Conan the Barbarian (film)
| Conan the Barbarian | |
|---|---|
 film poster by Frank Frazetta |
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| Directed by | John Milius |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis Raffaella De Laurentiis Buzz Feitshans Edward R. Pressman |
| Written by | Characters: Robert E. Howard Story: Edward Summer (uncredited) Screenplay: John Milius Oliver Stone |
| Starring | Arnold Schwarzenegger James Earl Jones Sandahl Bergman Mako Gerry Lopez and Max von Sydow |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures (USA) 20th Century Fox (International) |
| Release date(s) | May 14, 1982 |
| Running time | Theatrical cut: 129 min. Extended cut: 131 min. Edited versions: 123 min. 115 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Gross revenue | $68,851,475 (worldwide) |
| Followed by | Conan the Destroyer |
Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 action/adventure fantasy film by director John Milius and is recognized as the acting breakthrough of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had previously been a famous bodybuilder.
The film is loosely based on the Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard and was written by Oliver Stone and John Milius, set in the mythical Hyborian Age. It was followed in 1984 by a lighter, more child-friendly, but less successful sequel, Conan the Destroyer. Both Conan the Barbarian and its sequel are sword and sorcery epic tales that include magic, mythical creatures, and fantastical events.
Contents |
Plot
The film is set during the prehistoric Hyborian Age. As a young Cimmerian boy, Conan is instructed by his father (William Smith) on the importance of steel to their people and its relationship with their god, Crom. Soon after, a group of Viking-like warriors systematically destroys Conan's village, kills his family, and sells Conan and the other children into slavery.
Having been forced to push The Wheel of Pain (a human-powered mill) for years, a now adult Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is trained as a swordsman and then freed. Conan meets two thieves: Subotai (Gerry Lopez), a Hyrkanian archer; and Valeria (Sandahl Bergman). The three break into a fortified temple used by a doomsday cult to steal a large jewel called "the eye of the serpent" and Conan discovers that this cult is associated with the warriors who destroyed his village and their leader, Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones).
The three become drunk in celebrating their newfound wealth and are captured by soldiers of King Osric of Ophir (Max von Sydow). He offers them a fortune to return his daughter (Valérie Quennessen), who has been seduced into joining the cult and, he fears, may be charged with assassinating him. Motivated by his hatred for Doom, Conan leaves Subotai and Valeria (who wish to decline the offer) to Set's Mountain of Power.
Arriving at the Mountain of Power, Conan attempts to disguise himself as a priest, but a suspicious guard instead brings him to Thulsa Doom, who demonstrates his power by ordering a young girl to jump from a high ledge to her death. Doom orders that Conan be crucified in the desert on the Tree of Woe; when Valeria and Subotai find him, they take him to a haunted Stonehenge-like cemetery called the Mounds and ask Akiro (Mako), the wizard who resides there, to revive Conan. He agrees, but explains that the magic involved carries a price for Valeria. With Conan revived, the three enter the Mountain of Power. They witness, among other things, Thulsa Doom's transformation into a giant snake. After they grab the princess, Doom shoots Valeria with a poison arrow and she dies in Conan's arms. He cremates her at the Mounds.
Thulsa Doom and his lieutenants lead an army of "Vanir" riders to recover Osric's daughter, but Conan kills off the army one-by-one and the spell over Osric's daughter is broken. Doom returns to the Mountain of Power and Conan kills him there, ending the spell for his followers, and sets the mountain on fire.
The film's epilogue shows an aged Conan sitting upon a throne, crowned as King.
Alternate versions
Universal has released the film in several different versions. The original theatrical cut ran at 129 minutes. For its video release the studio offered the theatrical version as well as two shortened prints; one at 115 minutes, the other at 123 minutes. The theatrical cut was utilized for the film's first DVD release in 1998. In 2000 Universal released a collector's edition DVD. In addition to numerous special features, the version contained on this disc features an additional two minutes of footage, for a slightly extended 131-minute running time. This new cut is the only version currently available; all others are out of print.
The original UK video release featured a shortened ending which did not show the Princess in the final scenes as Conan re-entered the Mountain Of Power to slay Thulsa Doom. Only on its first DVD release did it feature the 'restored' ending seen in today's releases.
Cuts
For nearly all the releases in the UK, the film has been cut, mainly to remove some of the horse 'falls' from the battle sequences, especially in the climactic Battle of the Mounds, a typical example being when Conan is charged by Rexor and Conan cuts at the horse's legs - the scene where Rexor and the horse crash to the ground is omitted. The sex scene with the witch was trimmed in some initial releases, but has been restored in later DVD versions. Also, the sex scene with Valeria has been trimmed down on all DVD versions. The last UK DVD release in 2007, the "Definitive" edition, still has the horse falls scenes cut, but other versions, such as the French and US releases, do not, and are uncut.
Cast
For a large budget film, the cast of Conan the Barbarian includes an unusual number of then-inexperienced actors. Dancer Sandahl Bergman and surfer Gerry Lopez were cast in major supporting roles as Conan's closest companions. In addition to Schwarzenegger, the cast also included several famous bodybuilders including William Smith, Sven-Ole Thorsen and Franco Columbu, as well as former Oakland Raiders star Ben Davidson. Schwarzenegger was paid a salary of $250,000 for his role in the film.[1]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Arnold Schwarzenegger | Conan |
| James Earl Jones | Thulsa Doom |
| Max von Sydow | King Osric |
| Sandahl Bergman | Valeria |
| Ben Davidson | Rexor |
| Gerry Lopez | Subotai |
| Cassandra Gava | The Fire Elemental |
| Mako | The Wizard Akiro / Narrator |
| Valérie Quennessen | The Princess |
| William Smith | Conan's father |
| Franco Columbu | Pictish Scout |
| Jack Taylor | Priest |
| Sven-Ole Thorsen | Thorgrim |
| Erik Holmey | Turanian War Officer |
| Jorge Sanz | Young Conan |
| Nadiuska | Conan's mother |
Relation to Robert E. Howard's stories
The movie is regarded as a giant departure from Robert E. Howard's Conan series with only several scenes taken from Howard's stories. The tone of the film was loosely taken from Howard's original Conan stories, although the original Conan was rarely ever drunk and was more of a tactician.
Scenes influenced by Howard's stories were slightly altered. Examples: While a character named Valeria appears in Red Nails, the film character's attachment to Conan and her return from the dead to save his life are more akin to Bêlit of Queen of the Black Coast. Conan's killing of a vulture, using only his teeth, while he was nailed to a tree is a borrowing from a scene in A Witch Shall Be Born. Other elements have been borrowed from non-Conan sources, including the face-changing Snake Folk and the Thulsa Doom character which originated in Howard's Kull stories. Conan's encounter with the witch in the film bears some similarity to Worms of the Earth from yet another of Howard's series, Bran Mak Morn. Thulsa Doom's monologue about fearing the dark are also drawn from that work. The sequence in which Conan flees pursuit by wolves and discovers the tomb in which he obtains his iconic broadsword was lifted from "The Thing in the Crypt", an introductory short tale by Lin Carter and L Sprague DeCamp included in the edited chronological Conan series of Ace paperbacks
Other elements of the film have no relation whatsoever to Howard's stories, including the "Riddle of Steel", the Black Sun Cult of Set, Conan's adolescence in slavery, and his service as a gladiator in the East. Howard's Conan was still with his tribe in Cimmeria around the time he was 15 or 16, taking part in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium.
Reception
Conan the Barbarian received mostly positive reviews among the fans and critics, and currently holds a score of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 25 reviews. The film was praised for the cinematography and the music by Basil Poledouris.
Soundtrack
| Conan the Barbarian | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack by Basil Poledouris | |
| Released | 1982 |
| Genre | Film score |
| Length | 2 hours 9 mins |
| Label | Varèse Sarabande |
| Professional reviews | |
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Originally, producer Dino De Laurentiis had planned a soundtrack of pop music for the movie, but was eventually persuaded by Milius to use a full orchestral score. Ennio Morricone was consider by the producers for writing the score but Milius hired the composer Basil Poledouris, a former classmate of his from the film department at the University of Southern California, and assigned him to make "a continuous musical drama."[2] The result was a choral and orchestral soundtrack that fills nearly every moment of the film, with pronounced use of leitmotifs to portray mood and character.
The violent early portions of the movie are filled with intense pieces including "Anvil of Crom", played by 24 french horns, strings and timpani, and "Riders of Doom", inspired by Prokofiev's "The Battle on Ice" from the score of the 1938 "Alexander Nevsky" movie by Sergei Eisenstein and the derived cantata as well as from Carl Orff's famous "O Fortuna" movement from his 1937 "Carmina Burana" cantata. Thulsa Doom's theme, heard throughout the film score, is a tribute to a leitmotiv from Miklós Rózsa's[3] 1951 Quo Vadis score: in the piece called 'Prelude', this same theme can be clearly heard at 00:47, 00:54 and 01:33 [4], for example. Rózsa's influence is very present in Conan the Barbarian's soundtrack. A number of quieter pieces fill the middle of the movie, including "Civilization", "The Leaving", "The Search", and the sensuous "The Orgy" (co-written with his then 9-year old daughter Zoë Poledouris resembles Gustav Holst's The Planets Op.32 Jupiter) before the music again intensifies for a series of battle sequences at the end of the film. Other string sections resemble Ralph Vaughan William's "Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis", namely "Atlantean Sword". Several of the pieces, including the "Anvil of Crom" are frequently used in the movie trailers of other films by Universal Pictures, like Ridley Scott's Gladiator.[5] Much of the film's music was also reused in Conan the Destroyer.
"Riders of Doom" is usually used for the first trailers for several games in the Legend of Zelda series. It was also used in the 2004 video game Conan, which otherwise used its own original soundtrack.
The soundtrack has become a classic amongst movie-music collectors. The score for Conan the Barbarian is considered by some people to be one of the finest examples of motion picture scoring ever written.[6][7][8][9]
Track listing from original Milan soundtrack album
- "Prologue/Anvil of Crom" - 3:39
- "Riddle of Steel" / "Riders of Doom" - 5:38
- "Gift of Fury" - 3:50
- "Column of Sadness / Wheel of Pain" - 4:09
- "Atlantean Sword" 3:51
- "Theology" / "Civilization" - 3:14
- "Wifeing (Love Theme)" - 2:10
- "The Search" - 3:09
- "The Orgy" - 4:14
- "Funeral Pyre" - 4:29
- "Battle of the Mounds (Part 1)" - 4:53
- "Orphans of Doom" / "The Awakening" -5:32
In 1992, this soundtrack was re-released on CD on the Varèse Sarabande label (VSD-5390) and featured an expanded score with extra/extended tracks, although the prologue narration on the opening track was removed:
Track listing from expanded Varèse Sarabande soundtrack album
- "Anvil of Crom" - 2:34
- "Riddle of Steel" / "Riders of Doom" - 5:36
- "Gift of Fury" - 3:50
- "Wheel of Pain" - 4:09
- "Atlantean Sword" - 3:50
- "Theology" / "Civilization" - 3:13
- "Wifeing (Love Theme)" - 2:10
- "The Leaving" / "The Search" - 5:59
- "Mountain of Power Procession" - 3:21
- "Tree of Woe" - 3:31
- "Recovery" - 2:11
- "The Kitchen" / "The Orgy" - 6:30
- "Funeral Pyre" - 4:29
- "Battle of the Mounds" - 4:52
- "Death of Rexor" - 5:34
- "Orphans of Doom" / "The Awakening" - 5:31
References
- ↑ "Arnold Schwarzenegger". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/people/ASCHW.php. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
- ↑ Conan the Barbarian Original Motion Picture Soundtrack liner notes by Kevin Mulhall.
- ↑ http://www.basil-poledouris.com/basil/biography.html From Basil Poledouris' official biography : '"I wandered into the cinema department because of (Miklos) Rozsa, and immediately thought that it looked to me like film was the music of my generation."
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgF_VrdUXJs 1951 'Quo Vadis' score : 'Prelude'
- ↑ http://www.soundtrack.net/trailers/?cid=G&mid=9810
- ↑ Conan the Barbarian : Soundtrack Central
- ↑ Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian
- ↑ Conan the Barbarian
- ↑ Amazon.com: Conan the Barbarian: Basil Poledouris, Basil Poledouris, The Orchestra of Santa Cecilia [Members of]: Music
External links
- Conan Wiki
- Conan the Barbarian at the Internet Movie Database
- Conan the Barbarian at Allmovie
- Conan the Barbarian at Rotten Tomatoes
- Conan the Barbarian at Box Office Mojo
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