Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Highlander (1986) Directed by Russell Mulchay

Connor MacLeod: You look like a woman you stupid haggis.
Ramirez: Haggis? What is haggis?
Connor MacLeod: Sheep's stomach stuffed with meat and barley
Ramirez: And what do you do with it?
Connor MacLeod: You eat it!
Ramirez: How revolting!

Russell Nash (Christopher Lambert) is a man with problems.  He goes to Madison Square Garden to watch the Fabulous Freebirds Wrestle, and ends up in a sword duel to the death in the parking garage.  The police want a few words with him...

However, Nash has a little experience at law, and obfuscation, and human nature.  In his own words, "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."

The movie segues back and forth between the modern day where Nash must elude the questions of Police Forensics Officer Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) and to the Highlands of Scotland, where he died his first death at the hands of the Kurgen (Clancy Brown) a vicious warrior.  Though the Kurgen did not claim his head, Connor was cast out by his clan, a trick of the devil, able to heal a mortal wound in a day.

Connor found love, in Heather (Beatie Eadny) and friendship in Ramirez (Sean Connery) another immortal who trains him to defend himself, and explains about their lives.

Immortals are born, and cannot die, except by decapitation.  If another immortal decapitates one of his brothers, then he absorbs "The Quickening", the energy of the immortal who died.  At some time in the future, all surviving immortals will be drawn together to contest for the prize; when there is only one, that immortal will be granted great powers.  Ramirez fears what will happen if a sadist like the Kurgen should get the prize; therefore he trains McLeod to fight, and to think.

McLeod and the Kurgen play cat and mouse through the years knowing it is inevitable that they will face eachother for the prize.

What separates this from a testosterone driven Sci Fi Channel movie of the week is the emotional content.  Nash is complex enough to have lived that long.  Ramirez's tutelage and Heather's love give him the family he lost.  And Connor remains with Heather, throughout her long life, because he loves her.  How lonely immortality would be.  Even worse when you know all other immortals might try to take your head.  Rachael (Sheila Gish) understood Nash's loneliness; after all, she had been his daughter since he found her in WWII.

And it is that loneliness that compelled him to work things through with Brenda, not just vanish, not hold her at a safe distance.

There are holes in the plot, and silly contrivances, yet this movie remains a perennial favorite.  It has action, romance, violence, and the battle between good and evil.  It also has Christopher Lambert in a kilt and Sean Connery, a plus no matter his wardrobe.

Like the Kurgen, this review is Lean-N-Mean, weighing in at 500 words exactly.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older