Highlander: Deep Thoughts About Bonkers Casting, Over-the-Top Cinematography, and Hiding Queer Subtext in Your Dad's Favorite Pop Culture Artwork

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We're Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use feminism, our super smart brains, and each other to uncover the lessons lurking behind the nostalgia of pop culture. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit.

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Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

Highlander: Deep Thoughts About Bonkers Casting, Over-the-Top Cinematography, and Hiding Queer Subtext in Your Dad's Favorite Pop Culture

May 19, 2026 • Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado • Episode 137

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I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal.

On this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily revisits one of the most unhinged pieces of Gen X pop culture: the 1986 cult classic film Highlander. Starring French-American actor Christopher Lambert (who didn't speak English prior to being cast) and noted Scot Sean Connery (who was playing an Egyptian character with a Spaniard's name), the movie's surface storytelling is about immortal beings decapitating each other over the centuries.

But director Russell Mulcahy (himself a gay man) offers some pretty unsubtle queer subtext throughout the film--including the homoeroticism of the training montages between Lambert and Connery and AIDS metaphors that would be abundantly clear to any LGBTQ audiences of 80s and 90s movies. Mulcahy created a pop culture phenomenon that deeply resonated with everybody's dad (and specifically Tracie & Emily's stepdad) in the 1980s, even though the cultural commentary about the American queer experience of living through homophobia, the AIDS epidemic, and societal indifference and hostility, all while trying to remain open to romance, sailed RIGHT OVER THEIR HEADS. Because swords are cool. And where else you gonna get your decapitation fix in the average piece of pop culture?

There can be only one...podcast episode to listen to over the next hour. So throw on your headphones and get started!

Mentioned in this episode:

Highlander: Love, Violence, and Sword Metaphors

Cold Open On Hidden Fear

SPEAKER_00 0:00

But the fact that Kurgan is a danger to everything and everyone that Connor loves is kind of representative to the fears of being a gay man in the 1980s, that the specter of AIDS and sexual violence could be a danger to everyone you love.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Have you ever had something you love dismissed because it's just up culture? What others might deem stupid shit, you know matters. You know it's worth talking and thinking about. And so do we. So come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

I'm Emily Guy Birkin, and you're listening to Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit. Because pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head? On today's episode, I'll be sharing my deep thoughts about the 1986 cult classic Highlander with my sister, Tracy Guy Decker. And with you, let's dive in. Now, real quick before I turn

Pop Culture Still Counts

SPEAKER_00 1:07

to my sister. Listener, if you haven't yet, I'm going to ask you to please take a moment to follow the show on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your pods. It is a quick and free way to help us grow the show, and we would really appreciate it. Now that I've said that, Tracy, I know you have seen this film. It was one of the absolute favorites of our stepfather. But tell me what's in your head about Highlander. And we're just talking about the show. We're not talking about the franchise, the TV show, the just the movie. Just the first movie. Yeah, just the first movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah. Yeah, it was one of our stepfather's favorites. And so I remember watching it with him. I remember Connor McLeod of the Clan McLeod. I remember there can be only one. I have so like a couple of very sort of flash vignettes in my head, or like he dies or almost dies, and then comes back in the pub the next day, like in ancient times, and people are like, he's a witch or something like that. I remember that he watches his wife grow old and die, and how sad that was. That's it. That's what I got. Those are the things that I have about Highlander. So I I know there's fighting and stuff, but I can't remember why or with whom. I know he's immortal, and I don't remember how that resolves. So yeah, that's what I got. Why are we talking about this today?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I honestly can't remember how it ended up on the list, what reminded me of the movie. It's a like a bonkers concept that is just kind of fun and weird and so very 80s. And so it was on the list, and I was like, oh yeah, yeah, that was cool. And so I was like, okay, you know, let's take a look at it. Oh my goodness, this movie. This movie is not what our stepdad thought it was. I'm not gonna tell him you said that. Because while yes, it is a very kind of high-concept fantasy action film, it is that. It's also a very, very not subtle metaphor for homosexuality. And it is not even remotely subtle. Longtime listeners might recall that I'm not good with subtext necessarily.

What We Remember From Childhood

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So watching Chasing Amy and watching In and Out, I was going, like, wait, those characters are supposed to be gay, because I believed them when they said that they weren't or were, whatever it was. So, like, I'm not good with that kind of subtext. I was yesterday watching this, texting Tracy, going, This is really homoerotic, I think. Yeah. And I'm not looking for this. And so I think that that puts a beast of a different color on this film. And considering the fact that the director, Russell McCahie, is a gay man, I think makes it very, very interesting. And so that's actually probably what I'm going to be spending a great deal of time on talking about. And how that kind of gives a different flavor to what this story is saying rather than the pardon the pun, straight fantasy. Wow, that there's layers to that that we thought we were watching, even with there's a very gratuitous heterosexual sex scene in it with like lots of gratuitous nudity in it. That's but it's still very queer movie. So yeah, it's interesting. So before I get into reminding you what happens in the movie, let me give you a couple of postcards from the destination. As I said, it's a metaphor for the queer experience and specifically the experience of gay men and AIDS in the 80s. Uh we're gonna talk about the homoeroticism and like the specific, unsubtle metaphors, the subtext that's made text within the film. The casting's bonkers and like just needs to be said. So we're gonna talk about that. Sean Connery is in it, he was the one big name in the in the film. Russell Mulcahy, the director, his direction, as I was watching it originally last night, initially, I was just like, he really thinks he's doing something there a couple of times. And then I later found out he got his start in music videos. I was like, oh, okay, that helps explain it. And then even though there were several times where I was like, wow, he really feels like he's doing something there. And I was just like, this feels like a like a student director. But then there were a couple where I was just like, wow, he really did do something there. So there's some experimenting with the cinematography that is kind of fascinating. I'm gonna talk a little bit about gender, and it doesn't pass Bechtel. There's uh aspects of New York in the 1980s, which I talked about the last time, because I was talking about Night Court. So gonna get into that a little bit. The theatrical cut in the Europe was 116 minutes, in the United States was 111 minutes. And there are like, I'm not sure which we saw as kids, because I know we didn't see it in the theater. So the version I saw yesterday was the original, the director's cut, the 116-minute version. And there's one scene in particular that Malcahee was livid that they cut for the the US version. So I want to talk about what that was. So those are some of the things that I'm going to be discussing. So just to kind of give you background, I am gonna kind of give you characters rather than like beginning to end. So we have Connor McLeod, who is played by Christopher Lambert, who is a French American actor. He was born in America, but raised in France. Did not speak English. Wait, what? Russell Mulcahy saw a picture of him in a magazine. He says,

Plot Basics And Wild Casting

SPEAKER_00 7:30

That's the look I want, and hired him. And so he had to have a dialect coach.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

To learn English with a Scottish accent. And he didn't speak any English.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Which is part of the reason why his accent is so frickin' weird. Okay. So because he was hired because he looked the way Mulkey wanted Connor, Connor to look. Which I think is also why he also he was his first part, he was in in 1984, he was in Tarzan, the legend of Greystoke or whatever it is. And he was hired in part because he is nearsighted and didn't have contact lenses, and so like he would be like looking far off in the distance because he couldn't see.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

You're saying that's why he was hired for Tarzan?

unknown 8:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Because he had this kind of like far away look. And he didn't have to talk for that one. I don't know if that was in an English. I I didn't do enough research, but which so another thing I texted Tracy was like, Christopher Lambert's acting choices seem to be scowling or looking confused. Befuddled is the word that you put text. Anyway, the movie intersperses modern day, which is 1985, New York, with Connor's life, which started in the 16th century. He was born in 1518, in 1536 as an 18-year-old, although Lambert was 29 and hard-looking 29. He went to battle, his clan went to battle against the Fraser clan. There was an outsider knight called the Kurgan, played by Clancy Brown, who said, I don't want anyone in the Fraser clan to attack the one called Connor. I will, I, he's mine. So no one will fight Connor. And then the Kurgan comes up to him and stabs him in the stomach and then goes to cut off his head, saying there can be only one, and then they're like rushed by the rest of the McLeod clan. So that is the origin story. So the Kurgan obviously doesn't cut his head off. Not at that time. So that is how Connor dies for the first time. That's that thing I remember. He is an immortal. Because and he doesn't know anything about it. All he knows is that he he is brought back. They pray over him. His girlfriend, Kate, is wailing that he's dying. And then the next day he is banished from the village because they think he must be in league with the devil, because he should have died and didn't. They wanted to burn him at the stake, but one of the clan leaders, Angus, shows him kindness and says, get out of here while you can. But burning him at the stake wouldn't have done anything anyway, because he is immortal. Unless his head is cut off, apparently. Yes. So we see interspersed with McLeod in the 20th century, is going by Russell Nash, and we see him at Madison Square Garden watching a wrestling match, and he goes to the parking garage and has this epic sword fight with a man named Imam Fasile, and he cuts off Fasil's head and like receives electricity.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Oh, I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like the soul like comes out of the headless body into him. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

And he is arrested because he's looking pretty shifty and trying to get out of the parking garage because and because I write about money, the electricity causes like all the electric to short out. The quickening is what they call it.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

So the quickening causes everything to short out and all the glass on every car to break everywhere around him. And so he hides his sword and is trying to get out. And so I'm sitting there going, how would the insurance claims handle those? Anyway. So in the past, Connor ends up meeting a woman named Heather. They marry. They are together for several years and very happy when Juan Ramirez, played by Sean Connery, noted Spaniard.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So they're in Scotland. This French dude is playing a Scottish dude. And then like the most famous Scottish man in the world. They cast as someone named Juan what? Juan Ramirez?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Juan. It's and it's longer than that. There's there's a bunch in the middle, a Spanish custom.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Yeah. So Sean sort of sounds like Juan. Sean Connery. Juan. Juan. Okay. All right, I'm with you. The most famous Scottish man in the world in a film about Scots plays a Spaniard. And what does Juan Conry do?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

McLeod says, What do you want? And Ramira says, You. That's not hot. Okay. And basically he introduces him to what it means to be immortal. And he says, You were born different, and men will fear you because of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Huh. Hmm. Subtext. Okay. So Juan is like a mentor of swords. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Okay. So well, that's appropriate for Sean Connery in a Scottish film. Yes. And he has been alive for 2,400 years. Oh. And he's not actually a Spaniard, he's Egyptian. He just is most recently Ramirez is his most recent name.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

I see.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

So why doesn't Juan Connery want to kill Connor? Because there will eventually be something called the gathering, when all of the immortals, when there are a dwindling few left, and they will all gather in a faraway land and they're kill each other until there is only one who will receive the prize. We never find out how Juan Connery knows this or how they know this. And if the Kurgan, who is the strongest, and it is suggested that he is the oldest of the immortals, does this, then it will be horrible for humanity. Of course. So Ramirez has come to train McLeod so that he's prepared. So there's he stays for quite some time. You see him training. He advises McCloud to leave Heather because to save himself heartache because he will have to watch her die. He also tells him that we immortals cannot have children, which breaks McLeod's heart because that's what he wants most as a family. And he knows that it will break Heather's heart. There is an evening when McLeod is away, it's unclear why, where Heather and Ramirez are chatting and having wine. And Ramirez says, Heather, you need to get out because the Kurgan has come. There is a ridiculous fight scene where the kind of half-castle tour thing that they're in is exploding as they fight. It's so ridiculous. But the Kurgan and Ramirez fight, and the Kurgan kills Ramirez and is left alone with Heather, and we don't see what happens after that. We see the Kurgan say hello, pretty, and then we go back to the Oh, so we can assume that he raped her? It's more than an assumption. We go back to the current time. In the current time, there is a forensic police officer named Brenda, who also is an expert in weapons and metallurgy, like you do. It's a hobby. She has a book that's three inches thick that she has published. So she's a hyperfixated hobby. Okay. So she has been following Russell Nash slash Connor. Connor McLeod. And she sees him be attacked by the Kurgan, and they are fighting. She's kind of in the middle when a police helicopter comes by. Another super unintentionally funny moment, because the police helicopter comes by and everybody scatters. And the police are like, no, come back. I'm like, what you expect to happen? And Connor says to Brenda, You only have one life if you value it, go home. We see the rest of Connor and Heather's life together. We see her growing older while he stays exactly the same. And then her death, where she says, I don't want to die, and you're still my beautiful husband. I don't remember all the details. And will you do one thing for me? Will you light a candle on my birthday every year? And he promises to do that. Brenda does some other research. She meets Connor's secretary. Connor is now an antiques dealer in New York. He meets his secretary, Rachel. We see a scene from during World War II. Connor was in Nazi Germany. He's running and he hears a child crying. He finds the child and it's about a seven or eight-year-old girl. He asks, What's your name, Rachel? And we just met Rachel as an adult who's like in her 40s or so in the 80s. And she says she's alone. He's like, I'm alone too. Why don't you come with me? I promise I won't hurt you. And then a Nazi comes and starts shooting, and he falls over and protects her, but he's okay. And she's like, How are you not dead? And he says it's kind of a magic trick. And he gets up and kills the Nazi and then carries her off. And so we now know that that's his daughter, his adopted daughter, who knows that he's immortal because she's seen him never age. And we also see Brenda researching the name Russell Nash and finding out it's the name of a child who was basically stillborn. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah. So she confronts Connor. Connor says, stab me. Like she does. Like you do. She does, which leads to the gratuitous sex scene. Oh yeah. And then there's a friend, just to make sure make it clear that there are more immortals in the world, there's a friend who comes in town who says the, you know, the gathering's coming. It's the only black immortal we see. And we see him fighting the Kurgan, and he loses. Oh. And there's a former Marine, so a Vietnam vet with PTSD, who like kind of interrupts, and because and he's a witness to this. The police are interviewing him after this, after the Kurgan takes the friend's head. The end comes when the Kurgan kidnaps Brenda, takes her to the Silver Cup studios, and the fight occurs there. Very cinematic, really well done. After a long, drawn-out sword fight, McLeod prevails, takes the Kurgan's head, gains the prize, which is that he is now mortal. He can have children, he can die. But he also basically can hear the thoughts of all people in the world.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Oh, not the people he killed, but all the people?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

All the people. Like he says presidents, scientists, everyone. And like Yeah. That's not a prize.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

That sounds like torture.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yeah. And so he and Brenda returned to Scotland to where he was born and where his home was with Heather. That's the end of the film.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

So you said though, I'm sorry, I'm coming back because you said that it was more than implied that Heather was raped by the Kurgan.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Oh, yes. There's a point where the Kurgan meets up with Connor at a church because it's Heather's birthday, and Connor has lit a candle for her in a church. And Ramirez had told him that holy ground is the only place where you're safe from other immortals. There is no fighting on holy ground. So the Kurgan has met him there, and they are talking about Ramirez. Ramirez told the Kurgan that's my woman. I suspect trying to protect her. I don't know because the Kurgan has been kind of obsessed with Connor. And so the Kurgan says, like, yeah, I killed him and I raped his woman before his blood was cold. So we know.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

And then he says, Oh, but she was your woman and she never told you.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yeah. Yeah. I remember that's in my head.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Okay. What do you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Let me talk about the queerness. So the movie starts with a wrestling match. And I'm not saying that wrestling has to be a homoerotic, but the way that it's filmed, it really is. And Connorslash Nash is sitting there watching it by himself. I don't know why. I mean, maybe he didn't have a boyfriend at the time. I don't like it's just

The Queer Allegory Comes Into Focus

SPEAKER_00 21:05

really weird. There's he had to like for the film, he had to be there for the parking garage to have the fight. But it's been a movie, it could have been anything. Yeah, it could have been anything. So it could have been a concert, like it's Madison Square Garden. Yeah. So okay. He's a Highlander, so he's in a kilt the whole time in the past. Which again. And then the film consistently connects stabbing with sex. And like textually with when he has Brenda stab him and then they immediately have sex.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

So like it's not subtle. But like she stabs him. Yes. So it's like penetration. Then the film also when the police have arrested. At him because there is a headless corpse in the garage. Parking garage. Uh-huh. Parking garage. There is a really horrible offensive cop that even the other cops don't like. His name is Garfield. Garfield asks him, Are you a F-word slur?

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

And he says, because I think you went to the parking garage to get a blowjob and then didn't want to pay. So again, like the movie's making it text.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Because that's an experience. And to the movie maker's credit and Connor's credit, he turns to Garfield and says, How dare you say that to me? He doesn't say, How dare you say that to me, or like, he's not offended on his own behalf. He says, You are really sick.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

That sorry, you said that a c a weird way. So Connor, Connor turns to Garfield and says, You're sick. He doesn't say, How dare you say that to me. No. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, How dare you think I'm gay?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

He says, You are sick. You are sick. So the idea that I would kill someone over that is sick, not the idea that sex between men is horrifying. Got it. Because when that happened, I was just like, oh God, oh dear God, what's gonna happen? And like I appreciated that the response was, you're sick. Because that's a reasonable response to someone making such a suggestion. Right, right. The other thing that that was fascinating is the way that the immortals interact with each other is they take each other's heads.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

And all the immortals are men.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

And the one that loses his head then spoges a bunch of soul ectoplasm everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Yeah. Now, the other thing that the point at which I texted you, like, this movie's kind of homoerotic, was during the Ramirez training McLeod montage. So you may remember, like, Ramirez is dressed the way a Spaniard would have dressed in the 16th century. So he's got like peacock feathers. He's wearing a pearl earring. And Connor says, you dress like a woman, calls him a peacock, and he also calls him a haggis. Because of the way the way he's dressed, it's like stuffed or something like that. But a haggis is a kind of sausage. Right. So and then basically Ramirez is teaching him how his body works. And there he says things to him like, don't overextend your thrust. Uh-huh. And there's a point where they are on the beach and there is a stag nearby. And like a deer. Uh-huh. Ramirez is behind Connor and says, Close your eyes, feel the stag. You can feel his heartbeat. And like they do, they both do. And then they both start running on sand, like joyfully.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Uh-huh. Yeah. It's like if Yoda and Luke were like Sean Connery and a hot French dude.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah, except that Yoda and Luke were well, because one was a puppet. Yeah. The other thing is when um so Connor and Heather are canoodling when Ramirez first arrives. And like when you first encounter another immortal, you can feel that your spidey senses go off, but it makes you feel ill. And so Connor tells Heather to go inside, and he's on his knees in front of Ramirez, who is standing. Oh, that's not subtle. Yeah. So like it's all there. It's all there. So there's all of that is in there. But it's not just that. There's also like the sense of what it was like to be a gay man in the 80s, in that Romera says, You're born different and men will fear you. After your first penetration, you may be banished by your family and the people who love you. So there's that aspect of it. Then there's, and it is like notable that Connor's first death was stabbing, like literal penetration. Then there's the specter of AIDS in the 80s. So the moment where Connor's watching Heather die is very reminiscent of what it was like for queer men to watch their partners die and be unable to do anything and feel helpless. Especially like if you are young and strong and healthy and watching someone who it feels like you just met waste away. Yeah. So that's an aspect of it. And then the Kurgan kind of represents sexual violence and AIDS, which is in some ways a little problematic because in the modern day 1985, they dress Clancy Brown in like leather daddy. It's all leather. He has a slice on his neck from his fight with Ramirez, where Ramirez like got him, but did not completely decapitate him. And so he has safety pins through it. And he wears like all leather 80s central casting for like leather biker dude. Yeah. Also doubles as like kinky gay leather dude from the 80s. Mm-hmm. That sailed over my head, obviously. I'm sure sailed over the heads. I mean, maybe our stepfather might have clocked that as gay-coded. I don't know. Maybe. But the fact that Kurgan is a danger to everything and everyone that Connor loves is kind of representative to the fears of being a gay man in the 1980s, that the specter of AIDS and sexual violence could be a danger to everyone you love in such a dangerous time to be gay. And I want to say I did not come up with that. I'm going to include a link in the show notes to a video of a content creator who drew together those dots for me. Like I kind of gathered a few of them, but several like the direct line this creator drew for me. So also the fact that they had the gathering happen in New York City in the 80s, which I am not as cognizant of queer history in the 1980s as I could be, but that was important for gay men, for what was going on with the AIDS epidemic, all of that as well, when it could have been anywhere. So all that to say is this movie is not about immortal men battling for a prize.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

So what about the fact that if the Kurgan wins, we know from Juan Connery that it will be bad for all of humanity? What about how does that fit into your metaphor or to this other content creator's metaphor of the Kurgan as AIDS and sexual violence?

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I think within that metaphor, I think that then is the idea that something Christopher Lambert has said and something that several reviewers have said that they appreciate about this very weird film is that McLeod still feels hopeful and still allows himself to love, even after 400 years of life, when it would be very difficult to do that. Yeah. And so, in some ways, he's still like the best of humanity, even after having seen so much awfulness and so much horror, and having have having lost this great love, two great loves, because he did love Ramirez, and then having lost Heather in two, that's the other aspect of it, in two very different ways. He lost Ramirez in a sudden act of violence, which is and then losing Heather to slow devastation. And so I feel like within this metaphor, it's saying that letting the fears, like the fear of homosexuality and the fear of love win. It's going to be so much darker for the world than being open to letting yourself connect with people, letting yourself be open to new relationships and new loves, even knowing the horrors that this world can perpetrate on marginalized groups. Okay. Which is kind of a like a beautiful metaphor. And then the idea that then that Connor has this connection to people that he can kind of like let people start to see

AIDS Panic Sexual Violence And Hope

SPEAKER_00 31:55

like you don't need to be afraid of people who are different. Extending that metaphor gives us a sense of like we can get to a place where we have a bo Bergefel in the United States. Oh what? Obergefel.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Oh, that's not how I pronounce that word, but oh okay. That name. I don't know. Ogrefell. I don't know. Not that.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

That's not the way that I have said it. I might be wrong. I probably am. Can't remember Ravenus? Yeah. So I mean, you get like from there you get heated rivalry in 2025. Right. So and that, but if Kurgan had won, you would have like fear and destruction and sexual violence and power over and retribution and whatever.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Yeah, that's why Juan Connery didn't want the Kurgan to know that Heather was Connor's partner because the Kurgan wouldn't have just raped her, he would have killed her, just out of cruelty. Okay. Let's talk about the direction and cinematography. Because in your intro, you were like, sometimes I was like, oh, well, he's very proud of himself on that one. And other times you're like, oh, he should be very proud of himself on that one. Those weren't the way you said it, but I'm just paraphrasing. So talk to me about that. What are you reacting to?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

So in the first fight in the parking garage, there's a point where so the vassal

Music Video Direction That Works

SPEAKER_00 33:32

who he's fighting, who was played by the, I think, the stunt coordinator. And another thing I think I was I was texting, I was like, there is a lot of gratuitous backflips in this movie. Right. You did say that. Like that is not the most efficient way to get around in the middle of a fight. But I think that that actor was actually doing the backflips because he's the actual stunt coordinator and stunt person. But he was wearing these mirrored sunglasses and they fell off of him and they're sitting on the ground. And so there's a point where the camera is focused on the glasses, and so you're seeing something in the reflection. And it felt very like senior thesis in film school. Right, right. You know what would be cool? It would be cool if there were like, yeah. I couldn't quibble with like it was very well set up. All of that was well done. It just was like took itself a little too seriously. Yeah. But then later on, when Heather dies, Connor's sword is the sword that he was given when he first goes to battle against the Frasers. And it's it's a broad sword. It says McLeod across the pommel. And they show him burying Heather, and then they show the sword is in the foreground. And so you can see the sword and McLeod. It's like very very front foreground. Then the midground is Connor. And then in the background, he has set fire to their cottage. And so that is gorgeous. I mean, it is a gorgeous shot. And like, now part of it is because before I hit play yesterday, there were like three scenes that I could tell you about. And one of them was his wife dying. And with the song, I didn't even mention the soundtrack because Queen plays the soundtrack. Right. And they wrote the song specifically, Who Wants to Live Forever, for this, um, because of the scene with Heather dying. So now part of it is that scene of her dying. I remember that. I remember it really moving me as a kid and being so sad for both of them. And so some of it is the emotion of what had just come before. And then that that that moment, it's earned. The direction and the image of that moment is earned. But it's also just really beautiful. It could be a still image. Like I could see someone drawing it or painting it and it working even without the background of the scene that just came before. So, and there were several moments like that. There was also the way that the editing worked. So we get the whole scene with the he's watching the wrestling. We see him remembering a little bit in the past, but we don't get a whole lot in the past. Then we see the fight with Fasile, and then after Fasile dies, the camera pans up in the garage, and then it goes up to above ground, but we're in Scotland in 1536. And it's, I read someone saying that a low-budget film does more creative things with that kind of transition. Because there's another transition where we go into his eye and then go somewhere else. And I think there's that was another one where I was just like senior in film school. But the one where like panning up, and then we're in Scotland, that was amazing. That worked really well. So some of these overall, I'm really glad that Malkehy experimented. Like I think he did some really, really interesting things. I think that they were just fascinating ways of playing with the medium that you don't get with big budget films and that make the movie more dynamic than it would be. But there then there were things like I think I mentioned where the it's I'm calling it a tour because I don't know, like I think T-O-R, but Heather and Connor are living in this kind of a ruined partial castle. It's like a turret, and it's got stairs going up, and that's where they are. That's where Ramirez and Heather are when the Kurgan comes. And like Ramirez and the Kurgan are like hitting the stones with their swords, and the stones were like exploding. I was laughing my ass off, and it was not supposed to be funny. Like this was not a scene that was intended to be humorous, and I could not stop giggling because why are stones like exploding?

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Like they weren't just sparking from metal against stone, they were no, they were like they were like breaking in like shattering.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Yeah. And like I think it was they were trying to show like just how powerful these two swordsmen were. Yeah. But you could kind of see that these were foam. And it was also just like, no, I'm sorry. Like, I will buy that there are, you know, 2,000-year-old men going around trying to cut off each other's heads. I'm not buying that they can destroy a tower this way with nothing but swords. Sorry. Okay. So, but that it was just, I feel like Malcahi is really, really talented in a way that is like would have been caged if he were trying to make a film, a different film. Like if he were trying to make a film that was bigger budget, that was less bonkers, that was like that he didn't have as much control over. That had big studio execs telling him what to do. And then these moments that I'm mentioning, like with the sunglasses and the sword and stuff like that, I think also are indicative of his start in music videos. Yeah. Because that seems like the sort of thing that you would see in music videos because you have so much less like and time.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yeah. I wonder if he would have benefited from an editor, like if he was T. S. Elliott and he needed Ezra Pound to like help him get to the actual core of the poem. And hopefully, and hopefully his Ezra would not be a fascist.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

But anyway. And actually, most film editors are women.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Does not pass back, though. You said that Rachel and Brenda talk to one another, but they talk about Connor.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

The treatment of women in this movie is interesting. In that, so I wish there was we had more with Rachel because that feels like the most real, most authentic relationship Connor has of any that we see. And that so

Women Rachel Brenda And What Got Cut

SPEAKER_00 40:40

the scene that was cut that Mulcahy was furious about was the scene where he finds Rachel as a child. And that's where I was like, I have no memory one way or the other. Why would they cut that for American audiences? No idea. Huh. So now I will say some of the like, some of the stuff they do of him throughout time does feel like, why are we doing this? So there's a point where he and his friend, who's killed by the Kurgan in 1985, are reminiscing about something that happened in 1783, and that was cut for American audiences. And I kind of understand it because it doesn't really add anything to the movie. And it also lends itself to like I understand why they made a TV show because it gives you more opportunity to do these kind of fun. Like it was fun. Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

But it doesn't advance the story.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Didn't advance the story in any way. And like I could see maybe American executives saying this doesn't advance the story in any way, but it does. It gives us the like we need to understand who Rachel is, and we can't understand it without that.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Yeah, and the fact that she came from such trauma that he rescued her from.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Yeah. And then when he leaves to go confront the Kurgan, he makes it clear he's never he's not coming back. And they have this moment, and she says, Oh, even if you kill him, you're not coming back, are you? And he says, Russell Nash dies tonight. And he says to her, the last thing he says to her is like, it's a kind of magic trick, which was what he said to her when Right, when she was a child. So they're and it's because it's non-romantic that their relationship, which is it gets, I don't know, seven minutes of runtime, their entire like interaction, maybe less. Like it's very, very short the amount of time that even Rachel is on screen. I do not understand what he and Brenda have or are interested. Like, there's nothing. There's nothing there. She likes weapons and he uses weapons. But he keeps claiming he doesn't because he's trying not to get arrested. He also, oh, this this really pissed me off. When she first comes to his antique shop and is like, you know, investigating him, he says to her, Do you cook? And she's like, Why? And he says, Well, I was thinking we could have dinner. You could make me dinner? No. Unsubscribe?

SPEAKER_01 43:10

I know.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Wow. Okay. And then when he gets there, like they end up having a fight and he leaves. So she cooked for the words.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Wow. We're running short on time. So do you want to make a final point and then I'll try and reflect back to what we talked about?

SPEAKER_00 43:30

So I just I think the final point just to talking about gender. I feel like the way that the movie treats women is also a little bit indicative of the tension that you sometimes see in the way that, especially in the 80s, the tension that gay men might have with women, in that there is like genuine affection and love, but there's the like swimming in the same sea of misogyny. And so there's That unchecked misogyny within there. So and that the most authentic relationship is the father-daughter relationship that we see. But over like the found family aspect of the film.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Okay. So I'm gonna reflect back to you what I heard about Highlander, which is that this movie is which we missed completely when we watched it and rewatched it and rewatched it when we were young. This movie is pretty queer, sounds it is so queer. So our stepdad will not be happy to hear that. So not just that there's homorotic moments of watching a wrestling scene or that mentor mentee moment with a stag on the beach, but also actually like the structures of this film, like how they die and the fact that they some of the beats of the story of Connor, like the fact that he gets kicked out and banished after his first penetration. And I don't remember you laid it all out pretty clearly. Yeah, and then they spooge electroge what's the word, ectoplasm afterward. Yeah, and the big bad guy is a metaphor for sexual violence and for AIDS and fear, I think. Oh, part of the queer allegory is the way that Juan Connery names that you're born different and men will fear you because of it. So that's like a big part of what we talked about. We did also, since I'm calling him Juan Connery, talk about the bonkers casting here where we've got this movie about Scotland, and we have the most famous Scottish man maybe ever, but certainly in the 20th century, playing someone who is not Scottish. And then we've got this French dude who didn't speak English before he got the parts trying to speak English with a Scottish accent. So, huh?

SPEAKER_00 45:59

And I have to tell you, there were once I knew that he was French, I could like I could hear the accent sometimes, like especially toward like when he was shouting or towards the end, I was just like, oh, that's what that is. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

So you noted the sort of direction cinematography where the director like had really interesting ideas to do things in much cheaper ways. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they took themselves too seriously, and we wondered if he wouldn't have done well for a better editor, potentially. Someone who could push back against him and make him kill his darlings. There were some things cut in the American release that may had us both scratching our heads, including the fact that his adoptive daughter was an adoptive daughter and he had rescued her from the Nazis. And also some stuff like about his like life over time that maybe didn't advance the plot, but was fun. And then we also spoke about sort of New York in the 1980s as what that represented to American culture and as like a hotbed of gay culture and the fear and all of the things that were going on in that kind of milieu. And the what was I just thinking? I was just thinking, oh, you were naming, speaking of milieu and sort of like looking at this with this clear, queer, queer lens, this movie that doesn't pass Bechtel has a comportment, if you will, toward women that is reminiscent of some gay men, especially in the late 20th century, toward women where there's genuine affection, but maybe still casual and baked in misogyny. And that's all we have time for for today. But listeners, we will record the shit we forgot to say because I know my sister has more to say about this film. So if you're a patron or if you want to listen, head on over to our Patreon to hear that. And stay tuned for next week when I'm gonna bring my deep thoughts about Underworld. Ooh, the first one, the vampire and werewolf movie, that includes Michael Sheen,

Patreon Tease Next Week And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 48:11

of whom I am a fan. This show is a labor of love, but that doesn't make it free to produce. If you enjoy it even half as much as we do, please consider helping to keep us overthinking. You can support us at our Patreon. There's a link in the show notes. Or leave a positive review so others can find us. And of course, share the show with your people. Thanks for listening. Our theme music is Professor Umlaut by Kevin McLeod from Incompitech.com. Find full music credits in the show notes. Thank you to Resonate Recordings for editing today's episode. Until next time, remember, pop culture is still culture. And shouldn't you know what's in your head?