Highlander (1986)

Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film about an immortal Scottish swordsman, a gathering of his kind, and a great deal of beheading. It became a cult object on the strength of its tagline, its Queen soundtrack, and Clancy Brown's cheerful menace. Judged by contemporary social consciousness, it is a mostly empty vessel. The cast is overwhelmingly white, with Hugh Quarshie and Damien Leake appearing in incidental roles that the film never remarks upon. There are no LGBTQ themes, no engagement with racial history, no climate concerns, no critique of wealth or class, no body positivity, and no neurodivergent characters. Connor MacLeod deals antiques, and the film is indifferent to what that might mean about commerce. This is a story about swords, loss, and the quickening.

Brenda Wyatt is the closest thing to a progressive figure. She is a metallurgy expert and forensic scientist who drives the investigation into the impossible blade. Then the plot reduces her to a kidnap victim and a romantic reward. That is a mild professional-woman presence, not a feminist statement. The film's only moral instruction arrives in the closing voice-over, where Connor hopes to encourage cooperation, understanding, and peace among humanity. It is a vague coda, not a sermon. As for history, the film invents a secret race of immortals instead of revising real events for ideological purposes. No lectures follow.

The result is a film of low cultural awareness and considerable entertainment value, if we enjoy that sort of thing. It does not represent, critique, or instruct. It asks us to watch men hit each other with swords for ninety minutes and to accept Sean Connery as an Egyptian Spaniard. The incidental diversity and the competent female scientist are gestures of casting and plotting, not a program. Highlander belongs to a pre-2010 mode of blockbuster fantasy, unburdened by the need to justify its pleasures. There can be only one, and it is not trying to teach us anything.