.

I want to talk about this movie more, but I really can’t. I felt that nothing was being accomplished. Again, I thought the sword fights and McLeod’s training session with Ramirez (Connery) were fun to watch and wouldn’t mind watching it again. But nothing else in this movie thrills me.