CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

conan the barbarian (1982) movie

Genre              |   Fantasy Action

Classification   |   R 18+

Running time   |   126 minutes

Released         |   14 May 1982 

cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger ... Conan
James Earl Jones ... Thulsa Doom
Max von Sydow ... King Osric
Sandahl Bergman ... Valeria
Gerry Lopez ... Subotai
Cassandra Gava ... The Witch (as Cassandra Gaviola)
Ben Davidson ... Rexor
​Mako ... The Wizard / Narrator

director

John Milius

writer

​Robert E. Howard ... (based on the character created by)
 
John Milius ... (written by) and
Oliver Stone ... (written by)
 
Edward Summer ... (story) (uncredited)

cinematographer

​Duke Callaghan ... director of photography

music

​Basil Poledouris

film editor

​Carroll Timothy O'Meara ... (as C. Timothy O'Meara)

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​68,851,475   

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​39,565,475

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movie minutiae

​Thulsa Doom's onscreen transformation into a giant snake was one of the most elaborate special effects in the film. It involved "fake body parts, live and dummy snakes, miniatures, and other camera tricks combined into a flowing sequence with lap dissolve. After James Earl Jones was filmed in position, he was replaced by a hollow framework with a rubber mask that was pushed from behind by a snake head-shaped puppet to give the illusion of Doom's facial bones changing. The head was then replaced with a 6 feet (1.8 m) mechanical snake; as it moved outwards, a crew member pressed a foot pedal to collapse the framework. For the final part of the sequence, a real snake was filmed on a miniature set."

​The film was the first time Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sven-Ole Thorsen appeared in a film together. Thorsen has since appeared in other 14 films starring Schwarzenegger, either as an actor or as a stuntman.

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related movies

CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984)

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) MOVIE IMAGES

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CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) STORY SYNOPSIS

A village is attacked by the evil ruler of the Snake Cult, Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and his evil warriors, when Thulsa Doom and his warriors kills his parents, a young boy named Conan (Jorge Sanz) is enslaved. Years later, Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) grows up and becomes a mighty warrior and is trained as a fighter. After years as a slave and as a gladiator, Conan is set free. Conan sets out on a quest as he vows to avenge his parents and solve the riddle of steel. Joined by a archer named Subotai (Gerry Lopez), a beautiful thief who falls in love with Conan, Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and a Chinese wizard (Mako), Conan and his companions sets out to rescue Princess Yasmina (Valérie Quennessen), daughter of King Osric (Max von Sydow), from the Snake Cult, and get his revenge on Thulsa Doom and avenge his parents.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 30 March 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

The 1982 version of CONAN THE BARBARIAN is an ambitious fantasy that aims for epic but falls short...

This version of Robert E. Howard’s literary creation was written and directed by John Milius, the man responsible for writing a string of violent right-wing films in the late 1960s and 1970s. Movies such as DIRTY HARRY (1971), JEREMIAH JOHNSON (1972 ),MAGNUM FORCE (1973), THE WIND AND THE LION (1975) and APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) all, in some way shape or form, featured contributions from Milius the Writer.

CONAN also brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to the attention of the world in his first meaningful motion picture movie role. The Austrian Oak, who had claimed numerous body-building titles throughout the 1970s, was the perfect physical embodiment, but his presence is both a blessing and a curse for the film. 

The CONAN project had been in development at multiple studios throughout the 1970s and had been close to starting production on several occasions. John Milius had already written a draft screenplay for the film in the 1970s, but had dropped out after financing fell-through. Oliver Stone had written the most recent script for the film and Schwarzenegger was already attached to star when Milius came back on board to both write and direct the movie. His involvement was conditional upon being able to re-write Stone’s material and fashion the story more to his liking. The combinations of ideas from Milius and Stone created an expansive story that focussed upon the exotic locations, the fantastic sorcery and brutal savagery.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN is a derivation of the themes that Milius explored many times in his writing – the righteous warrior ridding the world of evil. Characters from his previous screenplays like Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callaghan and Martian Sheen’s Willard from APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) are very similar to how he depicted Conan.

In many ways, the narrative that Milius uses for CONAN copies APOCALYPSE NOW (1979). Schwarzenegger’s Conan is much like Sheen’s Willard, embarking upon a mission to vanquish Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), a self-proclaimed Messiah, who, much like Marlon Brando’s Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, has committed unspeakable atrocities on his path to deification. While Sheen’s mission is a US-government sanctioned assassination, Schwarzenegger’s Conan is motivated by a more basic need – revenge.

In the film’s opening scenes, the young Conan is forced to witness the brutal execution of both his father and mother when Doom and his Snake Cult cronies besiege the family’s village. The film sets the tone early, as Doom slices Conan’s mother’s head from her body when she dares to offer resistance in the defence of her son. From there, Conan is enslaved and sent to the far reaches of Doom’s territory; imprisoned until he becomes a man and – quite literally – breaks free of his oppressive yoke. The film moves quickly to bring Schwarzenegger into the action, but this represents its own unique set of challenges for Milius and his crew. The director chooses to make the film's settings as important as its characters and spends a great deal of time in the opening half of Conan trying to off-set poor acting with scale and scope; something also borrowed from Apocalypse Now.

Unfortunately, John Milus is no Francis Ford Coppola and he struggles to extract the performances required from the majority of his acting ensemble that would have matched the finished film to the ambition embodied in the screenplay. Central to the acting challenges confronting the film is Schwarzenegger’s performance as Conan. As physically suited to the role as what he was, in 1982, Arnold had yet to master the schtick that was to become his stock and trade as an actor. In many scenes, Schwarzenegger looks completely baffled by what’s going on around him and fails to sell much of the action. Given what Milius included in the film, it’s frightening to imagine what he and Conan Film Editor C. Timothy O.Meara had to leave on the cutting room floor. In the years since Conan’s release, Milius has admitted that the lack of an experienced leading man was problematic and the reason for his casting of actors like James Earl Jones and Max Von Sydow, as King Osric, was to try and help lift the performances of the entire cast. Not that any of the cast cover themselves in any great glory.

The story is driven largely by action and - by default - there is no great need for any meaningful dialogue, which ends up wasting the talents of much of the supporting cast. James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom is extremely ambiguous and exists more as a concept-of-evil rather than the specific embodiment of it. Doom is seriously under-developed and it's never made quite clear what his character represents, other than for the special effects guys to do a nifty snake-transformation gag as part of his escape plan when threatened by Conan. This is unfortunate for James Earl Jones, whose association with STAR WARS (1977), as Darth Vader's voice, should have warranted more effort on the part of Milius to give him screen time that actually made sense to the audience. There's very little in Jones' performance to suggest that he was enjoying the opportunity to play Doom; a role that absolutely required some scenery-chewing but is completely lacking it.

The only performance that makes any genuine impact is Sandhal Bergman as Valeria, the female warrior who falls in love with Conan and dies for her love in his quest for vengeance against Doom. Bergman was an experienced television performer and had appeared in both Bob Fosse’s ALL THAT JAZZ (1979) and XANADU (1980) before landing the role. Her imposing physical stature provides a great match for Schwarzenegger’s sizable frame and, the story goes, she was required to do all her own stunt work because no one else could be found to match her. Bergman won a Golden Globe as ‘New Star of the year in a Motion Picture – Female’ for the part of Valeria and she certainly represents a high watermark in CONAN THE BARBARIAN’s acting stakes.

Despite the indifferent acting, the visual aesthetic of the film is impressive. The key sets such as the inside & outside of Doom’s ‘Temple of Set’, Conan’s prison ‘Wheel of Pain’ and the ‘Tower of Serpents’ are all wonderfully crafted and help to create the feeling of an ancient mystical world. Veteran cinematographer Duke Callaghan positions his camera in such a way as to capture the film’s copious action and much of what the viewer sees is the initial master shot establishing the positioning of the actors in their environment. The high number of night scenes must have made lighting Conan a real challenge for Callaghan. He and Milius do a much better job with their daytime scenes, capitalising on the vistas offered by the Spanish filming locations around Madrid and Almeria.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN does not lack scope or ambition... John Milius knew well enough to surround his "Star" with enough talent to allow Schwarzenegger's physical frame define his performance. It would have been interseting to see Arnold play this character in the late 1980s or early 1990s married with the 1982 film's production values. Alas, the Milius film doesn't quite achieve Classic status, but it's not the worst way someone could spend an afternoon, epsecially if it's playing on a big screen!

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) USEFUL LINKS

Conan the Barbarian (1982 film) - Wikipedia
​Conan the Barbarian (1982) - IMDb
​Conan the Barbarian (1982) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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