Highlander Doesn't Need A Remake

what's the highlander it's a movie any good very good it won the academy award oh so what the best movie ever made highlander is a movie i've been wanting to talk about for quite a while now because it involves scottish guys doing what scottish guys do best murdering people with big [ __ ] swords plus it's a really good action fantasy movie that managed to combine sword and sorcery with a gritty modern day action thriller into an epic narrative spanning hundreds of years creating something that's genuinely unique and special but that's the problem with unique and special movies from decades gone by you see because hollywood is no longer capable of telling unique and special stories today the natural solution is to shamelessly plunder and rehash stuff that's already been done in a never-ending quest to squeeze just a few more precious dollars out of once loyal fans speaking of which it was recently announced that henry cavill is going to be starring in a big budget hollywood reboot of the classic 1986 original god dammit how many more of these old classics do you have to butcher before you give this [ __ ] up face it man you're not gonna be able to do any better than they did first time around you don't have the brains you don't have the creativity you don't have the skill you've got nothing this is a waste of everybody's time and money give this [ __ ] up [ __ ] arseholes well now that i've had a chance to calm down i decided i should probably explore this issue in a bit more detail so i can properly explain why the original highlander became the beloved classic that it is today and why it absolutely doesn't need to be remades so grab your kilt and single mock whiskey because we're going old school with this one and i'm talking medieval old school highlander tells the story of conor mccloud a scottish warrior living in the 16th century who gets drawn into a battle with a rival clan one day the problem is that none of the enemy soldiers are willing to fight him almost like they've been told to leave him alone but why well the answer comes in the form of the kurgan a hulking warrior from the russian steps who challenges conor to single combat and promptly stabs him in the [ __ ] gut he's driven away before he can strike the killer blow but it's pretty obvious that conor's been mortally wounded he even gets the last rights from his local priests i love the reaction from his cousin angus here he's a highlander by god the last song to hear should not be that of a waving woman ah he's definitely a scotsman all rights but wouldn't you know it conor doesn't die and he ends up making a complete recovery it's a miracle but instead of being happy that he survived his clan assumed that he must be a witch or a demon or something and they try to murder him to be fair that's pretty much what scotland's like today as well i remember one guy in my town that learned how to do joined up handwriting and they actually tried to set him on fire anyway conor gets banished from his home and becomes a kind of hermit for the next few years shunned by his own people until eventually he falls in love with a local girl named heather nice one conor but that's when this [ __ ] legend shows up greetings i am juan sanchez villalobos ramirez you've got to love the casting on this movie you've got a scotsman playing an egyptian spanish thing a frenchman playing a scotsman and an american playing a russian [Laughter] ramirez explains that the reason conor didn't die from his wounds is that he's an immortal a race of ancient beings that have existed throughout human history although they look like humans they don't age they can't get sick or father children and the only way they can truly die is from being beheaded they also have the ability to sense when others of their kind are nearby which is why the kurgan was out to kill conor that day whether they want to or not the immortals are destined to fight and kill each other until one day the last few will be drawn to a far-off land for an epic final battle known as the gathering the winner of the gathering gets to claim the ultimate prize it's a bit like ultimate knockout except you're fighting for control of the human race needless to say if an [ __ ] like the kurgan was to win the prize it would spell doom for humanity which is why ramirez is out to stop him he's come here to train conor how to fight so they can form an alliance and take down the kurgan together ramirez eventually becomes a friend and mentor to conor turning him into a skilled warrior but unfortunately it's not long before the kurgan tracks him down again all of this stuff is intercut with events playing out in 1980s new york where conor is now living under a new identity and doing his best to keep a low profile but when he gets into a sword fight against another immortal who tries to kill him he soon becomes a murder suspect attracting the attention of sword expert brenda wyatts the more brenda digs into his backstory the more she begins to suspect he's not who he claims to be until eventually he spills the beans to her i am conor mcleod of the clan mccloud i was born in 1518 in the village of glen finnen on the shores of lokshail unfortunately conor's running out of time the kurgan has killed all the other immortals in the world and now the gathering is upon them and when he takes brenda hostage conor's left with no choice but to fight him the movie culminates in an epic sword fight between the last two immortals the final clash in a bitter vendetta lasting centuries with the fate of the human race hanging in the balance damn talk about high-stakes stuff ultimately highlander ends right where it began in the mountains of scotland with conor making a final visit to his homeland a fulfilled man freed from the curse of immortality unable to live out the remainder of his life with the woman he loves wow what a perfectly written emotionally satisfying and totally complete narrative arc no need to do anything more with this one how do we remain so high above the earth with safety bad drinking [Laughter] no [ __ ] highlander is just a fantastically well written and well made movie managing to tell a story that's both sweeping and epic but also intimate and personal and doing it all on a budget smaller than an episode of your average marvel tv show damn it's even got a kick-ass soundtrack by queen which i absolutely can't play even a sample of here without getting a copyright claim yeah thanks youtube just take my word for it though it's really good highlander does all of this stuff so well because it never tries to overreach itself or sacrifice its story for the sake of some cheap spectacle there's no goofy pretensions of grandeur here no big elaborate cgi fight scenes the immortals fight each other in dingy underground parking lots and litter filled back alleys an ancient war going on just beneath the surface of daily life just far enough away from prying eyes that people can ignore it if they want to and what better place for something like this to play out than in new york city the kind of place where people are used to looking the other way when bad things go on the tower and skyscrapers and bustling streets make for such an awesome contrast with the mountains and peaceful wilderness of conor's early life you've got to love the imagination that went into this it would have been so easy for this movie to come across as cheesy and comical but highlander somehow manages to avoid descending into campy silliness the script takes itself seriously enough to present genuine stakes and consequences without coming across as pretentious and self-important there's definitely moments of levity where the script's not afraid to play with its concepts a little but overall this is a story that you're encouraged to take seriously it also manages to walk that perfect line between giving the audience enough information to understand the stakes and rules involved while holding back just enough to maintain the interest and mystery how exactly were the immortals created and where did they come from why are they immortal why can't they fight on holy grounds are they physically prevented from doing it or is it just a rule that they've all agreed on how does the prize work and who gives it to you we don't know the answers to these questions because we don't need to know and if we're honest we probably don't want to know either the mystery is often more interesting than any explanation the scriptwriters could come up with and highlander knows that all too well i'm a firm believer that when your story uses supernatural elements as its backbone then trying to explain and rationalize every element of it destroys the very thing that makes it so interesting in the first place the unknown that's why the haunting of bly manor is so [ __ ] boring nobody wants to know the exact specific mechanics of being a [ __ ] ghost highlander is also surprisingly thoughtful when it comes to the implications of living centuries beyond the normal human lifespan speaking from bitter experience ramirez warns conor against romantic relationships because anyone he gets close to will inevitably grow old and die kind of like a person with a normal life expectancy living in glenrothes but it's not until connor actually has to watch it happen to his wife heather that he finally understands his friend's warning he's basically forced to watch the rest of the world change and grow while he's trapped in an endless unchanging purgatory and by the time we reconnect with him in the present day his experiences have made him a bitter cynical man detached from the rest of humanity and brooding on his extremely long and not particularly happy existence he's got no real interest in fighting other immortals or winning the prize but events gradually conspire to force his hand and when the woman he tried not to fall in love with is put in danger the reluctant warrior has no choice but to finally rise to the challenge and prove himself against his old enemy it's the classic story of a cynical disenchanted hero that ultimately gets redeemed by love i also have to give props for the performances sean connery and clancy brown are both great actors playing awesome characters here and just having the time of their lives this was one of the first movies where connery started transitioning into older mentor type characters rather than leading men and ramirez is a perfect example of that he's charismatic and flamboyant he's got a sense of humor about things but he's also intense and serious when he needs to be and you feel genuinely bad when he gets killed off and as for clancy brown damn what can i say he absolutely nails it as the kurgan i love how he transitions from brutal medieval warrior to new york street punk but somehow it feels like exactly the kind of thing a guy like the kurgan would do you also have to respect a guy that's such an uncompromising [ __ ] no matter what century he's in he's evil and he [ __ ] loves it overall highlander is a fantastically fun movie with a brilliantly creative premise a solid script an excellent cast that stood the test of time far better than any movie today is likely to in short i really can't think of any logical reason for remaking it in fact i can pretty much guarantee that with today's climate in hollywood all the fun and charm and uniqueness would be sucked right out of it replaced with dry soulless corporate approved entertainment by committee and the thought of that happening to an awesome movie like highlander is just [ __ ] in fact i think the kurgan put it better than i ever could it's better to burn out in the fade away anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,050,486

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Id: fsDofmtMQzI

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021