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Summary: classic sword and sorcery
Review: One of the classic sword and sorcery movies out there. Very well done and entertaining. I've watched it too many times to remember.
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Summary: An Arnie classic with great action
Review: Although I kind of like the less darker sequel more this is still a good movie. After viewing it again I enjoyed it more than the last times I've seen it. I always liked it but before now I just found the comfrontation befween Arnold and James Earl Jones at the end to be disapointing.(...) I know I'm sadistic lol. Anyway would've been bettter if they had this big sword fight instead. The movie is a lot better made than the sequel which had some bad effects but I think it trys too hard to be a big epic, it drags on too long. It is silly that James Earl Jones leads a clan of people who just wanna turn into snakes. Connan's mean for denying them that lol. For the best adventure fantasy of the "80's" I'd still have to go with the under-rated Willow though.
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Summary: The Riddle of Steel and Arnold's Best!
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger perfectly embodies the Crom-worshipping, sword-weilding Barbarian that is Conan. And this first movie is dark, sexy, and violent. CONAN DESTROYER would take a lighter more comic tone, but CONAN THE BARBARIAN is exquisite in its ability to tell a moving story in broad strokes. The ultimate in sword! And the best performance Arnold has ever given. Sandahl Bergman is also amazing as Valeria, the Queen of Theives. Moody music and sparse dialogue create a unique movie experience where action makes words useless. James Earl Jones plays Thulsa Doom with relish - finally getting to marry his voice and his body as the ultimate villan (unlike STAR WARS where he was only the voice of Darth Vader).The DVD is loaded! Documentary, deleted scenes, how they did the effects, and the history of the character are all covered. But check out one of the best audio commentaries from Arnold and director John Milius! It's just amazing how well they have packaged this, and the movie itself has some added footage from the European release. The footage really helps in some sequences especially near the end! A handsome movie gets first class treatment on DVD.
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Summary: Arnold was "Conan" before he became "The Terminator"
Review: This was Arnold Schwarzenegger two years before The Terminator (1984). A sword is created that Conan is destined to behold. The boy, Conan, sees his own mother beheaded by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones). He is taken by this evil cult gang and put into child labor. As a man he is put in the circle to fight other man-creatures. Very bloody action. One night, someone sets him free in the night. Conan, the sword-wielding warrior now on his own, first meets a woman in a stone house and she invites him inside. Conan is a man after all so they begin to make love. She becomes wild and then turns into a vicious creature. He throws her off into the fire, but she escapes into a flying fireball. A witch perhaps she is. The next morning he moves on and meets Subotal (Gerry Lopez). Conan will seek vengeance at Thulsa Doom who killed his mother and massacred the village he lived in as a boy. Along the way, he fights a very realistic-looking giant snake and sees naked women. Good special effects. Also in the cast is Max Von Sydow and Arnold's "Pumping Iron" friend, Franco Columbu. Written by Milius and Oliver Stone. Beware of shorter prints. Seek the 2 hours, 8 minutes (128 min.) version. Followed by the sequel CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984). The film, Kull the Conqueror (1997) was meant to be a third Conan film, but when Arnold S. refused to reprise the "Conan" role, the script was rewritten as "Kull" for Kevin Sorbo. As of this writing, according to the E! Entertainment Television cable network, Arnold Schwarzenegger is developing a new "Conan" script.
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Summary: Mono?
Review: Three stars! Five if it wasn't mono. I love the Paledouris soundtrack. I was so looking forward to hearing it booming in my livingroom. The "making of" video is a nice addition, but overall this DVD is marred by the sub-par sound.
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Summary: Great movie, too bad some out-of-place scenes were re-added
Review: I watched this film when I was 10 years old when my uncle took me to see it. I loved the movie then and I love it now. It pains me so to not be able to give this DVD 5 stars because the DVD does look nice (albeit with a mono soundtrack). The ONLY - and I do mean ONLY - reason I'm taking away 1 star is because of Universal's bad decision to add back a wordy scene right before the battle and another montage at the end with various shots of the princess. The movie itself is excellent. Anyone who has seen this before knows that. Very little dialog to get in the way of the action, not alot of sappy emotion, nice set designs, some tongue-in-cheek humor, it's all there. WHY they added those scenes back is the only question I can ask. They were wise to have deleted those scenes originally, I guess they thought they'd follow everyone else's lead and put in a deleted scene or two in the "Collector's Edition". I'm not against adding footage to a movie, but this footage is just bad when put in place and should've stayed out. Conan speaks more dialog in that one "spring wind" deleted scene than he does in the entire rest of the movie, and there's still about 35 minutes left. His jovial mood seems completely out-of-place considering what just happened and what will soon happen. It has virtually nothing to do with the flow of the movie before or after. He's preparing to kick some ... and he starts talking to his buddy about the wind in spring. Huh? The princess scenes at the end added nothing to the overall story either. Here we are, Conan meets Thulsa Doom at last, and they're splicing in various facial shots of the princess moving her arms around like she's still possessed by a snake. What does this have to do with the climax of the movie? What were they thinking? If the closing dialog hadn't said that Conan takes the princess back to the king, I would've thought she had become Conan's new bride with the way they were looking at each other. This REALLY threw me for a loop because it so drastically changes the ending. I don't get why they thought this was an important enough part of the plot to bring it back. I say leave it the way we all remember it, let him burn the place down after having his revenge, leave the shots of the princess out, and end it there. Hopefully when HD-DVD comes along, Universal will make another release and will have these scenes yanked again, though I'm not holding my breath.
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Summary: Out of an age undreamed of comes CONAN
Review: CONAN THE BARBARIAN is the kind of film that you really don't know what to make of at first, because the dialouge and plot transitioning is so overly elaborate and exotic, it makes the plot hard to follow. Plus, the amount of nudes and sex in CONAN would make BASIC INSTINCT look like..... no wait, it wouldn't. But there's plenty of bare female flesh to go around to both horny little high school juniors as well as masochitic lesbians. CONAN traces the the life of (duh) mystic warrior Conan (Arnold Schwarzenner) as he seeks revenge upon his parents murderers. He must also rescue the daughter of a king from the clutches of a malevolent snake wizard (James Earl Jones). If you want to rent CONAN or but it, that's cool. While not as good as THE SCORPION KING, which starred pro-wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in place of Arnold, had more action, was set in the middle east, and had a more coherent and fun plot, CONAN is still pretty good. So check it out.
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Summary: The Riddle of Steel
Review: Early on in the movie Conan's father, played by William Smith, speaks a line that just about sums up the whole movie. It goes something like this: there's but one thing in this world you can trust "... not men, not women, not beasts,... (he looks down at the sword he has just completed and says,) "this you can trust."
That line send chills down my spine everytime I hear it. Conan's mother is played by the achingly beautiful Nadiuska; it breaks my heart every time James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom cuts her head off. Conan speaks very few lines in this the movie that made Schwarzenegger a superstar. Sandahl Bergman and Gerry Lopez, Conan's compatriots in the movie are quite good but sadly did little of note after this movie. Sandahl Bergman's fight scenes near the end of the movie (as they escape Thulsa Doom's Mountain of Power with the princess) reminded me of Trinity fighting the cops at the begining of the Matrix. There are parallels with Gladiator too. The scenes of gladiatoral combat are perfunctory and on a much smaller scale than in the Russell Crowe epic. There must be something about the ways the male mind is wired that there are few cinematic experiences as satisfying as a good revenge fantasy. This movie, along with Gladiator, Chato's Land , Death Wish, Valdez is Coming and Mr. Majestyk is one of the premier examples of the revenge genre. Basil Poledouris score is excellent. More than just background music, the score becomes an important character in the movie, swelling to a frantic pace in the fight scenes and setting a lighthearted tone at other points It is amazing to think that Robert E. Howard created such a fascinating fantasy world despite never having left the environs of his small Texas town and having died at such a young age.
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Summary: Crom!
Review: I loved this movie as a kid, having grown up reading the Savage Sword of Conan and King Conan comic books. When we heard they were in the process of making a Conan movie, we couldn't help but be pretty damn excited. The script is extremely THIN, but the movie's chief three strengths are so fantastic, you don't have time to complain. The casting of the leads (Schwartzenegger, Bergman, Lopez, Jones) is flawless, the set production by Ron Cobb is oscar-calibre, as is the musical score by Basil Poledouris, and the direction is stellar. From the set pieces to the costume design to the editing, this is a much better film than it gets credit for. Even with the originally shoddy video quality, it's a quality film that couldn't be replicated today. It's the kind of film "Gladiator" aspires to, but never quite reaches due to the limitations imposed by it's director, Ridley Scott (also due to the budget constraints of today's movies, as well as their overuse of CGI effects). The DVD packs great value for your money, including a commentary track, a few deleted scenes, a 50 minute documentary, and artist notes. Essential for any sword & sorcery fan, and just popcorn movie lovers. Exceptionally brilliant when compared to the tamer, money-grubbing sequel.
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Summary: Arnold and Milius combine for fun & art
Review: This DVD has an incredible amount of supplemental information. The movie iteself is great in it's 2.35 widescreen beauty. CONAN THE BARBARIAN was the milestone that setup future things like HERCULES and XENA. The commentary track has some great insights, but the documentary is where the real magic unfolds.
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