Highlander, 1986
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
Oregon:
Visit: Oregon
Visit: Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach
Eat at: the Carver Cafe, 16471 SE Highway 224 (Clackamas Hwy), south of Damascus (tel: 503.658.3206)
Visit:View Point Inn, 40301 East Larch Mountain Road, Corbett, on I-84, 22 miles east of downtown Portland (tel: 503.695.5811)
Washington State:
Visit: Washington State
Visit: the real Forks
California:
Stay at: the Hyatt Valencia, 24500 Town Center Drive, Valencia, on I-5 west of Santa Clarita (tel: 661.799.1234)
Trivia
You can see Cannon Beach again in Steven Spielberg’s slapstick comedy 1941, in The Goonies and in Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 Point Break with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.
Highlander location: the Scottish castle: Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland
Photograph: iStockphoto ©
A gobsmacking jumble of accents: Scot Connery plays Spanish/Egyptian nobleman Ramirez and Frenchman Lambert is immortal Scot Macleod, in this flashy nonsense made by a director of TV ads (and does it show).
Macleod’s home is the 13th century Eilean Donan Castle on an islet in Dornie, eight miles east of Kyle of Lochalsh on the A87, Wester Ross (admission charge; & 01599.555202).
The battle between the tribes was staged at Glencoe, on the A82 in Argylleshire. The beach, where Mcleod experiences the Quickening, is Refuge Bay, Curtaig near Morar, while the spectacular jagged peak where Ramirez teaches swordplay is Cioch in the Cuillin Hills on the Isle of Skye.
In present day New York, Mcleod decapitates a rival swordsman ine the carpark of Madison Square Garden. The scuzzy backstreet is the all-purpose fighting alley, Cortlandt Alley, between Canal and Franklin Streets alongside Broadway in Lower Manhattan (it’s where Crocodile Dundee [qv] fights off muggers).
The final confrontation with Kurgan is, conveniently, atop the Silvercup Studios, 42-25 21st Street in Queens, where the film’s interiors were shot.
Highlander location: the ‘New York’ church: St Augustine’s, Kilburn, London
The ‘New York’ Church, where Connor McLeod (Christopher Lambert) meets the insinuatingly blasphemous Kurgan (Clancy Brown), is the huge, rather severe, red-brick St Augustine’s Kilburn, Kilburn Park Road, opposite Rudolph Road. The church is open to visitors on Saturday mornings between 10 and 12, and Tuesdays between 9 and 12.
The first sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, was made in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while Highlander III: The Sorcerer (aka Highlander – The Final Dimension) returned to Scotland, filming at Glencoe, Glen Nevis and Ardnamurchan.