Sometimes, all a film needs to be made is a standout idea. Something really, really unique.
So when film executives thought up HIghlander, they hit the jackpot. Immortal men spend centuries fighting until one remains and wins a prize. Oh, and you can only die if you get your head cut off.
That's it. And it's brilliant.
What's better, is that the two leads, Christophe Lambert, a Frenchman, plays Connor Macleod, a Scottish highlander, (from where the title comes) while Sean Connery, an actual Scot, plays an Egyptian!
It's fantastic fun, but also has some extremely impressive stylistic touches courtesy of director Russell Mulcahy. Add one of cinema's genuinely great villains in the terrifying Kurgen, and you have the recipe for a perfect cinematic adventure film.
As an addendum, it is also interesting that Highlander finds itself on another list, of brilliant first films that were followed by absolutely awful sequels. Speed and Basic Instinct are other examples, but with those two the filmmakers at least had the intelligence to stop. Highlander has numerous sequels, all as terrible as the first is terrific. There can be only one? No, but there should have been.......