Year:
1982
Studio:
Unversal Pictures
Feature:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
Feature
"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the
sons of Arias, there was an age undreamed of. And on to this,
Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled
brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let
me tell you of the days of High Adventure..."
So starts Conan the Barbarian,
an epic fantasy movie based on the works of Robert E Howard. The time
is prehistory. The place is Europe, but a Europe much changed from
present day. It is a land of mysteries and magic, where age-old
civilized kingdoms struggle against barbarian hordes and each other,
where a man has only himself and his sword to protect him, where
eldritch horrors that man-was-not-meant-to-know lurk in the dark hidden
places.
Into this world is born Conan, a Cimmerian, a barbarian from the north
between the northern borders of civilized Aquilonia and the Nordic
barbarians of the savage north. Black maned, blue eyed, with a powerful
physique and an unbending will, Conan wanders the world having a great
many adventures before rising to become King of Aquilonia.
Robert E Howard almost single-handedly started the sword-and-sorcery
genre in the late 1920's. His short stories weaved vivid tales of
action and adventure starring King Kull of Atlantis, the Puritan
Solomon Kane, and the Pict Bran Mak Morn as well as others. And of
course his most famous character, Conan the Cimmerian.
Conan the Barbarian
is based
on the Howard's character and borrows elements from the milieu, such as
the snake cult of Set and names of places like Zamora and Aquilonia.
But as a screen adaptation it takes some liberties which make the story
somewhat incompatible with Howard's stories.
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As a faithful recreation, the movie
fails. On the other hand, as an emulation of the style and spirit, Conan the Barbarian does a splendid
job. Conan is a man of few words and lots of action. There is a
supernatural evil to overcome. There are beautiful women to seduce. And
of course lots and lots of enemies to kill. This is what it is to be
Conan.
Actors
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an ideal Conan, strong and muscular with a
definite screen presence. And Conan's lack of oratory skills plays to
Schwarzenegger. James Earl Jones plays a mellifluously evil Thulsa
Doom. Not once did I think "Darth Vader".
DVD
The DVD has an excellent 53-minute documentary "Conan Unchained: the
Making of Conan". The Deleted Scenes don't add to the movie. There is a
scene in a market and the assassination of King Osiric. There is a 98
second clip showing the special effects for the "Valeria battles the
spirits trying to claim Conan" scene. "The Conan Archives" is a
12-minute montage showing production drawings, behind the scene photos,
and promotional pictures.
The feature commentary is with director John Milius and Arnold
Schwarzenegger. It was done probably about 10 years after the movie so
there are a lot of "oh, yeah I remember this". They both enjoyed
working on the movie and Milius has a lot of things to say.
Schwarzenegger tended to kid around a lot.
Recommendations
If you are a fan of Conan this is the movie for you. People who like
the sword and sorcery genre will also like this movie. Twenty-two years
later some parts and elements seem a bit dated but overall Conan the Barbarian is still a good
adventure movie. And it's still Rated-R.
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