Behind The Scenes Of Nostalgic Fantasy Movies

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Highlander is likely one of the best fantasy films to come out of the 1980s. Buoyed by a soundtrack by Queen, it’s so over-the-top in so many ways that it just somehow works. Additionally, Sean Connery plays an Egyptian-turned-Spaniard who doesn’t attempt to mask his Scottish accent whatsoever. And the star, Christopher Lambert, couldn’t speak English fluently – very incongruous for a character living in the US and Scotland! There’s sword fighting, immortality, decapitations, and a killer fight at the end – pure ’80s magic.

Director Russell Mulcahey wasn’t too worried about the accent inconsistencies:

The fact he couldn’t speak English didn’t really matter. So we ended up with a Frenchman playing a Scotsman, and Sean Connery as the Spanish-Egyptian immortal who trains him. We didn’t bother changing Sean’s accent – this was Sean Connery! These guys had been around for centuries. They could have picked up accents from wherever.

Because the film centers around a small group of people known as Immortals who can only be slain by decapitation, there’s lots of swordplay in Highlander. The Kurgan, played by Clancy Brown, is the film’s villain who has an epic battle with Sean Connery’s character Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez as they destroy a small stone building amidst thunder and lightning. Evidently, Brown was nervous about filming a scene with the legendary James Bond actor, so he came in swinging his sword without remembering what he was meant to do.

According to Mulcahey, Brown was supposed to slash a table in two, but he hit the table with the flat of his blade, causing a chip to go flying off and almost strike Sean Connery. “He was on the verge of walking,” Mulcahey recalled. Brown apologized profusely, and Connery calmed down.

It was a fairly “guerrilla” production all in all. Mulcahey recalled the unorthodox way they got the swords to spark during duels:

For the fights, we strapped car batteries to the actors’ legs and wired them up so they’d spark when a sword struck. After about three takes, the sword handles would get really hot and we’d have to stop.

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Conan the Barbarian featured several animal actors, which presented something of a problem for just about everyone involved. In The Making of Conan the Barbarian documentary, Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that a wolf attacked him, resulting in a serious injury. The animal trainer got attacked repeatedly, so Schwarzenegger wasn’t the only person to find himself in the jaws of danger.

Director John Milius explained in the documentary that after Schwarzenegger was injured, he showed the injury to Milius, to which the director recalled replying: “I said ”yeah, it looks great, don’t touch it,” and he says “But I’m bleeding.” Then I said, “the pain is only momentary, but the film is eternal.”

Another serious injury came when Sandahl Bergman (as Valeria) was filming a scene that nearly severed her index finger:

It was in the battle sequence when we were inside the castle, and we were under a time limit, and I was working with an extra… probably should have been a stuntman in that routine, and the guy did the wrong move, which was called a parry, and his sword slid down and cut my index finger.

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Willow tells the story of Willow Ufgood, a Nelwyn (little person) farmer who stumbles upon a Daikini (tall person) child near his home. He embarks on a quest to return her to her people but winds up involved in a greater plot to overthrow the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda. Fortunately, he picks up some allies along the way and learns some magic to help him save the baby and the people from the evil queen.

During one scene, Willow accidentally transforms a troll into a two-headed, fire-breathing dragon. The creature isn’t given a name in the movie, but it was referred to by the crew – and in the film’s novelization – as the following: “An Eborsisk, by the gods! Kill it! Forget the man! Slay the beast before it breathes!”

According to Phil Tippett, the special effects artist behind the monster’s creation, it was named in dishonor of famed film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. (The latter gave Willow a negative review, but probably not because of this jab.)

Meanwhile, Bavmorda’s right-hand-man, General Kael, was named after the famed New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael.

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Dragonheart was a rare gem, where dragon films are concerned, as it was surprisingly well made. It centers around the last surviving dragon and the only remaining dragon hunter, who team up to help save the land and its people from the evil ruler they saved long ago. It had amazing special effects built upon the success of Jurassic Park, which came out a few years earlier. That movie proved that special effects crews could achieve a believable dragon without the use of puppets.

That said, it meant the actors had to work alongside a blank canvas, as the dragon wouldn’t be added until post-production. Back when Dragonheart was made, people didn’t prance about on stage wearing green bodysuits, so all Dennis Quaid (as Sir Bowen) had to work with was a mark, so he’d know where to look. Fortunately, director Rob Cohen didn’t leave him hanging; instead, Cohen stood in to act out Draco’s parts opposite Quaid, which apparently helped. Draco is only in about 20% of the movie, so this wasn’t a significant problem during filming.

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Beastmaster is only loosely based on the Andre Norton novel of the same name, but it does keep one key factor: a man who can communicate with animals. The film sees the eponymous hero – who rarely goes anywhere without his trusty golden eagle Sharak – battle an evil wizard and his army. Of course, the filmmakers couldn’t communicate with the bird, but they had people on hand to work with it and other animal actors. Unfortunately, the one thing you expect a bird to do was the one thing this one often refused to do: fly.

The problem was the budget and the production’s refusal to hire actual animal actors. Instead, they went with bargain basement critters that didn’t listen to commands, so the crew had to get creative. As explained by director/cowriter Don Coscarelli:

Every time a new animal would arrive on the set, we’d find out they couldn’t do anything basically, and I think the most egregious of them was this bird which really wouldn’t even fly. They had to send the bird up in a closed basket attached to a helium balloon, open the lid via radio control once it hit 300 feet or so, and then film the bird flying back to earth. The golden eagle they used was borrowed from a wild animal park owned by the San Diego Zoo.

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Ladyhawke features an impressive cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Rutger Hauer, and an early Matthew Broderick appearance. It centers around young thief Phillipe “The Mouse” Gaston (Broderick), who finds himself swept up in the affairs of a bishop and his army as they hunt down a warrior and a lady. It’s a whimsical fantasy shot on location in various places in Italy, so it features beautiful castles and other treasured areas found throughout the peninsula.

Filming took five months, which meant the principal cast had to relocate to Italy for the duration. That may seem like a welcome opportunity, and while few would argue the point, it was difficult for Pfeiffer, who explained to Interview Magazine that she was homesick throughout the shoot and took up painting as a way of combatting her loneliness:

It was the longest and the farthest I had ever been away from home. I decided I needed something that I could feel as passionate about as acting and something in which I could completely lose myself. I started painting, and I’m still doing it. But it’s just like with stereotyping: I’ll be lying in bed and find myself thinking about how I could have handled that shadow differently. Finally, I can’t sleep, thinking about how to paint this or that, and I say to myself, what are you doing? You got into this so that wouldn’t drive yourself crazy. And now you’re doing the same thing with it.

Evidently, she got pretty good at it and continues painting to this day.