Highlander is a fine example of not just film-making, but legend-making. In a single movie it created a world that has become easily recognisable from a single image (Sean Connery atop a ruined castle; Christopher Lambert surrounded by lightning) or line ("There can be only one."). As a story, it spawned a franchise including the greatest number of straight-to-TV movies that I can easily bring to mind. There always seems to be a MacLeod running around decapitating immortals on one satellite channel or another.Christopher Lambert is great in this movie. I think it's fair to call it a career-defining role for him. Sean Connery plays a pretty important part, given that his actual appearances throughout the film are relatively few in the grander scale of the storyline. The two of them easily dominate the film, in the best possible way, with the kind of friendship that only a shared burden - that of the immortals - and an off-screen camaraderie could produce.
In fact, friendship plays a recurring theme throughout the film - given the seemingly solitary nature of being immortal, MacLeod manages to befriend a number of his counterparts, which leaves me wondering how the plot might have unfolded if they were the only ones left (given that "there can be only one"...).
