Connery Part 3 - Walk Like an Egyptian Spaniard
Ramirez shows off his sword to McLeod
“In the end, there can be only one”.
My next favourite Connery performance is his turn as Juan Sanchez-Villalobos Ramirez in the cult classic, Highlander. Around the time the movie was released, I was obsessed with Queen. The band, not the late monarch. Somebody had copied their original greatest hits album for me and I literally wore the tape out.
One rainy Friday around September 1986, my Father picked me up from school as usual, to take me to his place for the weekend. He reached into the glovebox of his Renault 9 and produced the latest Queen album; A Kind of Magic. I was familiar with the song, as it had gotten a lot of radio play that year.
It was all we listened to over the weekend and I began to become obsessed with the songs on side 2 of the album, especially Gimme the Prize. Beginning with Brian May’s wild solo and a bass build up reminiscent of the beginning of the Ghostbuster’s theme (1984’s obsession). It continues with an excerpt from a radio news report about a the discovery of a “..man’s decapitated body, lying on the floor next to his own severed head. The head which at this time, has no name”
Then an impossibly deep gravelly voice says; “I know his name”.
Freddie Mercury’s vocal, the sound of swordfights, a sort of bagpipe sounding middle 8. What on earth was this? My Father knew. These songs were from the movie Highlander.
He had been to see Highlander in the cinema and enthusiastically talked me through the plot as we listened to Freddie and co, in the car. I had to see it, but I knew the chances were slim. My Mother wouldn’t even let me watch Grange Hill. The chances of persuading her to rent a film where immortals battle for a mythical “Prize” by cutting each other’s heads off, were pretty slim.
Ramirez teaches McLeod to keep his head.
Around a year later, I was in the video shop with my friend helping him select movies for his 10th birthday party and I managed to persuade him to get his mum to rent Highlander. The other movie was some forgettable vehicle for Gary Coleman off Diff’rent Strokes, and it was utter shite.
Once the Coleman crap had ended, Highlander was slid into the VCR. Connery’s voiceover set the scene as I excitedly informed my fellow party goers; “See him? That’s Sean Connery. He’s Scottish!”. Unfortunately, I was living in England at that time, the other kids were all English and nobody gave a fuck whether there was a Scottish guy in the film.
Then we’re straight into the Queen song “Princes of the Universe”! Then we’re in Madison Square Garden watching wrestling legends “The Fabulous Freebirds” throwing their opponents round the ring! Then we see Christopher Lambert leave his seat and go into the car park! Then an awesome sword fight! Then we’re back in historical Scotland watching a clan set off to war! Then the Kurgen! Then...well it slowed down a bit and some of the boys’ attention began to drift as the exposition ramped up.
By the time Big Tam appeared on the screen, everybody else had slipped away to do something else and I was left watching alone. I tried to understand why this actor, whom I knew by now was the ultimate Scottish icon, was introducing himself to Lambert’s Connor McLeod as an Egyptian. And that name! I may have been young, but I knew it wasn’t Scottish.
“If you’re Scottish, I’m an Egyptian”
However, in a matter of minutes, it didn’t matter anymore as Connery was running away with the film. He’s on screen for less than half an hour and elevates something that could quite easily have been consigned to B Movie purgatory to the cult classic, franchise starter Highlander ultimately became.
I’m not trying to take anything away from the rest of the cast. Lambert is charming and fun, despite his confounding attempt at a Scottish accent and Clancy Brown appears to be having the time of his life as the brutal and sadistic Kurgen. But when Connery’s on screen, it feels like it’s his movie.
Despite only being contracted to work a week on set, the scenes with Ramirez and McLeod are some of the strongest in the film, as the former teaches the latter about his immortality and trains him to fight with the sword. Unfortunately, his final scene in the film almost cost Connery his head for real.
It was Clancy Brown’s first day on the movie and they were filming the fight between Ramirez and the Kurgen. Brown had to burst through the door and cut the table in two. The nervous young actor is said to have swung the huge sword in the wrong direction, missing Connery by inches. Big Tam reportedly stormed off the set and it was only the humblest of apologies from Brown and assurances from director Russell Mulcahy that brought him back to complete his scenes.
Despite the near miss, Mulcahy persuaded him to play Ramirez again in dodgy sequel, Highlander 2: The Quickening in 1991. Once again, he’s only on screen for a relatively short time, but his scenes make the incoherent story a little more bearable.
His supporting role in Highlander would be the first of many in which he would play a mentor figure to a younger character. My third favourite Connery is one such role but perhaps not the one you might expect…
Connery smiles as he considers how his fee for a week’s work on Highlander is going to improve his golf course.