Last time: Connor had a mountain of artifacts and the occasional happy flashback.
14. Let me explain…
So it’s time for Ramirez. And it won’t be a big surprise that I don’t especially like the character, but it always gets me that I feel so darned guilty about it. He brings verve to parts of the movie that could use it, which is good. He’s an exposition character, which is something I usually love. And the casting that causes a character who is an Egyptian-born Spaniard to have the strongest Scots burr in the movie is the kind of inspired (or possibly “inspired”) move that usually wins me right over.
And so I try to break it down, only to be thwarted at every turn by things I do like. Is it the cheese factor?
Guess not. The bombast?
Nope.
Anyway, Ramirez (Sean Connery, which is the one fact about Highlander even people who’ve never heard “Princes of the Universe” know) rides into Connor’s life on a white horse.
At this point, I was going to make an Old Spice joke… and that’s when it hit me. Ramirez is supposed to be a Mr. Miyagi figure, but with the velvet suit and the booming voice, he reads like Lord Flashheart from Blackadder, right from the beginning.
Ramirez introduces himself as “Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, chief metallurgist to King Charles V of Spain,” working his red velvet suit and peacock cape for all they’re worth. Connor’s wife sums it up succinctly: “Who?” I generally spend this part of the movie wondering whether Connor and Heather know anything about Spain. (Presumably blacksmith Connor knows some metallurgy, but I’d bet you a zillion skull helmets he wouldn’t call it that.)
Ramirez proves that he knows Connor’s backstory, and then—somehow—gives Connor a Quickening.
This is something I’ve been trying to figure out. A friend of mine has a theory that an immortal can trigger a Quickening at will if they have one “on deck,” so to speak, but this means what? Ramirez saved up the results of his last duel for what is basically a sales presentation? Is it like those PSAs from my childhood where the drug dealer gives you the first one free?
As the lightning subsides and the rain falls, Ramirez looks up to the sky and shouts, “We are brothers!” It looks like he’s going to embrace the Highlander, but the scene cuts before he does. I wouldn’t press that guy against a nice suit either.
Meanwhile, in the ’80s, Brenda bribes Moran with lunch and snoops through his desk; in his treasure cave, Connor sharpens his sword in front of a fish tank I bet he doesn’t maintain properly and looks at Brenda’s picture on the back of a book about sword-making.
Next time: For Found-Again Friday, I assuage my guilt about Ramirez by taking on a Connery movie I loved…when I was nine.
Next time on TCBOM!: It’s like Rocky, but with kilts and topography.
