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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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".
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 😍
"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.
@@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.
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
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.
@@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.
" 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.
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")
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.
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.
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!"
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.
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.
@@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
@@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.
@@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.
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.
“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?”
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.
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.
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.
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....."
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.
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.
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.
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
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'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!
A Frenchman who couldn’t speak English was playing a Scotsman, and the most famous Scottish actor of all time is playing a Spaniard with a Scottish accent
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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)."
Some fun facts: Christopher Lambert didn't speak English at the time -- we have a Swiss/Frenchman playing a Scot and a Scot playing an ancient Egyptian. Clancy Brown was SO into his character that he legitimately scared the hell out of Roxanne Hart (Brenda) during the scene where he's waiting for her outside her apartment and she's trying to get the door open. She wasn't acting!
"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.
I find the concepts in this film to be very interesting. All immortals (in this and the next film) are men. They are all sterile. Yet they all fight for "the quickening" (absorbing each other's powers), a term borrowed from medicine. It is the term for when a pregnant woman can first feel the baby move.
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.
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."
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.
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.
BTW, Connor during his "first death" is listening to the piper play "Flowers of the Forest" which is a traditional dirge only played publicaly for the dead.
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.
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.
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. :)
Clancy Brown's first film role was in 1983's "Bad Boys" with Sean Penn, who was in his first lead role following the success of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
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.
They decided they wanted Connery (Ramirez) to speak the bit of prologue at the beginning of the film when it was in post production. The director called Connery and they recorded that bit over the phone, but Mulcahy wanted to get the best acoustics possible and found one room where it sounded great... So every time you rewatch Highlander, when you hear Ramirez in the beginning, picture Sean Connery saying those words over the phone while sitting in the john.
Couple of things: Sean Connery recorded the voiceover in the very beginning in a bathroom. The second movie retconned this movie. It's not really considered cannon. When they went and did more movies and the TV series the fact that Connor received 'The Prize' was forgotten. Christopher Lambert's eyesight is very bad so the sword work was tough to do. In the Tv show they made the fact that, when two immortals were in close proximity, they both felt a specific 'tingle' that let them know another immortal was near so they couldn't be snuck up on.
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.
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
You were right when you said that Kurgen tracked down Conner, but what is shown and yet not made very clear is that the immortals can sense each other, that is how Conner knew Kurgen was there, and also Ramirez did as well when Kurgen attacked Conner's home.
You got to see the Directors Cut. The original theatrical release didn’t have the WWII back story of his assistant and a few other lines had been cut. I don’t remember “It’s a kind of magic” being used in the original cut. It now makes sense to me why the Queen Album featuring the songs from the film is titled that.
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.
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.
rules for highlanders -ONLY ONE Immortals must fight until only one is left alive. In support of this rule, immortals are subject to the effects of the Gathering, which forces them to seek out other immortals. - No fighting on holy/sacred ground - No two or more immortals may attack another simultaneously, or interfere with an immortal duel in any way.
