|
Post by badwolf on Mar 2, 2023 20:06:13 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Chris on Mar 2, 2023 23:18:02 GMT -5
I gotta vote for the John Williams Superman score from ‘78. I can’t remember the lyrics, but the music is great. The lyrics are Superman Superman Supe Supe Supe Superman Superman Supe Supe Supe SUPERMAAAAAN!So, you mean this?
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2023 23:27:15 GMT -5
But here's my favorite; maybe over its 8 minute duration it will wipe Mother Earth out of my mind:
A favourite of mine as well - but is 'Superman' here a reference to the comic book character? It never struck me that way, personally - not that I could tell you what the lyrics actually are all about, mind you!
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 0:24:05 GMT -5
You know, I have never seen any Highlander films. Is it the same kind of cheerful campiness as that Flash Gordon film? Campy? No, it's played more straightly; however, it is gleefully over-the-top, in its own way and has more than a few cheesy moments. Forget the other films, the original is the one to see. Let's put it this way; the Scottish Highlander is played by a Frenchman who barely spoke English and does so with a heavy French accent (never explained) and the Scot plays an Egyptian, form the Spanish court, who is more than a bit of a dandy. Meanwhile, Clancy Brown is just badass! Nicely staged swordfights, an interesting premise, and every trick from Russell Mulcahey's past career as a director of music videos. Mulcahey was one of the top video directors, helming things like Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and some of Culture Club's videos. If the video had blowing curtains and/or shattering glass, it was his. Those elements are in fine form, in Highlander, especially the shattering glass. Heck, the movie opens with footage of AWA wrestling, in what is supposed to be Madison Square Garden, but was actually the Meadowlands. Queen did the soundtrack, with the bombastic "Princes of the Universe" and "Give Me the Prize," and the ballad "Who Wants to Live Forever" (which plays over the scenes of McLeod having to bury the love of his life, Heather, after first learning he is immortal) and "A Kind of Magic." The music makes up the bulk of their album A Kind of Magic (as well as "One Vision, " from the film Iron Eagles). The basic premise is that McLeod, the Highlander, discovers, in battle, that he is immortal and part of a group that lives through the centuries, fighting one another and taking their energy, the Quickening, until there are only two left. the one who emerges from the final battle will gain The Prize. McLeod meets Ramirez, an Egyptian, living in the Spanish court, who was drawn to Scotland, just as Mcleod discovers his immortality. During a clan battle, the rival clan is partnered with a large, fierce warrior, The Kurgan, from the steppes of Russia, who knows McLeod is an immortal. Ramirez finds McLeod, after he has been cast out of his clan, as a witch, when he survives a mortal wound and is completely healthy, by morning. Ramirez explaions the immortals and teaches Mcleod to harness the Quickening, and to fight better, with a katana that was crafted by Masamune, the great Japanese swordsmith. The Kurgan comes hunting McLeod and finds Ramirez and McLeod's wife, Heather. Ramirez qwounds the Kurgan , partially cutting his throat but not cutting off his head (the only way to kill an immortal), before the Kurgan slays him. In the 20th Century, it is the time of The Gathering, when all the world's immortals feel the pull to come to the New World (America) to engage in the final battle. At the start of the film, which slips back and forth in time periods, telling the story, McLeod faces Fazir, in the parking garage at Madison Square Garden and kills him, taking his Quickening, but having to flee, before the police arrive, hiding the katana he inherited from Ramirez. A forensics technician finds a sliver of the blade and carbon dates it and starts searching for more information and encounters Mcleod. They develop a romance and he eventually reveals his past to her. The Kurgan kills Castagir, an African immortal, and he and Mcleod are the final pair. The police are hunting The Kurgan, for the death of Castagirm which was witnessed by an ex-Marine and survivalist, who shot him with an assault rifle, before the Kurgan stabs him with his sword. McLeod and Kurgan meet in a church, which is Holy Ground, where no fighting can occur, and speak, before the final fight.... Connery, as Ramirez, teaching McLeod about the Quickening and the immortals.... Really, if it weren't for Connery and Clancy Brown, the film would be pretty bad. It is occasionally cheesy, often confusing (especially the original American theatrical cut), but never dull. The sequel tried to give an origin to the immortals, on another world, but it made no sense, based on what happens in the original film. The third film tried to undo the mess the second film made and pretty much ignores everything in it, but still manages to mostly rehash a lot of the first film. The others are the sae, in varying degrees. The tv series was pretty shakey, in its first season, but improved greatly in the second and subsequent seasons, as it looks at Connor McLeod's kinsman, Duncan McLeod, as he faces other immortals, while a secret order, known as The Watchers, keeps tab on the immortals. Christopher Lambert made an appearance in the series' first episode and I think he returned for another, then they appeared together in one of the later theatrical films. Some of the immortals from the series included Nigel Terry, who played King Arthur, in Excalibur; Roland Gift, of the Fine Young Cannibals, Mark Singer (V, Beastmaster) and Rowdy Roddy Piper, the pro wrestler and star of They Live!
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 0:48:08 GMT -5
ps The original idea came from a visit one of the writers made to The House on the Rock, up in Wisconsin. it is an eccentric architectural wonder, built by a millionaire who amassed odd collections of things, like carousel horses, weapons, fine china, etc, with different rooms devoted to displaying the collections. The writer imagined a man amassing these collections over the centuries, because he did not die. There is a scene where McLeod enters a circular room, in his loft apartment, where he has treasures from his lifetime. He walks around the room, surveying the trophies and artefacts and you hear audio clips of football games from the turn of the century and old battles and historical events he witnessed. The film flashes back and forth through time and you see McLeod fight a duel on Boston Common, in 1783, where his opponents wounds him again and again, but he doesn't die and keeps fighting, until finally McLeod stops the fight and apologizes to the man, for offending him and goes off to get a drink.
Hugh Quarshie, of Phantom Menace fame, was Kastagir. Christopher Malcolm, who was Zev, the search pilot, in Empire Strikes Back (and Edwina's gay ex-husband, in Absolutely Fabulous) is the Marine who tries to shoot the Kurgan. James Cosmo (Trainspotting, Braveheart, Game of Thrones) is one of McLeod's kinsmen, at the battle.
The opening has McLeod watching pro wrestling, while flashing back to the start of the clan battle, where he sees the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts) take on Jim Brunzell, Greg Gane and Sam Fatu (aka The Tonga Kid). In the American release, you see a secretary/receptionist at Mcleod's antique gallery, who knows he is immortal, but there is no explanation of how she knows. In the European cut (and later restored in the Renegade Edition) it is revealed that she was a young Jewish girl who was rescued from the Nazis, during WW2, by McLeod and raised as his daughter. he shield's the girl as a German soldier fires a submachine gun at him and the girl can see that it does not kill him and asks why he is alive. He tells her "It's a kind of magic." He gets up, takes the weapon away from the stunend Nazi and shoots him dead....
It's a decidedly 80s movie; but a pretty enjoyable one, with a forgiving eye to badly cast accents, dodgy acting and ridiculous premise. It shouldn't work; but it does. However, the filmmakers and everyone after never quite understood what worked and could never replicate it fully, though the tv series did better than the film series. There was even a cartoon, minus the beheading.
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Mar 3, 2023 6:54:35 GMT -5
But here's my favorite; maybe over its 8 minute duration it will wipe Mother Earth out of my mind: A favourite of mine as well - but is 'Superman' here a reference to the comic book character? It never struck me that way, personally - not that I could tell you what the lyrics actually are all about, mind you!
I think so, since "Superman" is in a list of other figures of power: judge, mom and dad. Maybe it's not so much "about" Superman, but I believe she intentionally evokes the image of the superhero here for whatever effect she meant the song to have on the listener.
|
|
|
Post by commond on Mar 3, 2023 7:49:46 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by commond on Mar 3, 2023 7:54:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by tonebone on Mar 3, 2023 9:20:42 GMT -5
The lyrics are Superman Superman Supe Supe Supe Superman Superman Supe Supe Supe SUPERMAAAAAN!So, you mean this? Great Krypton! I have never heard this! I had Meco's "Star Wars and other Galactic Funk" as a kid and listened to it non-stop, but had no idea there was a superhero version!
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Mar 3, 2023 11:15:00 GMT -5
No love for the original? Plenty of love from me, at least.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 12:42:06 GMT -5
Well, how about the theme music for Spy Smasher?
Why Beethoven's 5th Symphony? Look at the hero's belt buckle. The Morse Code for the letter V.
|
|
|
Post by mikelmidnight on Mar 3, 2023 12:49:05 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2023 14:56:53 GMT -5
I have extremely vague memories of watching that. From what I have heard, the stage productions were much better than this tv edition.
|
|
|
Post by Calidore on Mar 3, 2023 20:16:35 GMT -5
Thanks, codystarbuck, that's kind of sold me on giving the first Highlander a try.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Mar 3, 2023 20:37:04 GMT -5
I think so, since "Superman" is in a list of other figures of power: judge, mom and dad. Maybe it's not so much "about" Superman, but I believe she intentionally evokes the image of the superhero here for whatever effect she meant the song to have on the listener.
I never thought of it from that POV, I'll keep it in mind next time I'm listening to the album.
|
|