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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2023 - 4:41 PM
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By: |
Ny
(Member)
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I rented Highlander a few times as a kid, and it was one of the first VHS tapes I bought for myself.
The idea is catchy for an action audience, I remember thinking long and hard about all the different warrior types from history that could feature in the contest.
It has some crude elements which hold it back a little, some crude dialogue, but the Scottish flashback sequences are memorable, and make for a nice dual story with the modern stuff. Clancy Brown's Kurgan is a strong antagonist, and the film is bursting with energy by the end.
I'm no Queen fan but the songs fit well, and Kamen's score is great. The main title in particular, balancing the heroic motif with a moody atmosphere, which I wish more action themes would do. So yeah the rest of the atmospheric material would be very welcome as a companion to the more orchestrated music.
I imagine the hold-up involves making a deal with Queen's record label, and the score and songs perhaps cannot be separated as the melodies from the songs (probably co-written by Queen?) feature in the score itself, weaving in and out the way Kamen often does with well known tunes.
Biggest grail left for me.
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Posted: |
Mar 31, 2023 - 3:21 AM
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By: |
panavision
(Member)
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I imagine the hold-up involves making a deal with Queen's record label, and the score and songs perhaps cannot be separated as the melodies from the songs (probably co-written by Queen?) feature in the score itself, weaving in and out the way Kamen often does with well known tunes.
Biggest grail left for me.
I think you're right, because the Queen-written songs are all throughout Kamen's score.
I'm just super psyched that Johnonymous86 had never heard this before because they're pretty knowledgeable, and this is an ultimate hidden gem.
The more I listen to it, I wonder how much of the film works as-is vs. the music propping it up. The basic romance aspect of the story is a terrifically poignant concept by itself, the cinematography is incredible, but Kamen's music definitely gives the film a gravitas and elegance that lesser music wouldn't have. The film has a lot of comedy in it and does have plenty of moments of ridiculousness.
Does Kamen's score save the film? I'll need to watch it again and see.
I think the music is a huge part of its appeal, from both Queen and Kamen. They give it the epic feeling, giving it emotion when the story doesn't make sense.
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Yeah, the film is such a mish-mash of ideas and moods and styles and some of the scenes can be a bit clunky, with some OTT acting and what-not, never mind the usual bonkers time travel scenario
Is it time travel? The characters aren't traveling in time any differently than we are, it's just a much longer journey for them.
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Posted: |
Mar 31, 2023 - 5:47 PM
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By: |
WillemAfo
(Member)
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Watching it again for the first time in forever, Kamen's main theme doesn't appear as often as I remembered. The movie has cool parts but is definitely disjointed, partly because it constantly jumps back and forth between time periods, but also a lot of scenes are repetitive and don't really connect to each other. The tone is really erratic - at times it's very strong and epic, and other times it's campy farce. Even the cinematography is really good and has moments of brilliance, but at times the wild camera moves are unmotivated and definitely feel like "cool" shots you put into music videos, but not to thoughtfully tell a story.
Kamen's music definitely smooths things out. I was surprised by how much more Queen there was in the movie than I remembered. It's not that bad, but definitely of-its-time and not always necessary.
But I think I can hear the problems that have been holding it up and Queen's compositions are one part, but Kamen's synths are another. There's way more synth tracks in this than I thought and if the situation is anything like "Die Hard" was just 2 years later, it's likely that the storage and preservation of these synth tracks is a large part of the problem. I also hear Queen's compositions woven throughout A LOT of Kamen's music, particularly "Who Wants To Live Forever". I don't know how the rights and authorship was assigned but between that and likely disparate synth elements, I can see why this score would be a huge challenge to assemble a complete version of.
Also on a couple visual notes, I noticed in the final battle that Roxanne is wearing a jacket with a tartan print, which seemed like a nod to MacLeod's kilt.
And the film visually bears a lot of similarities to the director's other film, "The Shadow" - visually the gothic New York imagery and extreme camera angles, but even the story - an ageless warrior with special powers, fighting a dark-haired barbaric warlord across time, with an ancient blade as a centerpiece, and plenty of blonde damsels doing very 1940s Lois Lane-esque investigating.
And I have to say, they really lucked out with Sean Connery. It is him and Kamen's music that give the film the smattering of gravitas it has.
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Posted: |
Apr 1, 2023 - 3:28 AM
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By: |
Ny
(Member)
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The music is probably the most unifying thing about the movie, but I'd say the parallel plotlines is a very solid backbone. A device like this is great to have, it's just rare to get a story where it's usable. You get to refresh the audience, after a plot point has been delivered, by switching across to the alternate setting, which they're already invested in from earlier in the film. The most famous example is probably Godfather Part 2, switching between 1950s Michael and 1910s Vito, which also benefits from a contrast in setting - the gated world of Nevada against the ethnic boroughs of New York, where everyone is living on top of each other. In Highlander the contrast is high between the flaring night lights of the city, and the green and old stone of the highlands. Kamen makes the most of it too with his bagpipe flourishes, and shifts in tone and spirit.
Visually the film for sure uses stylistics that stick out too much some of the time, but it does achieve plenty of iconic imagery, and has lots of nice touches, which account for much of the appeal. My personal favourite is almost a throwaway shot - of the battlefield where Connor first dies, there's a very dark shot taken from the lowest point in the valley, the stream running down it's centre, and the slopes on either side are absolutely sodden and dank, drenched with the slog, and the effort, and the corpses, of the hard-bitten fighters. It's not a feeling that is particularly relevant to the film, it's just something that Mulcahy and the DoP were able to pull off, and whenever I'm reading about medieval battles in history this shot springs to mind, moreso than anything from Braveheart or any other bigger, more focused productions.
I don't know the story behind the Edel release, but is it that the original production company, or whoever controls the IP, retains some rights for a release? Like whether to put out a soundtrack when the film comes out is matter of choice, whether it's worthwhile for them to do. And the difficulty the labels have is that they're independent, and need to talk those companies into it, along with everyone else involved.
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Isn't there a line at the end, said by MacCleod, to the effect- I know everything. Or am I going loopy, its been a while since watched.
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Yeah. There's some kind of epilogue voice over wherein Macleod says he has some psychic ability to hear/bring together world leaders to unite in peace, in addition to him being able to have kids, grow old and die.
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Yep it wasn't riches or power, it was the combined knowledge of them all and the final peace of mortality. I loved that. And it's the main reason why sequels were misguided. Especially since, they, well, sucked. There is no cut of Highlander 2 that qualifies as a good film.
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