Conan the Barbarian (1982)
A horde of rampaging warriors massacre the parents of young Conan and enslave the young child for years on The Wheel of Pain. As the sole survivor of the childhood massacre, Conan is released from slavery and taught the ancient arts of fighting. Transforming himself into a killing machine, Conan travels into the wilderness to seek vengeance on Thulsa Doom, the man responsible for killing his family. In the wilderness, Conan takes up with the thieves Valeria and Subotai. The group comes upon King Osric, who wants the trio of warriors to help rescue his daughter who has joined Doom in the hills.
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Not for younger audience , story is understood correctly only if you have some time on your shoulders...
Still an unchallenged masterpiece of the Sword & Sorcerer fantasy genre. Sadly, there are not much movies of quality in this genre. The second movie, Conan the Destroyer, with Arnie aka Conan is also a good one. Trash and entertainment at its best. Both movies I still re-watch from time to time. The remake of 2011 is not bad but sadly Jason Momoa is no Schwarzenegger. Robert E. Howard wrote a lot of stories of Conan's adventures and I still got hope that I will have one day the chance to watch new, well-done movies of the Hyperborian cosmos. Maybe someday a production company will clone Mr. Schwarzenegger for that purpose. Hope dies last - ;)
Conan The Barbarian (1982) Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, Cassandra Gava, Ben Davidson, Gerry Lopez, Mako, Valérie Quennessen, William Smith, Luis Barboo, Franco Columbu, Nadiuska, Jack Taylor, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Pilar Alcón, and Jorge Sanz Directed By: John Milius Review THIEF. WARRIOR. GLADIATOR. KING. This is the big one, the most recommended sword/sorcery movie. This created that sub-genres boom in the 80s for being pretty successful at the box office. Based on Robert E. Howard's most famous character, the film follows the most famous sword/sorcery character Conan as a child he watches his family get slaughtered right before his eyes. Young Conan is taken and enslaved until he is disbanded to learn how to become a killing machine. Conan becomes a thief with his new companions Subotai and Valeria. After having stolen from a serpent group, the king asks them to rescue his daughter the princess. Now Conan and his companions must use there skills to rescue the princess and put an end to Thulsa Doom. The film has very little dialogue which amplifies the performance of each actor on screen. Apparently not only did Arnold get acting tips from James Earl Jones but he also had to slim down a little for those awesome moments when he would have to spin the sword around. Max Von Sydo who plays the king Osric wanted to take on the role for his son who is a huge fan of the comics and he thought it would be a lot of fun. Sandahl Bergman who plays Valeria was a professional dancer had to learn how to do all her own stunts in the film nearly losing a finger in the process. Gerry Lopez was a good friend of the directors and John thought he would be good for the part after a screen test. Mako plays the Wizard and is the narrator, this dude well hes just awesome. The effects in this mostly still hold aside from the obvious blue screen in the opening of the film. We can assume that is why the director chose to go low-key on the fantasy element. That way he wouldn't have to rely on too many effects. The best effect in the film however is the giant snake in the temple of doom. Basil Poledouris the composer of the film had composed two hours of music being attached very early on. The director had envisioned this film with very little dialogue. Its a fantastic score that keeps you in tune with the film. They made it production wise as a very believable world as if this might have happened long ago. I wasn't really disappointed at the fact that there is no big battle between Conan and Doom because throughout the film I knew that most memorable thing about this film would be its performances, music, direction and overall story. This is a grand epic tale. Conan The Barbarian is one of the greatest fantasy epics but I choose to see it as more dramatic adventure film than anything else. I heard that Arnold and Chris Morgan have being trying to bring back Conan, Arnold has come back as the terminator I only hope he makes a big return as Conan sometime soon. I'm giving Conan The Barbarian a 10 out of 10.
After everyone in his village is ruthlessly murdered by a warlord known as "Thulsa Doom" (James Earl Jones) a young boy named "Conan" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is captured and sentenced to hard labor as a slave on a giant treadmill for the rest of his life. However, as the years pass he is essentially forgotten about and subsequently sold into servitude as a gladiator. This new situation agrees with him and he soon becomes the most successful and feared gladiator in the land. Then one day he is freed and with him goes this fierce anger for revenge against Thulsa Doom who slaughtered his people and caused him so much suffering. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film turned out to be surprisingly good due to a number of certain qualities in its favor. It had a good, action-oriented plot and some decent acting on the part of Sandahl Bergman ("Valeria") who won a Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year" and a Saturn Award for "Best Actress" in the process. Likewise, it was also nominated for several other Saturn Awards to include "Best Fantasy Film", "Best Music" and "Best Costumes" among others. Be that as it may, while this might not be a film for the ages, I still found it to be an extremely enjoyable movie and I have rated it accordingly.