Cult favourite Highlander was amongst the last films put out by EMI’s film division, and in fact in their native UK the studio had already been sold off before the film saw release. It was released elsewhere before the sale though, which one assumes is why it’s part of the catalogue currently owned by StudioCanal (the half dozen or so films that hadn’t premiered by that point are with MGM via their ownership of the Cannon Group’s library, as are the five copyrighted by ‘Thorn EMI Film Finance’; when Cannon sold off EMI’s library in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stave off bankruptcy (ironically largely brought about by buying Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment), they seemingly weren’t included). In case you were wondering, with a couple of exceptions, the Cannon films which were projects that EMI had in the works are the ones that mention ‘Cannon Screen Entertainment’.*

It’s kind of funny. EMI selling off their flagging film branch seemed to coincide with them having a slate of films that, if properly managed, seem like they could’ve been decently successful (that, of course, is not necessarily a comment on quality). I’ll spoil it for you: they weren’t, and they weren’t, though I suppose that was technically more on Cannon’s head at this point. It’s strange to think about Highlander as being a failure upon release as it’s been a fairly sizeable property for as long as I can remember, but there you go.

You presumably know the deal through cultural osmosis if nothing else. Living about the place are immortals who can only be killed by having their heads lopped off. As such, they go around lopping each other’s heads off which transfers the dead one’s power to the living one and also causes a lot of property damage as this power transfer involves a lot of electricity and pyrotechnics and they keep doing it in public spaces. So, they have big old sword fights until only one remains and can attain the vaguely defined Macguffin (it amounts to all the knowledge in the universe), because fate demands it or some such. It’s pretty stupid, as you might have noticed. Try not to think about it that much.

Anyway, that’s the world the characters live in. The thing that makes the film more distinct from big dumb action fantasies is how it actually pays attention to the whole ‘immortal’ thing. How does Connor McLeod cope with the fact that almost everyone he meets will die, or with that the small portion who won’t will inevitably try to kill him at some point? For that matter, how do other people deal with this shit? Interesting questions, to be sure, that the film is at least somewhat interested in. I mean, it’s kind of limited on how much it can deal with the more philosophical questions here; it’s an action film and it demands that heads literally roll and doesn’t seem all that concerned with the meaning and wherefores of its daft premise. A naughty immortal (played with relish by Clancy Brown) wants the vague prize for reasons of evil and must be stopped, but, you know, not before he and Christopher Lambert are the only ones left, obviously. You want to know more about what the deal with immortality is? Too bad. Mind you, given the reputation of the sequels, it’s perhaps for the best that the film not go too much into why exactly these things are happening. Given how the film ends, trying to sequel it up seems like asking for trouble anyway. That and, you know, Christopher Lambert inevitably aged. It’s the grand problem of making your hero immortal.

Going ‘just because’ is often the best course of action rather than trying to come up with a rational real-world explanation for fantasy shenanigans in modern times. Trying to come up with sensible science for something inherently unscientific only makes it stand out more in my mind. We just gloss over it and focus on the epic romance of this dude who can’t die and has to fake his death a lot to distract people from the fact that he’s failing to age as opposed to why he can’t die and fails to age. The film’s interest in the scope of the story and the loneliness inherent in the core of its conceit is what makes the film stand out from the crowd.

As it stands, it’s a campy ‘80s action fantasy movie with some minor exploration of what it is to be in a campy ‘80s action fantasy movie… well, this one, at any rate. There’s nothing wrong with that, even if in my notes I do specifically bring up a bit where the love interest (Roxanne Hart) tells Connor “most people are afraid to die; you’re afraid to live”; a line that would already be wince worthy in a film not about immortals, and here thrashes about like the heaviest of salmon. Actually, thinking about it, this instance is a good example of what the film is, tonally.

Oh, right, I guess I didn’t mention. Sean Connery is there. You know it. I know it. He’s like the mentor figure, and is totes an ancient Egyptian/Spanish Moor, delete as appropriate. We’ve all made a lot of jokes about his not doing any accent, he’s just Sean Connery. Well, guess what? That was his Spanish accent. Really. He comes back for the sequel, despite the notable handicap of being dead.

*In case you were wondering even more: it’s well documented that The Manhattan Project (1986) was part of Gladden Entertainment’s output deal (that maybe doubled as an embezzlement scheme) with EMI, but, unlike the other two that got made before Cannon pulled the plug on the whole thing, there’s no mention of ‘Cannon Screen Entertainment’. Cannon seemingly inherited Evil Angels (1988) from EMI; as part of her leaving package, Verity Lambert got a development and output deal which she claimed she used to get it made. It doesn’t feature the ‘Screen Entertainment’ branding however, perhaps because it hadn’t been greenlit when the company was sold. 

On the opposite end of the scale, Link (1986) is usually seen today under the ‘Cannon Screen Entertainment’ banner, but was originally released by EMI before the sale and some prints (and the UK marketing materials) still credit them (hence it being part of StudioCanal’s catalogue). After Cannon bought the studio, they recut the film for US release, removing a good 10-15 minutes from the original UK version, and this is the version most releases use. Boo.