# Was Highlander 1 really that good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974 "2005-04-06T02:14:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/41 "2005-04-08T22:24:19Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > It’s one of those geek things. > > If you’re a movie fan, you’re not allowed to admit the TV series wasn’t the work of Satan. Well, not Satan. I has stunned that they made a TV series of it. Even more stunning is that it worked. I can count myself as a fan of both versions. I even played the card game. I am a Highlander nut. But the TV & (original) movie versions are different. Movie: There are few immortals, maybe only one from a given country, & they travel great distances to find each other. (It’s never explained quite how first the Kurgan, then the Egyptian, found the Highlander; I suspected high-level clairvoyance, while a friend of mine points out that it may more likely be a combination of patient investigation & something like the “other-immortal sense” from the TV show.) By the 1980’s, there are only four left, who gather in Manhattan to battle for godhood. They have a pretty fair idea what the Prize means, even the audience doesn’t until the end. Television: There are hundreds of immortals, practically tripping over each other (as in fact happened to Richie once); yet when Duncan turned out to be immortal, he went for years without anyone showing up to explain what had happened to him (well, except for Kanwulf, who didn’t seem to care). The immortals can sense each other at relatively close range, but other than that seem not to be psychic, or even that aware of each other’s existence. By the 1990’s, & despite a few throwaway lines about “the Gathering” in the first season, there are still hundreds, & even new ones being born! And no one seems real sure why they’re fighting, or what the Prize actually is. They’re variant continuities; get over it. ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/42 "2005-04-09T00:15:43Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > You’re also missing _quite_ a bit when watching it on TV. I nearly wore out my VHS copy taped from FOX before I ever saw the full movie. There are whole scenes that didn’t make the cut, and some great lines. Even more so in the director’s cut, showing how Connor met Rachel (his secretary). They cut the scene where he rescues the little girl during the Second World War out?!? Thats one of the best scenes! :eek: “Its a kind of magic” That makes me wonder how many movies are despised because they’ve been cut to pieces and make absolutely no sense in their edited form and the people watching them aren’t aware they’ve been butchered. btw Only Mostly Dead, there’s no such thing as a man with a cool ponytail, they all make the wearer look like prigs. As my mum always taught me, “Never trust a man with a ponytail” (or a bow-tie but thats another story) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/43 "2005-04-09T00:17:44Z")
Forgot to add, a friend of mine appears as an extra. He’s one of the two boys fighting in the street in Scotland near the start. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/44 "2005-04-09T01:11:13Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Um, “MacLeod,” maybe? :smack: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/45 "2005-04-09T02:23:32Z")
> [@gonzoron](#): > > That and one of the greatest movie villians of all time. Clancy Brown was amazing as the Kurgan. “I took his head, and raped his woman before his blood was even cold. … ah… I see… she was not his woman, she was your woman. And she never told you. Perhaps I gave her something you never could, and secretly she longed for my return.” What a delightfully despicable bastard. I always wondered what Candy would find _kinky_ :eek: I agree about the take apart sword, and Clancy Browns voice can still almost get me wet. I love a good voice! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/46 "2005-04-09T05:36:54Z")
When I saw this movie (the director’s cut, incidentally), I had heard many times about the premise, and seen a few episodes of the TV show, so I was “spoiled” to it already. I still thought it was good. Swords and beheadings aren’t enough by themselves to make a movie cool, but they go a long way towards it. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/47 "2005-04-09T21:44:00Z")
It’s one of my all-time favorite movies. And, yes, the explanation given in Highlander II is worse than midichlorians(sp?). If you ever feel the need to watch HLII, just watch The Highlander again. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/48 "2005-04-11T15:23:36Z")
> [@MidwinterF1](#): > > They cut the scene where he rescues the little girl during the Second World War out?!? Thats one of the best scenes! :eek: Oh, it’s worse than that. That scene wasn’t even in the original US video release. (I don’t think it was in the theatrical release either, but I’m not sure.) I remember as a poor high school student traipsing through comic book/sci-fi conventions salivating over bootleg copies of the “European Version” of Highlander “With the missing WWII scenes, never seen in the US!!!” I never worked up the courage to fork over $30 for it, which is good because those scenes eventually made the director’s cut which was officially released for like $15. ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974/49 "2005-04-11T19:17:50Z")
Well it was no “Sword and the Sorcerer” (man I would love to find that movie on DVD) but who didnt tear up a little when his first wife dies? Now that was sad! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-highlander-1-really-that-good/297974.md?page=2)