Conan The Barbarian - 1982 - Page 2

Sandahl Bergman really should've been cast as 'Red Sonja' not Brigitte Nielsen. She has such a great presence, even though she's competing with Ah-Nuld. As epic as Poledouris's score is, he took most of it from Holst.

The raid on Thulsa Doom's palace is one of the best action scene's of all time, the moment Conan's theme kicks in, it's just pure badassery all the way.

Conan's mom was so very hot. Her death scene was terrific.

A million times this. Her and Sandahl Bergman should have switched roles.

Or she could have played both roles. Add a little Oedipal complex to all the psychosexual stuff going on.

The woman who played her was called 'Nadiuska'. This film was full of hot women, the witch woman, Sandahl and Nadiuska.

Osric's daughter wasn't half-bad either.

And Bergman was offered the role of Red Sonja and turned it down, deciding to play the evil queen instead.

I love Conan the Barbarian. One of my absolute all time favorites. Destroyer, I feel, is more in tone with the Marvel comic books than REH's stories. No surprise, since comic writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway wrote the script. As for Howard's racisim, for a rural Texas redneck in the 1930s the guy was pretty liberal and tolerant.

I couldn't agree with your friend more, Phil. I've always thought that Conan was a much deeper and more interesting film than it's generally given credit for.

Arnold isn't given many lines to work with, but he does a great deal with his physicallity, his eyes, his expressions, and his gestures; it's solid acting on a very pure level. And the music really does the rest, and this was very much the intention of Poledouris and Milius, as I believe they intended the score to be operatic, telling the story just as much as the dialogue and the images.

What is the opinion on the alternate ending? Personally, I've always been a fan of the ending without Osric's daughter. I think that what Milius was going for is interesting, but something doesn't really click in the scene between her and Conan (where she offers herself to him) and I don't find it really working. I also think she distracts from what is really a scene between Conan and Thulsa Doom; I don't like the film cutting from TD's (wonderfully delivered) speech to her sneaking around the palace. I like the rhythm of the other version. Plus, as far as last shots go, Thulsa Doom's palace in flames is better than Conan leading the girl away into the sunrise.

And whoever said that the raid on Doom's palace is a great action scene is so right. Conan and his friends are just so brutally efficient hacking through the orgy, and again, perfect music.

I enjoy Destroyer, but it's a pretty awful film. Great ending though, Conan denying the throne and not even responding to Olivia D'Abo's kiss--total badass, and a perfect character moment following the threads of the first film.

One of my favorite films. It drags a bit in the second act but the first is absolute perfection. I love how Milius and Stone turn Conan into the embodiment of vengeance. As a kid, he sees his whole village, his people, get massacred, his father is mauled by dogs(!), his mother is decapitated while he's holding her hands (such a great, great shot), he 's taken into slavery and then he becomes a gladiator. You do not want this man coming after you.

I'm a bit stunned to hear some don't think Arnold is perfect for this role. Having Conan be silent may go against the literary character but it's essential to the tone of the film.

Along with Starship Troopers, this is Poledouris' crowing achievement. There two scenes in these films that feel very much the same: when Tusla Doom's scout perches on a small hill and the attackers rush on his sides while the music blares and when the Troopers come out of the shuttles on Klendathu.

And I love his prayer to Crom.

I wouldn't have minded Dwayne Johnson for it had he not done Scorpion King, in which he is basically a low-rent Conan. Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movies ever, and I really enjoy showing it to friends (especially men) who have never seen it. There's something so male about it that I think women are less likely to enjoy it. I know that's maybe sexist but I'm not saying it's a sex (nature) thing when it could be a gender (nurture) thing. If it's the latter, as I'm sure it is, what of it?

I'd like to see a non tent-pole Conan reboot. I mean, why does it have to be so high-budget that they can't keep the weird? It shoudn't be some star vehicle or event movie. It should be much, much quieter.

Milus (in thick Austrian accent): "Dis iss Ahnold Schwarzenegger."

Arnold (in thick Austrian accent): "And dis iss de great Jyohn Meelius...and iff you believe dat, den you believe dere are a lot of Richard Simmons Juniors running around AHAHAHAHA!"

Did I say I was thankful for Chud last week? So awesome.

So many beautiful things have already been said about this movie. I was 9 when I first saw it 1983, and wowzers what an impact. What hit me the most was the score. As so many others have said, it's a masterpiece and one that I've never tired of. My real introduction to Arnie as well.

I'm thankful for that as well. Long live The Austrian Oak!

The commentary has Milius trying to be all serious, and Arnold's like a hyperactive kid interrupting him.

Milius: You see in this montage, he learns to kill for sport, and if you look in his eyes, there's an emptiness to his victory, it doesn't fulf-

Arnold: "LOOK AT DAT HE IS BITING ME WIT HIS SHARP TEETH AND I BREAK HIS ARM AND KILL HIM! AHAHAHA IT'S SO GREAT!"

After getting the collector's edition DVD back in 2002, I watched and listened to the commentary on a flight home from Boston. It was hard for me not to look like an asshole, laughing hysterically. So great. Just like your quote above, it was almost like Arnie had no recollection of the film at times.

I have been working through this commentary as my bedtime noise for the past week. I fall asleep laughing every night.

DO IT! It's truly great.

What is best in life? Discovering this loving thread and reading Arnie quotes right after I ordered this attractive leatherbound and complete hardcover tome:



Amazon says "unavailable" (hardcover), but I ordered it from half.com. Also ordered:



I wish Burroughs' stuff got similar treatments (a Tarzan collection, John Carter, Caspak, etc). I have nice editions of Verne and Wells best work and a beautiful edition of Doyle's Lost World. What's the deal? Burroughs' estate retarded? Maybe when Pixar's film gets released.

Milius: I was trying to comment here about the tribe's connection with the land, and their symbiotic relationship with steel -

Arnold: "LOOK AT ZE EYES! HE'S TOTALLY CONTROLLING HER WIT HIS EYES!"

Arnold says "hip-mo-tized" dozens of times in the commentary.

My favorite part of the commentary, well aside from the Richard Simmons bit, is how Milius constantly refers to Bergman as a "Valkyrie!"

I know people who greatly prefer Destroyer to the first movie. Don't really get that since the original is a lot better IMO.

Not even in the same ballpark.

Just before molesting them.

Great Conan picture in Devin's article herehttp://chud.com/articles/articles/21...ELS/Page1.html

http://www.hulu.com/watch/44676/cona...lephant-part-1

In the cast credits:

I have nothing to add to this thread beyond Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movies of all time and that the commentary adds even more enjoyment to the movie. That and I'll now be watching it tonight because it deserves to be watched again.

Agree with all the points raised thus far and wholeheartedly share the love for this film.

Also, fans of this film should check out Big Wednesday, Milius' surfing epic, and his 2-part Roughriders miniseries, both excellent films I should've included in this year's Chud giftswap. Hell, I even suggest checking out Flight of the Intruder, if only for Willem Dafoe's performance as a navy bombardier on the edge and the spectacular flying sequences at the climax. But that may be pushing it.

/hugs

I know. I know. I feel like we just...I dunno, need to hold a candle light vigil and mourn. 

 

...I'll bake cookies. Doc can verify my cookie baking skills. 

 

Well, if you just paid my bills, Dickson, then I'd be able to dedicate all my time to writing a Howard-inspired pulp fantasy novel that will make me millions and get optioned into a movie, with a caveat that it needs to be 1982 Conan, and less soulcrushing 2011 version. I'll even put the starlet of your choice in a cameo bit wearing as little as I can legally pay her to wear. 

 

If there is anything good to come of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, I'm hoping that just might be a possibility. Genre tv-series seem to be on an upswing. (Yes, they're both of various quality, but they don't do it for me. At least, not after the stupid last half of the Walking Dead. See the game of thrones thread for my opinions on the latter)

Hell, I think the "Conan the Adventurer" might not be so egregariously bad as this shit. 

 

Who the fuck am I kidding?

On this date 10 years ago...

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/10000

If only...

LOL

 

 

Note the: Who the fuck am I kidding?, please. 

 

 

 

 

Ralf Moeller laughs from his mountain!

Maybe we'll get lucky.................Arnold's first couple of new films will be HUGE successes...................and he'll use his clout to get King Conan made IN SPITE of the fact that the new one bombed.  I know a ton of people who skipped out on the new one because Arnold wasn't in it.