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There can be only one, and perhaps we should be grateful

Anyone who tuned in to the Sci-Fi channel’s made for t.v. movie "Highlander: The Source" might have discovered rather that there were more questions unanswered than satisfactorily answered.

According to the web page, "Highlander: The Source Official Site," http://www.highlander-thesource.com/news-updates.html available online 9/18/2007, there are two more films to come that are to explain the origins of the immortals. I sure hope that the remaining two will be better than this first one.

The basic tenet in the world of the immortal is that "there can be only one," so throughout the first three Highlander movies (which starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod) as well as the television series of the same name (starring Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod), an immortal’s spider sense would kick in whenever there was another immortal nearby. This would result in sometimes witty repartee, followed by an amicable parting of ways, or a battle to the finish–and no immortal is truly finished until his head is cut off. That’s rule number two.

Rule number three is that immortals cannot reproduce–imagine the super heros that could be unwittingly unleashed on the world at large if that happened. Plus it allows the immortals to be tragic figures of a sort, if they aren’t allowed to leave some legacy of themselves behind.

In the previous films, which starred Christopher Lambert, the settings were normal, every day life type things in the city. Or in Scotland, back in the 1700s when Lambert’s Highlander fought in a battle and discovered he was immortal.

In this most recent effort, the film opens with this rather post-apocalyptic setting with burning buildings, people wandering aimlessly amid smaller burning fires, and there is an atmosphere of controlled chaos.

There seems to be no explanation for this setting. Are we in the United States? Are we in Europe? Is this the beginning of World War III?

Except that three immortals, who are in communication by some really cool computer set-up, can see that it’s something to do with these planets aligning and something to do with this ever-mysterious Source. The Source, apparently, is exactly that–the source of the immortality for these long-lived sword-wielding guys and gals. Yes, in the television series at least, there were female immortals.

And–The Guardian is on the loose. The Guardian who guards The Source. Ok, I’m not sure I’m following completely here, but give me an A for at least trying. The Guardian is this hard-core punk-metal head type from the middle ages and he’s super fast (thanks in part to the special effects–in fact, all of the immortals have this preternatural speed that evidently wasn’t possible to convey in earlier films or the series). And he’s super evil. His mantra is, "There can be only ME," which I found rather humorous, rather than, "There can be only ONE."

So Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) enters his first scene saving a woman from a would-be assault in some dark yet burning up alley. He mistakes the woman for his wife, from whom he’s been estranged for some indeterminate time.

Anyway, the film pretty much resembles what would happen if The Highlander met Mad Max. Lots of explosions, fighting, and groups of bad people running around in various leather-type get-ups who ride motorcycles and have rowdy bonfires where they tie up the immortals and MacLeod’s wife, who has appeared and is finally identified after gazing raptly at the sky at the mysteriously aligning planets.

He also hooks up with some other good-guy type immortals who of course have some character flaws. Like selfishness. "I’d leave you," says one to MacLeod, as MacLeod unties him from this cross-type contraption the bad leather-wearing dudes have constructed and tied them all to.

The immortals are instructed, by this Jabba the Hut type immortal, to "follow the woman," because she’ll lead them to The Source.

The Source, from what I gather, is supposed to answer all the questions like, as MacLeod states in the film, "I WANT TO KNOW WHY I AM WHAT I AM."

I found that the film really didn’t answer the question, and perhaps the remaining two upcoming films will expand on this. And given how it ended, I probably could have skipped the first hour and 45 minutes and just watched the summary, as narrated by the wife, Anna. In fact, when her narration started, I looked at my husband and said, "What–did the film start over again?" And it wasn’t until part-way through that I realized we were getting a synopsis of what we had just watched.

One interesting thing though, as the immortals got closer to The Source, going through peril of all sorts involving the evil Guardian of course, they began to lose their powers. The spider sense being the first to go. So, if you’re immortal and closer to The Source, you won’t sense that the Guardian or any other immortal is near and you’re in danger of losing your head.

Oddly enough, the film seemed to be propelled by Anna MacLeod’s need to stop the ticking of her biological clock. Now–she knew when she married Duncan MacLeod that he couldn’t have children. In this day and age, and even when the first Highlander film was made about twenty years ago, hadn’t these people heard of adoption? Or artificial insemination? Sperm donors? But I suppose the whole point was that she wanted HIS baby.

So is this the reason why she was chosen to lead the remaining immortals to The Source? Who knows. All we see at the end, after Anna MacLeod’s narration of events that totally makes watching the first hour and forty-five minutes a waste of time, is this white fuzzy background with two apparently nude MacLeods in an embrace, smiling at each other as she announces that she’s a-havin’ his baby.

We do learn in the course of the film that immortals were created by The Source (again, I might have missed something here) because it was a "dark time, and the people cried out for a savior" or some such thing. Perhaps it was before they had a chance to try Christianity on for size, but I’m not sure.

Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be any clear answer as to why an immortal is created. Their deaths are final once the head is detached, and I suppose that follows a vampire-type myth about that stake in the heart kind of thing–or the removal of the vampire’s head. Losing one’s head would, after all, certainly curtail one’s immortality.

I can also understand the idea that an immortal (like a vampire?) can’t procreate. But to base a Highlander film on this premise of "I want his baby" seems pretty lame, in my opinion.

I am curious about something else, however.

Fans of the Highlander television series will remember Adrian Paul as a nice piece of eye candy. Slim, trim, lethal with a sword. Evidently immortals aren’t supposed to show the ravages of age–and while Adrian Paul is still a handsome guy with lots to recommend, he’s put on a few pounds since the days of his television series. So, during the entire film, which is rather dark to begin with (hello, lighting, people?), we see him in a bulky winter coat. Picture something the Marlboro Man would wear. Suede-like with the sheepskin trim. Comes down to about the bottom of his . . . bottom.

During any of MacLeod’s fight scenes, he’s shown from a distance, fighting in his bulky coat, or from mid-chest up. No more long shots of the dangerous swordsmen performing inhumanly impossible leaps as they try to protect their necks.

So why did someone decide it was better to shoot Adrian Paul as if he were the world’s first pregnant man, and that the "pregnancy" wouldn’t suit the character or the film, and so they’d just "shoot around it"?

 I’d rather they’d have ignored any extra poundage entirely and just shot the film as they would any other film or character. I don’t think it would have detracted from the story line–after all, The Guardian was this barrel-chested guy who still had all the right moves, even if he wanted to remove everybody’s head in the process of displaying them.  And if we're already practicing "suspension of disbelief" by accepting that there are immortals in film land, why can't we overlook a few extra pounds? 

The sound track was lacking the fire of the Queen songs that have previously revved up the action in other Highlander films, as well as the series. The Guardian does mock the other immortals by singing, "Who wants to live forever.....!" but that’s the only nod to the group whose guitar riffs so excellently matched action and mood in earlier films.

And frankly, if I were an immortal and discovered the only reason I was fighting this Guardian guy was so MacLeod’s wife could get pregnant, I’d be pretty annoyed to say the least.

Other than that small detail, there seems to be no other reason for the immortals to have been trying to find The Source to begin with. If they thought some wise man on the mountain type person would answer all their questions, they were sadly mistaken. And sadly mistaken is the audience who might have hoped for more.