Deliberate mistake: There's a bizarre editing gaff in the opening fight of the Director's Cut. At one point, Fasil's sword vanishes (for no real reason) and he starts to do backflips. The scene then cuts away, and when it cuts back, he's suddenly running and has his sword again. A few shots later, he's suddenly doing backflips and has lost his sword again. (It's meant to be Fasil doing the flips.) The editing makes absolutely no sense. It's like they somehow mixed up two different scenes during editing.
Highlander (1986)
1 deliberate mistake
Directed by: Russell Mulcahy
Starring: Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart
Continuity mistake: In the Madison Square Garden fight scene between MacLeod and Fasil, Fasil's shades fall off after he rolls over a car, and the shot of them on the ground shows him running away in the reflection. McCloud stands over them looking around...and a few seconds later Fasil strikes a junction box, with his shades miraculously back on his face.
Connor MacLeod: I apologize for calling your wife a bloated warthog, and I bid you good day.
Trivia: In the video versions, the scene where MacLeod rescues Rachel, the text the German SS officer speaks has not been subtitled or otherwise translated, so it may not be obvious why MacLeod eventually kills the German (I don't know whether that was rectified in the DVDs). Here the translation of the German text: MacLeod trips up the officer and seizes his weapon. The German calls: "You should be dead." When MacLeod orders him to move, the German says: "No. First you will have to shoot me." Then MacLeod gives off his opinion about the 'master race', and then shoots him.
Question: In the director's cut (which seems to be the most widely available version these days), what's the deal with all the backflips in the opening fight? The editing is very awkward. Fasil goes from running, to doing backflips, then back to running, then back to doing backflips several times, seemingly between shots, during a short section of the fight. Is it just bad editing? Or is the movie trying to suggest that it's a different person doing the flips? Or... what? It's so confusingly edited.
Answer: I always felt the idea was given he was trying to move very rapidly whilst also being silent. In a garage with those shoes on your footsteps are very loud. Perhaps he was trying to confuse MacLeod as to where he was.
I'm not asking why he's doing backflips. I'm asking why the editing is so confusing, since he goes from doing backflips, to running somewhere completely else, then back to backflips at the first location between edits. (Look up the clip "The Highlander (1986) 1080p : Underground parking Fight Scene. Epic!" on YouTube and pay attention around 4:20.) He also loses his sword whenever we see him doing backflips, even though he's carrying it when he's running. The editing makes absolutely no sense.
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Answer: The Director, Russell Mulcahy, started his career making music videos. He was known for using fast cuts and tracking shots.