Conan the Barbarian (1982)
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Conan the Barbarian Movie Review
Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 fantasy film directed by John Milius and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is a pretty flawed, but still solid flick.
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“What is best in life?
To crush your enemies,
to see them driven before you,
and to hear the lamentations of their women“
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I have personally grown watching ‘Conan the Adventurer’ which is a very family friendly animated show so this film was never quite for me as it was too dark and different than what I expect usually from this source material. Still, it’s solid, but just not great for various reasons.
One is that the film is way too dark and violent. I respected that choice as it was rare for a 1980s flick to be so violent, but still they went too far with it as some scenes, particularly the decapitation ones, are too gruesome and simply unnecessary in the bigger scope of things.
The film is very adventurous and filled with a terrific attention to detail in recreating its setting, time period and particularly the fantastical elements. The effects are very strong and I particularly liked the role of snakes here along with the magic and of course weaponry with the sword being well utilized.
I have never been Arnold’s fan and here he did gave another one of his mediocre performances. I never took him seriously as an actor as he is amateur, but definitely physically fitting for this role and thankfully they did not ask him to say too many lines so he was I guess well cast nonetheless. The women are entirely forgettable and sexually objectified leading to a dated film. As for James Earl Jones, he definitely portrayed a very good villain, though a bit too campy and ultimately not as menacing as he should have been.
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Conan the Barbarian is admittedly too slow paced for me. It never quite took off when it comes to the entertainment factor as it lacks excitement and the sense of urgency. It is nonetheless gorgeously scored by Basil Poledouris who really did give a very epic sounding music which accompanied the film consistently well. The cinematography is also very strong. And the action is admittedly one of the highlights along with a memorable atmosphere.
Conan the Barbarian is so well scored with good special effects, great fantastical elements and it’s very adventurous. It is very well made across the board with particularly good action scenes. However, the pacing is too slow and the tone is too dark with the violence being particularly unnecessary.
