HIGHLANDER Reunion Convention Report Part One

By: Abbie Bernstein
Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2001

At a lot of conventions, downtime between panels can feel like hanging around in a theatre lobby between acts of a play. The HIGHLANDER Reunion Convention, held Aug. 24-26 at the LAX Westin Hotel in Los Angeles, has an atmosphere much more like a party with total strangers hailing one another as kindred spirits and launching into conversation accordingly. The familiarity is inclusive rather than intrusive.

Reunion, organized by Lynn Loschin and Janean Sanders, is a celebration marking the 15th year of the existence of HIGHLANDER, which started out as a big-screen feature created by writer Gregory Widen. Christopher Lambert starred as Connor MacLeod, a Scotsman who discovers that he is Immortal and cannot die unless he is beheaded. The film spawned three big screen follow-ups and the 1992-1998 syndicated TV venture HIGHLANDER: THE SERIES, starring Adrian Paul as Connor's kinsman Duncan MacLeod, born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland and still alive. HIGHLANDER: THE SERIES in turn gave birth to a spin-off, HIGHLANDER: THE RAVEN, which ran for 22 episodes with Elizabeth Gracen recreating her HIGHLANDER role as Amanda, a 1,200-year-old jewel thief and sometime lover of the morally upright Duncan.

Reunion recognizes all of

the above, though the main focus is on HIGHLANDER: THE SERIES. Executive producer Bill Panzer (who, with partner Peter Davis, has been behind every incarnation of the franchise from its inception), Paul, Gracen, creative consultant David Abramowitz, series regulars Jim Byrnes (who played Joe Dawson, Duncan's mortal friend and Watcher), Stan Kirsch (Richie Ryan, Duncan's Immortal protégé), Peter Wingfield (5,000-year-old Methos), associate creative consultants Gillian Horvath and Donna Lettow, sword master F. Braun McAsh, line producer Ken Gord and a horde of guest stars and affiliated writers make for a weekend of nonstop Immortal information.

Programming begins Friday morning in the video room with the black-and-white documentary short film THE DAMN DEAL (the title is taken from a phrase meaning "absolutely fabulous"), directed by Gracen, consisting of interviews with three young, self-described drag queens who compete in drag beauty pageants. Gracen, who was herself a Miss America winner in 1982, has real insight as do her subjects. The interviews are interspersed with acted footage of Wingfield decked out as a frumpy, German-accented professorial type, who looks remarkably like Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE.

The main programming gets underway with convention MC John Bierly introducing Maureen Russell's presentation on THE BEST OF HIGHLANDER. Russell produced and conducted the interviews for the supplemental footage that accompanies each episode of the 13-hour boxed set, having previously written the interview-and-fact-laden compendium HIGHLANDER: THE COMPLETE WATCHER'S GUIDE. Russell explains that although the BEST OF set contains three-and-a-half hours of interviews, over 50 hours were actually shot.

Previously unseen interview

material includes Byrnes talking about a visit to Belfast, Ireland, where he and a friend were at a pub at closing time. The bartender refused to serve another round until he looked up at the TV, which was tuned into an episode of HIGHLANDER featuring Byrnes, who quotes the reaction: "'Jaysus, it's himself!'" Byrnes got another pint after all, along with directions to an after-hours club.

Byrnes and Wingfield also appear together in the interview footage. Byrnes waxes philosophical, observing that Joe tends to think of Methos in the latter's Watcher persona as pal and fellow Watcher Adam Pierson, rather than as an ancient being. Byrnes also sees similarities between the two characters in terms of their morality: "They're both survivors, willing to look at gray areas."

Wingfield takes up the thread: "They have a good time together they always seem pleased to see each other. There is a sense in Joe's character... that he understands how terrible, bleak, depressing, evil things in us are possible."

Byrnes agrees: "I think it's at the basis of their relationship that they're both able to do that."

"There's that sense of Methos and Joe," Wingfield elaborates, "that they're both looking into the abyss. I didn't get that sense with [MacLeod] he knows where the abyss is, and he ain't going there!"

Byrnes observes, "I think Jim and Peter are a lot like Joe and Adam."

Wingfield comments on his friendship with the other actor: "Shooting HIGHLANDER was not always easy... working with Jim was one of the things that made it bearable." On the video, the two men hug.

"Undoubtedly, it's the most

significant acting job I've had in my life," Wingfield says of Methos in solo interview footage. "I always wanted an edge to the character, where he wouldn't be walked on by MacLeod... I could see no reason why Methos should be impressed by this kid of a couple hundred years [in age]."

The BEST OF set contains the two-parter "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelations 6:8," which depict Methos' history as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In what we see of Methos in the present, he tends to avoid violence, but Wingfield's take on the character is, "He wasn't sure that he didn't need [violence]."

As for the theory that Methos was the brains to the brawn of chief Horseman Kronos (Valentine Pelka), Wingfield isn't sure of this either: "There is no sense that Kronos was a thug he is just as sharp and acute [as Methos]." In turn, "Methos was a much better fighter than he made out... Kronos does appear to be turned on by showbiz 'Let's take over the world, but let's do it Las Vegas style.'"

A much-examined scene in "Horseman" is the confrontation between Methos and MacLeod, who has just learned of his friend's past. The performances seem particularly raw and emotional. Wingfield recalls, "We [Wingfield and Paul] said to the crew, 'We're not gonna hit marks grab what you can.'"

As for why Methos takes the risks that he does in the name of friendship and love, Wingfield muses, "Methos craves human contact it's his Achilles heel."

Methos' actions throughout the "Horseman" arc can be read many different ways, even in the climax when he faces his old friend Silas at the same time that MacLeod and Kronos battle to the death. "I don't think [Methos] knew who [MacLeod or Kronos] would win," Wingfield says. "I don't think he had planned beyond the final conflict. I think he's mad he's lost control. It reminded me of Hamlet maybe he's faking being crazy, but maybe he's coming apart." He cites the sweater that Methos wears. "It looks more and more like a straitjacket, where it could be wrapped around him and tied, because he was fit to be tied... If it had ended up Kronos [as winner], [Methos] would have gone with Kronos until the next time."

THE BEST OF HIGHLANDER is currently

available on videotape. It was originally due out soon on DVD, but Panzer explains in a later interview that there's been a delay in favor of a different set of HIGHLANDER episodes. "People said, 'We want seasons one through six.' So while we have pretty much finished the BEST OF [for DVD], we've delayed it. The marketplace is saying, 'We want Season One,' so we're making Season One [for DVD]. It will have supplemental materials. It will have some video commentary from me. It will have the Watcher links that Donna [Lettow] did that are so clever." As the Season One episode BAND OF BROTHERS is part of the BEST OF set, Panzer says the supplemental material from this may well find its way into the Season One DVDs. "It's going to be in 5.1 sound. Nobody's ever seen what [HIGHLANDER] looks like. You've seen it on television, you've seen it on VHS you've never seen what it really looks like. I've just seen it the visual richness [is] fantastic."

Actress/swordmaster Roberta Brown mounts the stage with Russell. Although Brown never worked on HIGHLANDER, she doubled leading lady Tessie Santiago in QUEEN OF SWORDS, a series about a female avenger in old California with an impeccable HIGHLANDER pedigree: Abramowitz executive-produced, Gord line-produced, Horvath contributed a script and both Wingfield and Pelka were regulars.

Brown has brought dailies of a swordfight in which, doubling the heroine, she duels Pelka's villainous Col. Montoya (Pelka, a member of the British Society of Fight Choreographers, did most of his own sword work). There are several cameras rolling on the shot which is ruined as one camera team inadvertently films the other as it pans. Another set-up shows Brown tossing stunt coordinator Ricardo Cruz off a balcony, then kicking a soldier, who knocks his comrades domino-style down a flight of stairs. "I can tell you honestly I never got tired of doing that," Brown smiles.

Another set of clips show Wingfield doing his own stunt a high jump off a rock. Brown explains that although Wingfield's stunt double executed the leap perfectly well, from certain angles it was clearly not the right person. Wingfield's background as a trampoline champion served him in good stead and his participation allowed the shot to be done in close-up. Also, Brown observes, Wingfield "just thought it looked like fun."

Check back later this week for CINESCAPE's continuing coverage of the HIGHLANDER Reunion Convention.