Terminator Ripoff
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Highlander
Legendary_Badass — 9 years ago(October 29, 2016 08:54 PM)
Rewatched recently, and though I always felt it was an alright movie (7/10) the original Highlander strikes me as something of a Cannon Films means to ape The Terminator.
Time travel story set in a then modern day city. Hero in trenchcoat with sneakers. Imposing villain in punk attire. Unstoppable killing machine. Lightning effects.
You can draw a parallel between the immortals and a Terminator. Where one movie has characters going back in time, the other has characters advancing through time, both meeting in the present. If you know anything about Cannon Films, then you know they like to get in on trends. Can't see any definitive answer on this, but it would appear as though Highlander was an effort to get in on the Terminator trend, though going a more fantasy route than most knockoffs. If for some reason the Kurgan's goal was to kill a particular woman, then the full blown ripoff status would be obvious.
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quaddo — 9 years ago(November 01, 2016 05:46 PM)
Cannon had nothing to do with the making/financing of the film. They were merely a distributor.
This a UK-production by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, et al.:
http://www.imdb.com/board/10091203/companycredits
Sure, you can see some parallels to The Terminator, but I don't think it's a knockoff per se. It's more like both are mid 80's action-adventure-sci-fi-fantasy films:- "Time travel story". Don't agree, since there is no time travel in The Highlander. It may feel that way since the transitions between modern day and the past are done so brilliantly.
- "Hero in trenchcoat with sneakers". Using a trench-coat maybe was popular in the 80's for being mysterious and/or trying to blend into a crowd (being incognito). White sneakers was very common/popular in the 80's.
- "Imposing villain in punk attire". Pretty common, it usually meant he/she was a "bad guy", since punk-rock wasn't "the thing" anymore the further you get into the 80's.
- "Unstoppable killing machine". I doubt this was invented by The Terminator.
- "Lightning effects". Nope. Lightning has always been a popular trope in movies (e.g. time travel, making robots evil, magical powers, awaking the dead, etc.). In the 80's it was perhaps overused compared to previous decades.
Try watching Kung Fury, and I think you'll understand what I mean:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3472226
RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007)
http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0007183
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Legendary_Badass — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 11:46 AM)
A modern short that
pays homage
to '80s films proves what?
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quaddo — 9 years ago(November 04, 2016 02:18 AM)
It may have been made recently but is supposed to look like it was made in the 80's, hence it uses a lot of the 80's common tropes, e.g. lightning granting magical powers.
RIP Ian Richardson (1934-2007)
http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0007183 -
DrWhen — 9 years ago(November 03, 2016 06:24 PM)
Terminator was big at the time but it's really heavily influenced by Citizen Cane. The shot off the sunglasses in the opening sword fight was a reference to the shot through the broken snow globe at the beginning of Citizen Kane. The rest of the movie is telling his life story through flashbacks.