Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, and why we died. All that matters is that today, two stood against many. Valor pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, the HELL with you!
I LOVE this scene. You can fault the movie for not holding to Robert E. Howard's works to the letter but this scene captures the essence of his Conan stories so well. The notion that humans don't need to wait around for divine intervention, we can make things happen now!
I can't agree with that. I'd been reading REH for 15 years when the movie came out and was highly disappointed. Arnold played Conan like he was a moron.
Yeah... but... would of had busted the budget to die his hair black?!?!?... but, it's the first Conan origin story...be honest, James Earl Jones saved a pretty average script
Yeah the story line and script are somewhat simplistic, but I think that accurately represents the hero, as a person of few words but many actions. I like the slow drawn out simplistic pace, I think it works extremely well.
Seen it in the theater as a kid and was mind blow, still one of my all time cult movie favorites. Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!
Read the book's, not so much the original Howard one's but the book's that were written in the 60's that were paperbacks and had the Frazetta paintings for the covers, they're good and it's more that version of him that the movie is based on more than the original Howard writings.
Conan was one of my favorite movies as a kid, still watch to this day, I’m in my 40s...for the longest time, I thought young Conan was Joey Lawrence...I think I was in my late 20s when the internet revealed the truth to me...
Basil Polrdouris’ score for this film is perhaps his best work. It’s my favorite of his and I love Robocop’s score too. This movie has inspired me for years. It’s a masterpiece to me. Thanks Minty!
Yes!! I was hoping for this comment! I love everything about these two movies, but at the top of my list is the soundtrack. I used to listen to it on a cassette. Basil Poledouris also did Lonesome Dove. He was an absolute musical genius.
I love Poledouris, but I've recently discovered that Poledouris's work is greatly inspired by a century-old classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Poledouris basically lifted whole parts from RVW's pieces like "Fantasia" etc.
Warlord: Conan! What is best in life? Conan: To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women. Warlord: That is good! That is good.
I STILL quote this.......my childhood was when this came out. It is still easily one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. I do own it, but when I'm flipping through the channels and see it, I leave it
The sequel is “fun” but the original is brilliant. I’d rank it in the top ten film milestones of the entire 80s. It’s up there with DUNE, Aliens, AND any of the mad max movies.
The biggest problem I've always had with the sequel was its a PG move. Conan is bloody. If they had matched the intensity of the first it would have been so much better.
The swordmaster who trained the three stars of the movie had little good to say about Sandahl Bergman, said that Arnold did reasonably well, but stated that given a little time, he could train Gerry Lopez into a master swordsman. Gerry quick reflexes and balance, honed from years of surfing professionally were perfect for what was required to become a master.
Good to see Richard E Howard get the mention he deserves, as he is right up there with other literary greats such as Arnold Conan Doyle, Mike Twain, Enola Blyton, and Warren Shakespeare.
@@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812 It was strictly supposed to focus on her hence the name and Arnold's character was there to obviously increase the box office sales
@Hugh Jassel Whiney little fear filled RightWingNutsTM hate change because they are driven by fear. Our nation was created by liberals, the fear driven conservatives stuck with King George.\ And yes you are huge Ahole. The one thing you managed to get right, troll. Ethelred Hardrede
@Hugh Jassel The "left" is trying to tear "our" country down? Who are these so-called "leftist"scum who want to tear the country down? I bet you can't name one person with the explicit goal of tearing the country down, let alone a "leftist". Both parties in the US serve their campaign contributors.
@Hugh Jassel "o I take it you support Yep you sure do an appropriate name, Troll For Trump. You are so inept you have to make up lies to attack people with because facts are just not used with people so stupid they believe anything from Trump. Ethelred Hardrede High Norse Priest of Quetzalcoatl Keeper of the Cadbury Mini Eggs Ghost Writer for Zeus Official Communicant of the GIOA And Defender Against the IPU Ask me about donating your still beating heart to make sure the Sun keeps rising
@Hugh Jassel " french fry deep fryer" You are projecting you deepest wish on others. You long for such a job, the sort I had 40 years ago. But no on will hire you and you live under a bridge. Ethelred Hardrede High Norse Priest of Quetzalcoatl Keeper of the Cadbury Mini Eggs Ghost Writer for Zeus Official Communicant of the GIOA And Defender Against the IPU Ask me about donating your still beating heart to make sure the Sun keeps rising
Here's a tidbit for whoever made this video: Conan's creator was Robert E. Howard, not "Richard" E. Howard, as you mention at least twice in this video. This may sound petty, but considering Howard's literary legacy and his legions of true fans (excluding those in Hollywood who have repeatedly butchered his work), we certainly would have appreciated you getting this very basic fact right. Otherwise, a good and informative video.
Thank goodness someone pointed this out. I can't believe he kept saying "Richard" when referring to REH. I finally had to stop watching after he said it again, and it was obvious that he didn't mis-speak the first time.
He actually does say Robert E. Howard in the beginning but he then says Richard twice later on. Yeah... Doesn't even talk about Sandahl Bergmen, Valerie Quennessen, Ben Davidson, Sven Ole Thorsen and good old Franco Columbu.
I saw Conan when I was just a boy and it had a huge impact on me. So when you say some people didn’t like the story I just don’t understand. Conan is a story of perseverance and triumph in the face of the ultimate adversity. The actions you take in life make you the person you are. It’s not about the destination but the journey. It’s in my top 5 and pretty close to number 1 movies of all time. And I am the cable guy literally the tv raised me along with cinema.
The only people I've ever heard complain about r neckbeard Robert E Howard purest who's all like "that's not even a conan story" or "they're mixing the lore"
Some additional details you may not know: 1. The main plot of the finished script was based on the Kull story, "The Shadow Kingdom." 2. The "Wheel of Pain" set was built to be a functional grain mill, and it actually worked! The large, stone, wheels grind the grain down, and the angle of the wheels push the flower into the mound below to be collected. 3. Sandahal Bergman (Valeria) was such a boss that she finished the entire scene even after having lost the first joint of her finger at the start of the scene.
@@itsallaboutthatbass8558 My question marks were concerning why anyone would think that. Its a clusterfuck of a movie with a big budget, a terrible lead actor and a banal plot based in the weird pulp fiction if a mentally ill recluse. What makes it a movie masterpiece for anyone? what does the OP (and you?) mean by that? What philosophical values in the film is he referring to?
@@johnpaul4597 same here we use this and Pink Floyd's Symphonic done by the New York Philharmonic for playing D! As we all lovingly call it. "Let's play some D!"
About 11 years ago when I started dating my wife we sat down one evening to watch "Conan the Barbarian," which she had never seen before. When the opening scroll comes up I begin reciting it with the perfect intonation and at the end she's looking at me like how in the world do you have any space in your brain for the science you need to know. It also might be the point where she fell in love with me I'm not sure.
The fact that she could and would sit through Conan the Barbarian with you makes her instant marriage material on the spot. Lucky man, you got a good one!
She couldn't resist a man who can recite the intro to one of the manliest movies ever! That was when your 'man card' got dipped in GOLD! You da man, man! (bows down humbly)
When I was stationed in South Korea, it turned out that everyone in my unit was a fan of this movie. So whenever we got a new guy, we asked him "what is best in life" and "what is the riddle of steel". He got both answers wrong lol
The riddle of steel is never actually explained by any characters in the movie, only shown. Thulsa was wrong and so was Conan's father. The answer is not that you can trust in steel, or that flesh is stronger than steel. The answer is WILL. It is the unbreakable will of the Warrior, that wields both flesh and steel to achieve victory. Conan's father told him the sword was the answer, but the sword he made broke, Thulsa said it was flesh, but all the power in his being didn't stop that broken sword from cutting his flesh. It is will that is strongest, this is what is displayed at he end when Conan holds Thuls'a head in one hand, and his father's broken sword in the other.
@@johndarcangelo6893 You are correct Steel can turn brittle than break, Flesh turns old and dies but it is human will that is the strongest Because it can be unbreakable.
His name is Kiyoshi Yamazaki and he taught Arnold, Sandahl Bergman & Gerry Lopez books.google.com/books?id=2tsDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA20&dq=kiyoshi%20yamazaki%20conan&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false
We read my buddies older brothers Black & White Comics of Conan & I remember asking my parents to take me to the movie but they said it was too violent to watch. Two years later they took me to Dune & I was like, "CROM how is this okay for me & not Conan?" I was mad for years at my parents for not taking me & one Christmas they gave me the VHS Conan Movie. Now there's a Christmas movie for ya! I finally got to see it in theaters in 2022 for the 40th Anniversary re-release & it was well worth the wait! Thanks Minty!
When I was in high school I didn't study for a history test (well...I didn't study for any tests...) and one of the questions was something like: "In battle what were the Hittites main goals?" Every other question on the test I had 0 confidence in the answers I gave, but this one question I knew I nailed it. My answer was clear and concise and I knew I was 100% correct. I wrote "To crush their enemies, see their enemies driven before them and to hear the lamentations of the women." The teacher gave me full credit for the answer wrote a note next to it that simply said "Great answer!". You're goddamn right it was a great answer.
In actual fact the movie had a great response do't know where you got your info at the premier people where lined up around the corner they actually had to open up more theaters bikers even showed up and when Arnold first showed up on the first 1 the theater went wild.
@@daviddoyle8956 I wasn't referring to the initial release of Conan The Destroyer in theaters. I'm talking about fans since its home video release. I've personally encountered a lot of American fans who don't like the sequel. It's too fantasy driven, and not as gritty as the first one was.
Just play the opening music while taking any flight path in world of Warcraft. You will have the most epic flight you’ve ever seen but more importantly heard!
I am SO glad that Oliver Stone's futuristic, mutant filled abomination of a script idea was not embraced and used. Conan was already an established character, even though not widely popular, and it is an absolute classic, and probably a top three of the sword and sorcery genre, if not the best of all.
As weird as it sounds, a post-apocalyptic, mutant-filled setting wouldn't have been out of place, though it definitely shouldn't have been a futuristic one: Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age setting was built on some post-apocalyptic stuff, in that it was set after the fall and destruction of Atlantis and the slide of its civilization into barbaric savagery in a landscape full of humans fallen so low into animalistic barbarism that some were devolving into mutant ape men and even primordial serpent-creatures.... The Hyborean Age technically shares a universe with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and as such it would have been a world dotted with the crumbling ruins of antediluvian civilizations built by alien ancient astronauts, sometimes still inhabited by their corrupted, hybrid, sub-human cults.... The conceit of both authors would have been that the Earth is indescribably ancient, and human history terribly old, having gone through forgotten cycles of prehistory in which human civilization advanced to great sophistication only to fall into post-apocalyptic decadence multiple times, after replacing a long series of inhuman monster precursor races that had risen to even greater heights and fallen to even lower depths over longer periods of time than humans could ever dream of.... With a little vision, that post-apocalyptic script might have been reworked into at least a decent Conan adaptation, but it definitely sounds to me, based on that snippet from the script, like Oliver Stone was not a fan of Weird pulp literature, didn't understand Robert E. Howard, and probably didn't have the vision to do anything more with the post-apocalyptic concept than make a Conan-in-name-only Star Wars-meets-Mad Max knockoff! It might still have been entertaining - hell, 'Yor, Hunter from the Future' was pretty entertaining, and ran on pretty much the same concept that Oliver Stone was working with!- but Oliver Stone's vision almost certainly wouldn't have been Conan the Barbarian!
@@pietrayday9915 Thanks for taking the time to flesh that out, very interesting. I guess my issue wasn't as much as with what Stone would have done with it, per se, as much as the fact that it would have meant that the Conan so many of us grew up watching and enjoying would not have been.
While not without it's flaws, Conan the Barbarian is a criminally underrated and underappreciated film with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time... which is also criminally underappreciated.
I caught the gaffe as well, being a old Conan fan who read the books years before the movies were made. Mr. Minty, I sentence you to read the biography of Robert E. Howard in order to present more accurate videos in the future. Lest the wrath of Crom doth smite thee upon thy shaved pate, as he would an emoji. 😀
@Joe Blow As in "ARYANS", which was a group speaking an Indo-European language, long BEFORE the Nazis decided that "Aryans" were their mythical "master race"
About time minty been waiting for this for ages My favourite quote is Crush your enemies, seem them driven before you and hear the lemendation of the women 😁😁
Arnold and Conan always held a special place in my heart. There is just something about that story and the music that makes me feel energized, motivated and passionate. Almost like if someone is powerful and focused enough anything can be achieved, even the darkest of motivations. I truly hope they make a final sequel, that recent Conan did it no justice. Also I have always considered Red Sonja to be Conan 3.
IMO, Conan the Destroyer was fairly corny compared to the first movie. The storyline was also less interesting & the effects were cheesier(like the room of mirrors beast w/ obvious, nonmoving mask). Not to mention, Wilt couldn't act & Grace Jones wasn't much better. It's not a bad movie but it def lacks the authenticity & heart of the first one. Btw, I always thought Olivia D'abo was gorgeous in the Destroyer but I just found out she was only 14 when it was filmed. So yeah, I'm going to Hell. (Or in this case "The Underworld")
Yeah, Grace Jones seemed like the only one in the movie taking it seriously. It’s a prime example of what happens when you give an R rated series a pg13 treatment. The reboot wasn’t THAT bad, but it was ultimately a pg-13 movie pretending it was R rated. 😞
The Legend Of Conan would've made for an interesting film: Seeing Conan as a King and reflecting back on his life and the events that lead up to the setting of this movie
That's crazy, I was having heart problems and my nephew brought the series over while I was sick. To this day I don't know why my heart started hurting, I was only 36, but Conan cartoon got me through it, helped relax me. Shame to hear about your Dad.
William Johnson that makes sense. But also, they come from across the world and every anglophone country has it’s ways. I think it’s saddest when Ozzies and Brits try to sound like septics because they’re the larger audience.
Hey Minty. Love your Videos, thanks for all the work you put in. I was shocked after your Conan video that you totally forgot the masterpiece of soundtrack. It is one of the best Soundtracks that I have ever heard. Greetings to you.
Ever notice that the harder it was to make the movie and the movies that had a ton of obstacles are always the best! Now most movies are lazy CGI made with attractive bad actors.
I think ultimately it comes down to directors looking at their final cut and saying "this will do". Does anyone feel that directors make modern action movies thinking about making art? They mostly feel like contract work to give the studios something to fill in slots in their schedule calendar.
@Matthew Frueh lmao Too bad it was Republicans that caused a violent insurrection and murdered a cop while trying to overthrow the duly elected government.
I think Conan the Destroyer was less popular because Conan went from rated R to rated PG for the sequel. The soundtracks to both movies are legendary however.
I loved it, it perfectly symbolized Conan's triumph over Thulsa Dooms mind control and I think that sound is what finally snapped the cult members out of their trance.
Often overlooked was the brilliant music score by the late Basil Poledourids. Add a 90 piece orchestra , 24 member choir it is truely a remarkable piece or work.
"strike while the iron is hot." then stop. And bury it. Let it rust. Then talk about it. Then drop it. Then forget it. Then realize it's too late to continue when it should have continued when the iron was hot. So much for Conan.
Related to point number five, the child actor who plays little Conan is called Jorge Sanz and went to be a major name in acting here in Spain during the 90's (even though he wasn't very good haha) There's even a comedic documentary in Netflix about him! ("Qué fue de Jorge Sanz?") Greetings from Barcelona, Minty!
"Conan, the mighiest warrior ever! His quest: to undo the spell of living stone cast upon his family by driving the evil serpent men back into another dimension and vanquishing their leader, the cruel wizard Wrath-A-Mon". That opening(as well as cartoon itself) was so epic with me being a kid. (and still is)
Fun fact: In the early 80's, Mattel was working on a Conan the Barbarian action figure line. They panicked at the last minute when they realized it was a violent R-rated movie. They had already manufactured a lot of the toys, so they swapped heads and made other modifications, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was born.
It was a strange era for action figure toys - I remember it being sort of a scandal at the time when Kenner, I believe, produced a line of action figures based on 'Alien', which would have been extremely gruesome and inappropriate for kids by the standards of that era! The scandal doomed the toy line at the time, and it vanished pretty quickly - those who managed to snag the toys when they were still in production have quite the collector's items and conversation pieces now. ua-cam.com/video/8CJgc-o_WkY/v-deo.html It's probably hard for younger people to imagine that today: there's probably not many youngsters around these days who haven't seen 'Alien', or at least one slasher movie, or 'The Exorcist', or anything like that at least once - the world sort of changed a lot since 1979, the '80s saw slasher movies become sort of a routine rite of passage for younger people and the likes of Freddie Krueger or Jason Vorhees became virtual household names, common points of cultural reference, and something like kids' cartoons of the era. I think John Carpenter's 'The Thing' in 1984 would have been one of the last times that a horror movie was able to shock audiences very much, until the 'Saw' and 'Human Centipede' era..... Anyway, it seems kinda quaint today to imagine anyone panicking over action figures based on Conan the Barbarian or 'Alien', but it definitely would have been a thing back then!
"Conan the Destroyer" was a fun movie, but it never came close to the quality of the original. ... Also, "Conan the Barbarian" is unique in the way that is relies heavily on music and narration with minimal (but memorable) dialog. ... I also really like how the ending is a juxtaposition of the beginning. ... In the beginning Thulsa Doom's men attack Conan's village taking his people by surprise. They kill the adults, enslave the children and burn the village to the ground. In the end Thulsa Doom's men attack again, but this time Conan and his friends are ready, and it's Thulsa Doom's men who are killed. Conan then kills Thulsa Doom, frees his "children" and burns his temple to the ground.
Loved “Conan The Barbarian” ❤️ Whenever my mom and I watched it I used to proclaim, “look mom, it’s cannibal’s soup!” when the scene where the dump out the soup came on. What can I say? I was really young.
A couple years prior to Conan, he was in an Old West comedy, The Villain, with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margaret. If you've never seen it, it's worth your time; very corny and over-the-top in a Looney Tunes sort of fashion. Hercules in New York came out in 1970, before anyone had even heard of him. I have the version that uses his actual voice, which only makes it marginally more watchable than the dubbed version...then again, maybe not. :-p
Isn't it odd the video fails to mention that? Arnold couldn't/wouldn't do it and Sorbo didn't want to step into an already established character so Kull was born
Aside from being such a badass action classic , the soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is excellent. I had it on CD in the 90's and played it to death. My cousin and I were movie buddies and this was a top pick, for sure.
I remember I couldn't wait to see this at the cinema. Went with a group of fellow fans of the comic and we were not disappointed! Shame it did drop off with the sequel and Red Sonja but I still watch the original on DVD from time to time !
Bonus fact: Arnold had gotten himself into such good shape for the film, and when it was delayed, he figured “I didn’t get in this shape for nothing, might as well compete one last time in bodybuilding.” He returned and won his 7th Mr Olympia in 1980, and this story was featured in a smaller scale version of Pumping Iron called “the comeback”, which is available on UA-cam.
He did Conan at 215ibs pretty light for him but he got so lean that he looks bigger than you'd guess he packed on about another 20lbs. for the Mr. O but let's be honest he didn't deserve that win.
@@faz6877 what year was Conan, wasn't it 82? his last O was 80,I think? anyway, I remember hearing him say in an interview that Dino told him that he needed to gain more weight for the role and that he laughed at him, but went from 210 220,to 240? Either way, no way he deserves to win the last time, other competition was furious
I’m blown away more people didn’t like the Conan reboot. The character of Conan on screen is much more relatable to most of the comics and graphic novels. He’s lean, smart, and slightly cruel with a sense of honor. I love Arnold’s Conan, but he was pretty much a walking muscle in that movie. I also loved Red Sonja and have a couple original comics in my collection.
Yeah, I love and prefer the '80s version with Arnold, but I thought the reboot was rather underrated. The 'Solomon Kane' adaptation was terribly underrated, too, and so was the 'John Carter' movie, for that matter - I guess modern audiences really weren't primed to appreciate pulp fantasy movies anymore! That '80s 'Red Sonja' adaptation was kinda schlocky exploitation fare and wouldn't be mistaken for a great film, but I still enjoyed it and rewatch it when I'm in the mood for '80s fantasy films! It deserves a little more of a cult audience than it seems to have gotten over the years - I think it would have been one of the better also-ran '80s fantasy films I can think of, certainly close to being in the top ten, if not somewhere in there! To be fair, 'Red Sonja' would have been easy to overlook, considering it had a lot of tough-to-beat '80s fantasy competition - 'Clash of the Titans', 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Conan the Destroyer', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Labyrinth', 'Dragonslayer', 'Excalibur', 'Time Bandits', 'The Beast Master', 'Flash Gordon', the three original 'Star Wars' movies, 'Return to Oz', 'Big Trouble in Little China', 'The Princess Bride', the Indiana Jones films, 'Gremlins', 'Neverending Story'.... Still, 'Red Sonja' holds its own a bit better than most fantasy films of the era! And, by the same token, the 'Conan' reboot, 'Solomon Kane', and 'John Carter' were up against some tough competition in their time, given the success of the 'Star Wars' prequels, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films, the 'Harry Potter' films, 'Game of Thrones', 'The Walking Dead', the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbits' films, and so on - probably no surprise that some decent fantasy films managed to slip between the cracks left by films with much bigger advertising budgets, including some real giants of the fantasy film genre....
I got to meet Sandahl Bergman who played Valeria . She was so nice and spent a lot of time talking about the film with me . She even showed me her finger scar !
Totally agree, the soundtrack is one of the legit most epic fantasy scores ever. It literally drives the film. It allows the space to build the world and set the tone.
The Soundtrack was composed by Basil Poledouris and is one of the best I have ever heard. Watch the opening sequence when Thulsa Doom's hoard attacks the village and you will see how perfectly the music, choir and instruments coincide with the action on screen.
@@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv Yes, I read a comprehensive biography of Howard some years ago, long before the movie. It said Howard lifted whole chunks of mythology and history from other works, thinly disguised, even in some cases, changing the spelling of names just enough that only experts would know what he'd done. He was a thorough "Mama's Boy" and after her death couldn't go on... Stay safe.
Conan was also a direct descendant of Kull of Atlantis. When escaping the wolves the tomb Conan finds is King Kull's... it''s Kull on the throne and the sword is Conan's birthright.
Really. I wasn't aware of all of that, but the entombed giants were certainly meant to be Atlantean kings, and Conan was meant to be the descendant of doomed Atlantis! I believe the movie's script follows a story from the Marvel comic books based on Robert E. Howard's creations, and so the comics would be the first place I'd look (I'm pretty sure the movie isn't based directly on any particular Robert E. Howard story, and as far as his own work is concerned, the Atlantis angle is mostly "all there in the manual" in essays that REH wrote about his character, which Marvel's writers would have referred to for the comic.) That Atlantean background is what makes Oliver Stone's unused script sound tantalizing and vaguely frustrating: Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age actually WAS a post-apocalyptic setting, following the sudden fall and destruction of a relatively sophisticated (but not precisely "futuristic") ancient Atlantis, and Howard's Conan stories were actually canon for H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, where alien monsters and subhuman mutants actually were a thing - they popped up all the time in Robert E. Howard's stories, including a few examples in the Conan stories, and very similar Bran Mak Morn stories set in the same universe, in Roman-era Britannia ("Worms of the Earth", for example, is as fine a sword-and-sorcery cosmic horror story as any ever written, with some pretty darned terrifying mutant creatures in it!) But, Oliver Stone's script does NOT sound like a proper Conan story - I don't think Oliver Stone was very familiar with Robert E. Howard or Lovecraft, and his futuristic post-apocalyptic world doesn't sound like it would have been grounded in the Theosophical "deep history" angle that weird fiction runs on, so I'm pretty sure Stone's script would have gone pretty wide of the mark, coming off sounding something more like a John Carter adaptation in spirit than a Conan adaptation - not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it could still have been a fun fantasy movie - but it wouldn't have felt much like Conan, by the sound of it! Anyway, the tomb Conan finds is absolutely a post-apocalyptic remnant of the fallen Atlantean civilization, of whom the Cimmereans - and ultimately Conan - were some of the last survivors.
There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.
I met Arnold a year or so before Conan was released in the UK, I was already a big Conan fan reading the books, comics and collecting the artwork. but was also into bodybuilding and this is how I came to meet him, he was doing bodybuilding seminars around the UK and he appeared at the Ritz in Manchester he looked great although he didn't pose, I think it was Bill Grant who guest posed. I asked him about the movie and if he was excited about it's release? Anyway it was good to know that I met Arnold before he really hit the big time and he was just as funny, engaging as his hollywood persona went on to be. Personally I think the way to make a Conan film successful is for it to be ultra violent and realistic with no regard for PC scripting, unfortunately the way Hollywood is today I very much doubt that would ever happen
This is one of my favourite films. It's a spectacular film with a great and very fitting soundtrack by Basil Poledouris (which I used to write one of my stories to, stories that nobody ever reads). I also liked the sequel with Grace Jones, who had that perfect wild like quality for her character. Your reviews are very interesting and humorous. I have only recently discovered you, along with UA-cam, Google, Netflix etc. after having lived for many years in a country where all of these things were forbidden. So, I have only recently subscribed to your channel and am now trying to catch up on everything I missed, now being back in England. One feels your passion for films, and that's really good.
My wife is a Doctor, I'm a country boy. As a result I end up at a lot of academic functions with many PhD's and the like. Once I was asked What do I find best in life by one of them. Your post was my answer.
They could not use the name "Conan" in Red Sonja because of licensing issues. So they opted for an alternate name that he "went by". He still used the sword from the first film (one of them anyway).
Monty Monty Monty, you only got it right ONCE in the beginning. ROBERT E Howard, mate, NOT Richard. (Yeah,... I know it’s “Minty”,.... see how aggravating it is?)
Trivia: In 1997, Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to return as Conan in a 3rd Conan movie "Conan the Conqueror" which was adapted from one of Robert E. Howard's fantasy novels. But, Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't do the movie as he was busy working on Batman and Robin and the script was rewritten and the movie became "Kull the Conqueror". The film's title protagonist Kull was also a sword and sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard. Kevin Sorbo was cast as Kull and Tia Carrere was cast as the movie's main antagonist Akivasha. Kull the Conqueror was a good movie. But my only issue with the movie was Kevin Sorbo's bad acting.
Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, and why we died. All that matters is that today, two stood against many. Valor pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, the HELL with you!
🤟❤
🗡️
Easily the best prayer in any movie ever...
I LOVE this scene. You can fault the movie for not holding to Robert E. Howard's works to the letter but this scene captures the essence of his Conan stories so well. The notion that humans don't need to wait around for divine intervention, we can make things happen now!
Best. Prayer. Ever. ;)
"Robert" E Howard and I can't believe you didnt mention the Score from Basil Poledouris. It is one of the greatest fantasy scores ever.
The video is about things we don't know. ;)
@@OldSchoolFilm1930
Oh. I didn't know minty had trouble pronouncing "Robert".
Must be a brit thing 😃
he got it right the first time and then wrong for the next two. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah I was just fixing to say something about that I tooooootally thought it was vaughner...nope Basil poledouris..
Basil definitely deserves some mention of this and his other works. Try watching Conan without the score.
Conan the Barbarian is a masterpiece and still holds up to today's standards for the film. It is a perfect Conan film.
I can't agree with that. I'd been reading REH for 15 years when the movie came out and was highly disappointed. Arnold played Conan like he was a moron.
Agreed. I love the movie and the way it's so nicely intertwined with the beautiful soundtrack!
Yeah... but... would of had busted the budget to die his hair black?!?!?... but, it's the first Conan origin story...be honest, James Earl Jones saved a pretty average script
Yeah the story line and script are somewhat simplistic, but I think that accurately represents the hero, as a person of few words but many actions. I like the slow drawn out simplistic pace, I think it works extremely well.
Today's standards are dog squeeze!!! Worthless and pathetic.
Conan belongs back in the 80s when America was the United States of America.
Conan’s mother in the movie is gorgeous 😍
Yes beautiful eyes
She was a spanish model i believe
I had always à crush on her.... Still have
Definetly! The Scene where Thulsa Doom kills her always made me cry :'(
this film has so many real world implications
One of GREATEST Films ever made! IMHO.. It is about Perfect with no flaws!
The movie soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is awesome as well.
A soundtrack can make or break a movie. For an example of how NOT to score a movie of that genre, see Kull.
YES! One of the main reasons I loved this and Excalibur so much when I was younger was the sound tracks.
Umm, very.
I still listen to it while writing. It really fires me up. Wish they would remaster and rerelease it.
Best Opening of All Cinema
The soundtrack for Conan the Barbarian is one of the best out there!
Thank Basil Polidouriis. He worked for 2 years on the musical score.
@@lisamckennon3025 yes, I know! It's SPECTACULAR
The soundtrack of Maestro Pondorous is one of the most superb music compositions I have ever hear.
@@antonioallen1763 I'll give it a listen! Thanks!😊
Amen Amen....... Interesting that the Soundtracks to Predator and Termination are also awesome
Seen it in the theater as a kid and was mind blow, still one of my all time cult movie favorites.
Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!
Me too!!! I was 12.. big impact on me..Beastmaster and Sword And Sorcerer not as good but also great fantasy sword films of the era.
Me too, I was 9 and living in Las Vegas. It was the last movie my Dad took me to see before he left to join the navy.
I was eleven when I saw it at the theater!!
What a MOVIE!!
Read the book's, not so much the original Howard one's but the book's that were written in the 60's that were paperbacks and had the Frazetta paintings for the covers, they're good and it's more that version of him that the movie is based on more than the original Howard writings.
@@dukecraig2402 I have all the original Conan books as well
Another fact pretty unknown (outside of Spain): the actor who plays child Conan was years later one of the most popular actors in Spain (Jorge Sanz).
Conan was one of my favorite movies as a kid, still watch to this day, I’m in my 40s...for the longest time, I thought young Conan was Joey Lawrence...I think I was in my late 20s when the internet revealed the truth to me...
Basil Polrdouris’ score for this film is perhaps his best work. It’s my favorite of his and I love Robocop’s score too. This movie has inspired me for years. It’s a masterpiece to me. Thanks Minty!
Yes, amazing soundtrack
Best of the Hollywood "primitive" scores. Real musical genius.
We didn't have him long enough in this world.
Yes!! I was hoping for this comment! I love everything about these two movies, but at the top of my list is the soundtrack. I used to listen to it on a cassette. Basil Poledouris also did Lonesome Dove. He was an absolute musical genius.
I love Poledouris, but I've recently discovered that Poledouris's work is greatly inspired by a century-old classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Poledouris basically lifted whole parts from RVW's pieces like "Fantasia" etc.
This movie is absolute art. the score and the sounds of the swords clashing is just amazing.
Warlord: Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.
Warlord: That is good! That is good.
Classic quote from a classic movie.
He wasn't the originator of this quote but still good quote.
I STILL quote this.......my childhood was when this came out. It is still easily one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. I do own it, but when I'm flipping through the channels and see it, I leave it
It’s not Conan, but it’s an iconic quote
Now without Googling it, can you quote the preceding lines?
The sequel is “fun” but the original is brilliant. I’d rank it in the top ten film milestones of the entire 80s. It’s up there with DUNE, Aliens, AND any of the mad max movies.
The biggest problem I've always had with the sequel was its a PG move. Conan is bloody. If they had matched the intensity of the first it would have been so much better.
@SSim0 M Agreed. Dune was one of those adaptions that essentially assumed everyone has already read the novels :/
You forgot to add the First Predator and Terminator to the List, oh and Flash Gordon.....Damn they use to put out classics in the 80's and 90's.
Dune was... clunky.
@L Franco It's not edgy and unique like Lynch's other films. It's awkward and mildly tedious.
The swordmaster who trained the three stars of the movie had little good to say about Sandahl Bergman, said that Arnold did reasonably well, but stated that given a little time, he could train Gerry Lopez into a master swordsman. Gerry quick reflexes and balance, honed from years of surfing professionally were perfect for what was required to become a master.
Good to see Richard E Howard get the mention he deserves, as he is right up there with other literary greats such as Arnold Conan Doyle, Mike Twain, Enola Blyton, and Warren Shakespeare.
The reason he was not called Conan in Red Sonja was because the company that produced Red Sonja did not have the rights to the name.
@@Remington61189 or was wanted by some King or Warlord for robbing some precious treasure, or the innocence of a princess.
I think of Red Sonja as a half sequel to Conan. It is just focused on her more than him.
@@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812 It was strictly supposed to focus on her hence the name and Arnold's character was there to obviously increase the box office sales
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen red Sonya. Did Arnold’s character seem...in character with conan?
@@forkandspoonoperator Arnold only has one character so yes..
Conan What is best in life To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
@Hugh Jassel
Whiney little fear filled RightWingNutsTM hate change because they are driven by fear.
Our nation was created by liberals, the fear driven conservatives stuck with King George.\
And yes you are huge Ahole. The one thing you managed to get right, troll.
Ethelred Hardrede
@Hugh Jassel
The "left" is trying to tear "our" country down?
Who are these so-called "leftist"scum who want to tear the country down?
I bet you can't name one person with the explicit goal of tearing the country down, let alone a "leftist".
Both parties in the US serve their campaign contributors.
Ahhhh, a man of culture I see, lol.
@Hugh Jassel
"o I take it you support
Yep you sure do an appropriate name, Troll For Trump. You are so inept you have to make up lies to attack people with because facts are just not used with people so stupid they believe anything from Trump.
Ethelred Hardrede
High Norse Priest of Quetzalcoatl
Keeper of the Cadbury Mini Eggs
Ghost Writer for Zeus
Official Communicant of the GIOA
And Defender Against the IPU
Ask me about donating your still beating heart to make sure the Sun keeps rising
@Hugh Jassel
" french fry deep fryer"
You are projecting you deepest wish on others. You long for such a job, the sort I had 40 years ago. But no on will hire you and you live under a bridge.
Ethelred Hardrede
High Norse Priest of Quetzalcoatl
Keeper of the Cadbury Mini Eggs
Ghost Writer for Zeus
Official Communicant of the GIOA
And Defender Against the IPU
Ask me about donating your still beating heart to make sure the Sun keeps rising
Here's a tidbit for whoever made this video: Conan's creator was Robert E. Howard, not "Richard" E. Howard, as you mention at least twice in this video. This may sound petty, but considering Howard's literary legacy and his legions of true fans (excluding those in Hollywood who have repeatedly butchered his work), we certainly would have appreciated you getting this very basic fact right. Otherwise, a good and informative video.
Thank goodness someone pointed this out. I can't believe he kept saying "Richard" when referring to REH. I finally had to stop watching after he said it again, and it was obvious that he didn't mis-speak the first time.
Yep Robert E Howard. I read all the original Conan stories written by him.
Thank you!
Doesn't sound petty at all. It's a huge error.
He actually does say Robert E. Howard in the beginning but he then says Richard twice later on. Yeah... Doesn't even talk about Sandahl Bergmen, Valerie Quennessen, Ben Davidson, Sven Ole Thorsen and good old Franco Columbu.
I saw Conan when I was just a boy and it had a huge impact on me. So when you say some people didn’t like the story I just don’t understand. Conan is a story of perseverance and triumph in the face of the ultimate adversity. The actions you take in life make you the person you are. It’s not about the destination but the journey. It’s in my top 5 and pretty close to number 1 movies of all time. And I am the cable guy literally the tv raised me along with cinema.
What are the other movies in your top 5?
The only people I've ever heard complain about r neckbeard Robert E Howard purest who's all like "that's not even a conan story" or "they're mixing the lore"
Some additional details you may not know:
1. The main plot of the finished script was based on the Kull story, "The Shadow Kingdom."
2. The "Wheel of Pain" set was built to be a functional grain mill, and it actually worked! The large, stone, wheels grind the grain down, and the angle of the wheels push the flower into the mound below to be collected.
3. Sandahal Bergman (Valeria) was such a boss that she finished the entire scene even after having lost the first joint of her finger at the start of the scene.
Conan is one of the greatest films for men and boys ever made. It is a masterpiece on a philosophical scale.
????
@@hexum7 He said Conan is one of the greatest films for men and boys ever made. It is a masterpiece on a philosophical scale.
@@itsallaboutthatbass8558 My question marks were concerning why anyone would think that. Its a clusterfuck of a movie with a big budget, a terrible lead actor and a banal plot based in the weird pulp fiction if a mentally ill recluse.
What makes it a movie masterpiece for anyone? what does the OP (and you?) mean by that? What philosophical values in the film is he referring to?
@@itsallaboutthatbass8558 Again, ???? Oh, I get it, you were being snarky. Doh
Nevermind
@@Lollburger88 wasn't that beautiful line...
james earl jones was awesome in the movie and the soundtrack is amazing
Love the sound track to both... slightly prefer the second one but can’t actually find it!
This was an amazing film. The soundtrack. I think Valeria was the weakest actor. Red Sonja was excellent
My friends and I use the soundtrack as background music while we're playing D&D/Pathfinder it makes a good atmosphere it sound.
@@johnpaul4597 same here we use this and Pink Floyd's Symphonic done by the New York Philharmonic for playing D! As we all lovingly call it. "Let's play some D!"
The soundtrack was just as great as the movie. It made up the bulk of the film
About 11 years ago when I started dating my wife we sat down one evening to watch "Conan the Barbarian," which she had never seen before. When the opening scroll comes up I begin reciting it with the perfect intonation and at the end she's looking at me like how in the world do you have any space in your brain for the science you need to know. It also might be the point where she fell in love with me I'm not sure.
The fact that she could and would sit through Conan the Barbarian with you makes her instant marriage material on the spot. Lucky man, you got a good one!
This MUST be the point she fell in love with you 😄
Aww. I want to have that when I get married. That’s such a sweet bond you have! I wish you guys many more happy years! “Wifeing music plays.”
It was a time of high adventure
She couldn't resist a man who can recite the intro to one of the manliest movies ever! That was when your 'man card' got dipped in GOLD! You da man, man! (bows down humbly)
Conan's movie father just passed a couple of weeks ago. Rest in peace, William Smith!
He was an iconic tough guy!
conan is the greatest movie ever made. the talk his dad gives him tells you all you need to know about life
When I was stationed in South Korea, it turned out that everyone in my unit was a fan of this movie. So whenever we got a new guy, we asked him "what is best in life" and "what is the riddle of steel". He got both answers wrong lol
That is fucking hilarious. I’m telling my older brother this shit
"Yeesssss the riddle of steel? do you know it boy..."
Steel isn't strong ,flesh is stronger, what is steel compared to the hand that wields it?
The riddle of steel is never actually explained by any characters in the movie, only shown. Thulsa was wrong and so was Conan's father. The answer is not that you can trust in steel, or that flesh is stronger than steel. The answer is WILL. It is the unbreakable will of the Warrior, that wields both flesh and steel to achieve victory. Conan's father told him the sword was the answer, but the sword he made broke, Thulsa said it was flesh, but all the power in his being didn't stop that broken sword from cutting his flesh. It is will that is strongest, this is what is displayed at he end when Conan holds Thuls'a head in one hand, and his father's broken sword in the other.
@@johndarcangelo6893 You are correct Steel can turn brittle than break, Flesh turns old and dies but it is human will that is the strongest Because it can be unbreakable.
Trivia: The swordmaster teaching Conan in the movie was Arnold's real life sword instructor for the movie.
His name is Kiyoshi Yamazaki and he taught Arnold, Sandahl Bergman & Gerry Lopez
books.google.com/books?id=2tsDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA20&dq=kiyoshi%20yamazaki%20conan&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false
That's a lot like R. Lee Ermey playing a drill sergeant.
From a 1982 review; "After becoming a master of weapons. Conan is taken to the East, where he becomes a master of weapons."
He also trained with Terry O Neil, which was also a feature in Black Belt magazine
,,,who also appears twice in the movie , getting beaten up by Grace Jones as her character is freed
The Soundtrack makes this movie. I absolutely love the soundtrack! One of my favorite guilty pleasure movies of all time!
Fun fact: Arnold actually had to tone down some of his workouts for the movie because his pecs were too big to allow him to hold the sword properly.
We read my buddies older brothers Black & White Comics of Conan & I remember asking my parents to take me to the movie but they said it was too violent to watch. Two years later they took me to Dune & I was like, "CROM how is this okay for me & not Conan?" I was mad for years at my parents for not taking me & one Christmas they gave me the VHS Conan Movie. Now there's a Christmas movie for ya! I finally got to see it in theaters in 2022 for the 40th Anniversary re-release & it was well worth the wait! Thanks Minty!
When I was in high school I didn't study for a history test (well...I didn't study for any tests...) and one of the questions was something like: "In battle what were the Hittites main goals?" Every other question on the test I had 0 confidence in the answers I gave, but this one question I knew I nailed it. My answer was clear and concise and I knew I was 100% correct. I wrote "To crush their enemies, see their enemies driven before them and to hear the lamentations of the women."
The teacher gave me full credit for the answer wrote a note next to it that simply said "Great answer!". You're goddamn right it was a great answer.
Richard E Howard? No...Robert E Howard. And the sequel must be really loved in Australia, because here in America it's not loved so fondly.
Nah , we love it still , it was great in its own way like any good sequel .
@@JoshuaPaulHollenbeck You're the minority, not the majority. I love the sequel too, but there's a whole lot more who hate it.
In actual fact the movie had a great response do't know where you got your info at the premier people where lined up around the corner they actually had to open up more theaters bikers even showed up and when Arnold first showed up on the first 1 the theater went wild.
@@daviddoyle8956 I wasn't referring to the initial release of Conan The Destroyer in theaters. I'm talking about fans since its home video release. I've personally encountered a lot of American fans who don't like the sequel. It's too fantasy driven, and not as gritty as the first one was.
I agree, I did not like the sequel.
The score To a movie makes the movie. And the score is the star of this movie. And Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones were pretty good as well.
In the immortal words of the score: DUN-DUN-DA-*DUN* .
One of the best scores ever
Valeria (Sandahl Bergman)was pretty hot. 4:44
YES! Conan has one of the all time best scores ever, its so powerful and reflects every scene of the movie.
Just play the opening music while taking any flight path in world of Warcraft. You will have the most epic flight you’ve ever seen but more importantly heard!
I am SO glad that Oliver Stone's futuristic, mutant filled abomination of a script idea was not embraced and used. Conan was already an established character, even though not widely popular, and it is an absolute classic, and probably a top three of the sword and sorcery genre, if not the best of all.
As weird as it sounds, a post-apocalyptic, mutant-filled setting wouldn't have been out of place, though it definitely shouldn't have been a futuristic one: Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age setting was built on some post-apocalyptic stuff, in that it was set after the fall and destruction of Atlantis and the slide of its civilization into barbaric savagery in a landscape full of humans fallen so low into animalistic barbarism that some were devolving into mutant ape men and even primordial serpent-creatures.... The Hyborean Age technically shares a universe with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and as such it would have been a world dotted with the crumbling ruins of antediluvian civilizations built by alien ancient astronauts, sometimes still inhabited by their corrupted, hybrid, sub-human cults.... The conceit of both authors would have been that the Earth is indescribably ancient, and human history terribly old, having gone through forgotten cycles of prehistory in which human civilization advanced to great sophistication only to fall into post-apocalyptic decadence multiple times, after replacing a long series of inhuman monster precursor races that had risen to even greater heights and fallen to even lower depths over longer periods of time than humans could ever dream of....
With a little vision, that post-apocalyptic script might have been reworked into at least a decent Conan adaptation, but it definitely sounds to me, based on that snippet from the script, like Oliver Stone was not a fan of Weird pulp literature, didn't understand Robert E. Howard, and probably didn't have the vision to do anything more with the post-apocalyptic concept than make a Conan-in-name-only Star Wars-meets-Mad Max knockoff! It might still have been entertaining - hell, 'Yor, Hunter from the Future' was pretty entertaining, and ran on pretty much the same concept that Oliver Stone was working with!- but Oliver Stone's vision almost certainly wouldn't have been Conan the Barbarian!
@@pietrayday9915 Thanks for taking the time to flesh that out, very interesting. I guess my issue wasn't as much as with what Stone would have done with it, per se, as much as the fact that it would have meant that the Conan so many of us grew up watching and enjoying would not have been.
While not without it's flaws, Conan the Barbarian is a criminally underrated and underappreciated film with one of the greatest soundtracks of all time... which is also criminally underappreciated.
this comment is criminally underrated
@@J_Eusebio criminal how underrated the word underrated is online
Robert E. Howard. CROM!
All those Richards really bothered me!
Yeah, I just checked the comments to see if anyone else caught that but overall it’s a good video.
I caught the gaffe as well, being a old Conan fan who read the books years before the movies were made. Mr. Minty, I sentence you to read the biography of Robert E. Howard in order to present more accurate videos in the future. Lest the wrath of Crom doth smite thee upon thy shaved pate, as he would an emoji. 😀
Did you know that if more people comment on a video, regardless of the reason, the UA-cam algorithm will push it more?
@@pentelegomenon1175 Yeah!
I was hoping you'd start with "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aerius..." 😁
@Joe Blow As in "ARYANS", which was a group speaking an Indo-European language, long BEFORE the Nazis decided that "Aryans" were their mythical "master race"
No no no..not Aryans, not Aeries... It is Ares the god of war (although it sounds alot like Aries when Mako says it like that)
'...let me tell you of the days of high adventure!!' *booming Basil Poledoris score*
About time minty been waiting for this for ages
My favourite quote is
Crush your enemies, seem them driven before you and hear the lemendation of the women 😁😁
The intro music hooked me immediately when I saw this in theaters. Theydont make movies like this anymore. I miss them.
Arnold and Conan always held a special place in my heart. There is just something about that story and the music that makes me feel energized, motivated and passionate. Almost like if someone is powerful and focused enough anything can be achieved, even the darkest of motivations. I truly hope they make a final sequel, that recent Conan did it no justice. Also I have always considered Red Sonja to be Conan 3.
This movie and soundtrack never get old.
IMO, Conan the Destroyer was fairly corny compared to the first movie. The storyline was also less interesting & the effects were cheesier(like the room of mirrors beast w/ obvious, nonmoving mask). Not to mention, Wilt couldn't act & Grace Jones wasn't much better. It's not a bad movie but it def lacks the authenticity & heart of the first one.
Btw, I always thought Olivia D'abo was gorgeous in the Destroyer but I just found out she was only 14 when it was filmed. So yeah, I'm going to Hell. (Or in this case "The Underworld")
T- Boog But then you discover she appeared nude in a diff movie at 14 as well. Can’t remember name of movie but come on! Seriously, Hollywood.
It didn't help that it got a PG rating.
@@PeterRichardsandYoureNot Bolero?
Yeah, Grace Jones seemed like the only one in the movie taking it seriously. It’s a prime example of what happens when you give an R rated series a pg13 treatment. The reboot wasn’t THAT bad, but it was ultimately a pg-13 movie pretending it was R rated. 😞
@@PeterRichardsandYoureNot That was her cousin Maryam d'Abo in Xtro....
The Legend Of Conan would've made for an interesting film:
Seeing Conan as a King and reflecting back on his life and the events that lead up to the setting of this movie
Excellent movie! Great cast, great scenery, great soundtrack, and costumes.
The cartoon “Conan the Adventurer” got me through my father’s illness and death.
Condolences.
When a boy's father dies he becomes a man. It is a right of passage.
Make him proud.
That's crazy, I was having heart problems and my nephew brought the series over while I was sick.
To this day I don't know why my heart started hurting, I was only 36, but Conan cartoon got me through it, helped relax me. Shame to hear about your Dad.
I love this show. Watched it with my son a few months ago!
I’m so sorry 😞 I will have to try to find these!
Grace Jones was so incredibly epic, I loved her character when I was growing up.
Me too. I wish they had kept Subati and just added her. The comedy guy just didn't work.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Robert E Howard, not Richard.
I wonder if he does these things on purpose.
I do too. He even mispronounced Cimmerian
He pronounces things as an Ozzie. Though I think he uses words incorrectly on purpose, like ‘irony.’
A lot of UA-camrs mispronounce certain words so they are flooded with comments regarding the mistake. It supposedly helps the algorithm.
William Johnson that makes sense. But also, they come from across the world and every anglophone country has it’s ways. I think it’s saddest when Ozzies and Brits try to sound like septics because they’re the larger audience.
You could have mentioned the “Weird Al” Yankovic parody. Conan the librarian.
“Don’t you know the Dewey decimal system?”
These books are late! Yarghg!
No Conan remake could ever be any good as Mako is sadly no longer with us .
Hey Minty. Love your Videos, thanks for all the work you put in.
I was shocked after your Conan video that you totally forgot the masterpiece of soundtrack. It is one of the best Soundtracks that I have ever heard.
Greetings to you.
"The...Riddle...Of...Steel?" "Yes! You know it, don't you, boy? Shall I tell you? Steel isn't strong. Flesh is stronger!"
'what is steel compared to the flesh that wields it?! Contemplate this.. on the tree of woe... crucify him.'
terminator after explosions, begs to differ.
Well, that's just retarded, innit?
Oh yea that's just great...... Thanks a lot for the spoiler.
How would like it if I told you Kodo dies at the end of Beastmaster? 0_o
diGritz1 HE WHHHHAAAATTTT??????
Ever notice that the harder it was to make the movie and the movies that had a ton of obstacles are always the best! Now most movies are lazy CGI made with attractive bad actors.
If that's the case, James Cameron's Avatar sequels are going to be EPIC!
I think ultimately it comes down to directors looking at their final cut and saying "this will do".
Does anyone feel that directors make modern action movies thinking about making art? They mostly feel like contract work to give the studios something to fill in slots in their schedule calendar.
I had a massive crush on Conan when I was a kid. I loved him and The Beast Master. I know I was a disturbed girl 👧 growing up.
Dar!
What? Not at all, ur normal hun. U single? Lol
You are even more messed up now, you Trump supporting lunatic seditionist POS.
@@justingabriel6527 really on youtube comments
@Matthew Frueh lmao
Too bad it was Republicans that caused a violent insurrection and murdered a cop while trying to overthrow the duly elected government.
I think Conan the Destroyer was less popular because Conan went from rated R to rated PG for the sequel. The soundtracks to both movies are legendary however.
the movies have an insanely good score too, one the few i can listen to on it's own.
No nod to Basil Poledouris's amazing score? Tsk tsk.
Copyright issues.
Top scores of all time i think.
And what is this Richard E Howard crap??
Seriously! I bought the soundtrack!
exactly, this movie would of been amazing if it was a silent film with just the score , best score in movie history IMO
I was hoping Arnold would bite the microphone when it dropped just like he did the bird in the movie.
The sound of that head rolling down those long steps has always disturbed me a bit.
It did seem a little too authentic
@@koolcaz7778 That's what I thought lol
@@topdawg2003 it's that hollow sound when it hits
I loved it, it perfectly symbolized Conan's triumph over Thulsa Dooms mind control and I think that sound is what finally snapped the cult members out of their trance.
@@koolcaz7778 How many heads have you heard rolling down some stairs?.... It sounds nothing like the movie!
Often overlooked was the brilliant music score by the late Basil Poledourids. Add a 90 piece orchestra , 24 member choir it is truely a remarkable piece or work.
"strike while the iron is hot." then stop. And bury it. Let it rust. Then talk about it. Then drop it. Then forget it. Then realize it's too late to continue when it should have continued when the iron was hot. So much for Conan.
Related to point number five, the child actor who plays little Conan is called Jorge Sanz and went to be a major name in acting here in Spain during the 90's (even though he wasn't very good haha) There's even a comedic documentary in Netflix about him! ("Qué fue de Jorge Sanz?")
Greetings from Barcelona, Minty!
No way! Pretty cool! Interesting videos you have by the way, Nikki 😉
"Conan, the mighiest warrior ever! His quest: to undo the spell of living stone cast upon his family by driving the evil serpent men back into another dimension and vanquishing their leader, the cruel wizard Wrath-A-Mon". That opening(as well as cartoon itself) was so epic with me being a kid. (and still is)
Love the cartoon. Minty needs to revisit it
The cartoon wasn’t the best, but it was less terrible than a LOT of 80s\90s cheap toy commercials pretending to be entertainment.
Always loved the music in this movie.
Fun fact: In the early 80's, Mattel was working on a Conan the Barbarian action figure line. They panicked at the last minute when they realized it was a violent R-rated movie. They had already manufactured a lot of the toys, so they swapped heads and made other modifications, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was born.
It was a strange era for action figure toys - I remember it being sort of a scandal at the time when Kenner, I believe, produced a line of action figures based on 'Alien', which would have been extremely gruesome and inappropriate for kids by the standards of that era! The scandal doomed the toy line at the time, and it vanished pretty quickly - those who managed to snag the toys when they were still in production have quite the collector's items and conversation pieces now.
ua-cam.com/video/8CJgc-o_WkY/v-deo.html
It's probably hard for younger people to imagine that today: there's probably not many youngsters around these days who haven't seen 'Alien', or at least one slasher movie, or 'The Exorcist', or anything like that at least once - the world sort of changed a lot since 1979, the '80s saw slasher movies become sort of a routine rite of passage for younger people and the likes of Freddie Krueger or Jason Vorhees became virtual household names, common points of cultural reference, and something like kids' cartoons of the era. I think John Carpenter's 'The Thing' in 1984 would have been one of the last times that a horror movie was able to shock audiences very much, until the 'Saw' and 'Human Centipede' era.....
Anyway, it seems kinda quaint today to imagine anyone panicking over action figures based on Conan the Barbarian or 'Alien', but it definitely would have been a thing back then!
The soundtrack MAN, it's all about the SOUNDTRACK!
"Do you want to live forever!?"
I actually love this movie. The soundtrack makes it so epic.
"Conan the Destroyer" was a fun movie, but it never came close to the quality of the original. ... Also, "Conan the Barbarian" is unique in the way that is relies heavily on music and narration with minimal (but memorable) dialog. ... I also really like how the ending is a juxtaposition of the beginning. ... In the beginning Thulsa Doom's men attack Conan's village taking his people by surprise. They kill the adults, enslave the children and burn the village to the ground. In the end Thulsa Doom's men attack again, but this time Conan and his friends are ready, and it's Thulsa Doom's men who are killed. Conan then kills Thulsa Doom, frees his "children" and burns his temple to the ground.
They definitely got the music right. One of my favorite sound tracks.
Seen this movie 109 times! Have all the comics too. All time favourite.
Oh and the soundtrack is one of the best!
I love watching and re-watching Max von Sydow's scene. His personality completely owns that scene. He is larger than life.
Lions ate them .....ha ha ha
he's one of those actors with charisma to spare, you just can't not watch him onscreen.
"There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, and gold loses it's luster..."
Loved “Conan The Barbarian” ❤️
Whenever my mom and I watched it I used to proclaim, “look mom, it’s cannibal’s soup!” when the scene where the dump out the soup came on. What can I say? I was really young.
It's hard to believe Arnold did 'Hercules In New York' just before 'Conan The Barbarian'. 😁
A couple years prior to Conan, he was in an Old West comedy, The Villain, with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margaret. If you've never seen it, it's worth your time; very corny and over-the-top in a Looney Tunes sort of fashion. Hercules in New York came out in 1970, before anyone had even heard of him. I have the version that uses his actual voice, which only makes it marginally more watchable than the dubbed version...then again, maybe not. :-p
I love that movie- particularly the hot dog scene
Why
12 years before. It was released February 1970.
Wasn't just before, he did Stay Hungry (awful) Pumping iron, and a few others
Then Kull the Conqueror was also originally meant to be a Conan movie.
Isn't it odd the video fails to mention that? Arnold couldn't/wouldn't do it and Sorbo didn't want to step into an already established character so Kull was born
Fuck sorbo .@@residentrump3271
I remember watching this as a kid. What a great movie and the music is fantastic
This is actually my number 1 favorite movie of all time. It had a huge impact on me as a kid, and will always have that number 1 spot.
Still one of my favorite movies. This, the 1st terminator, and commando, are at the top my 80's action flix.
Aside from being such a badass action classic , the soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is excellent. I had it on CD in the 90's and played it to death. My cousin and I were movie buddies and this was a top pick, for sure.
I had it on a cassette 🤣🤣
If Conan the Destroyer was the first movie, there wouldn't have been a sequel. That tells you how good it was.
I love Conan The Barbarian its a great movie. Great job Minty! The comic are great too.
Conan the Barbarian is in my top 5 favorite films. It's still so epic and awesome as it was when I were a kid.
I remember I couldn't wait to see this at the cinema. Went with a group of fellow fans of the comic and we were not disappointed! Shame it did drop off with the sequel and Red Sonja but I still watch the original on DVD from time to time !
I had both on VHS and wore them out, then I got them on a double DVD and wore that out
If they release it on 4K Blu-Ray, it’ll be an automatic purchase for me! 😁👍
Bonus fact: Arnold had gotten himself into such good shape for the film, and when it was delayed, he figured “I didn’t get in this shape for nothing, might as well compete one last time in bodybuilding.” He returned and won his 7th Mr Olympia in 1980, and this story was featured in a smaller scale version of Pumping Iron called “the comeback”, which is available on UA-cam.
He did Conan at 215ibs pretty light for him but he got so lean that he looks bigger than you'd guess he packed on about another 20lbs. for the Mr. O but let's be honest he didn't deserve that win.
Actually you wrong
@@manchesterexplorer8519 are your saying he deserved that win? Listen I love Arnold one of my all time inspirations. But no way should he have won
Arnold is the man but he didn't deserve to win that year
@@faz6877 what year was Conan, wasn't it 82? his last O was 80,I think? anyway, I remember hearing him say in an interview that Dino told him that he needed to gain more weight for the role and that he laughed at him, but went from 210 220,to 240? Either way, no way he deserves to win the last time, other competition was furious
Arnold himself admitted that he was born to play Conan
Conan and terminator
I’m blown away more people didn’t like the Conan reboot. The character of Conan on screen is much more relatable to most of the comics and graphic novels. He’s lean, smart, and slightly cruel with a sense of honor. I love Arnold’s Conan, but he was pretty much a walking muscle in that movie. I also loved Red Sonja and have a couple original comics in my collection.
Yeah, I love and prefer the '80s version with Arnold, but I thought the reboot was rather underrated. The 'Solomon Kane' adaptation was terribly underrated, too, and so was the 'John Carter' movie, for that matter - I guess modern audiences really weren't primed to appreciate pulp fantasy movies anymore!
That '80s 'Red Sonja' adaptation was kinda schlocky exploitation fare and wouldn't be mistaken for a great film, but I still enjoyed it and rewatch it when I'm in the mood for '80s fantasy films! It deserves a little more of a cult audience than it seems to have gotten over the years - I think it would have been one of the better also-ran '80s fantasy films I can think of, certainly close to being in the top ten, if not somewhere in there!
To be fair, 'Red Sonja' would have been easy to overlook, considering it had a lot of tough-to-beat '80s fantasy competition - 'Clash of the Titans', 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Conan the Destroyer', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Labyrinth', 'Dragonslayer', 'Excalibur', 'Time Bandits', 'The Beast Master', 'Flash Gordon', the three original 'Star Wars' movies, 'Return to Oz', 'Big Trouble in Little China', 'The Princess Bride', the Indiana Jones films, 'Gremlins', 'Neverending Story'.... Still, 'Red Sonja' holds its own a bit better than most fantasy films of the era! And, by the same token, the 'Conan' reboot, 'Solomon Kane', and 'John Carter' were up against some tough competition in their time, given the success of the 'Star Wars' prequels, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films, the 'Harry Potter' films, 'Game of Thrones', 'The Walking Dead', the 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbits' films, and so on - probably no surprise that some decent fantasy films managed to slip between the cracks left by films with much bigger advertising budgets, including some real giants of the fantasy film genre....
I got to meet Sandahl Bergman who played Valeria . She was so nice and spent a lot of time talking about the film with me . She even showed me her finger scar !
I was hoping Minty might include some info on the film's soundtrack. But alas, the musical score that propels a movie forward is often overlooked.
Totally agree, the soundtrack is one of the legit most epic fantasy scores ever. It literally drives the film. It allows the space to build the world and set the tone.
The Soundtrack was composed by Basil Poledouris and is one of the best I have ever heard. Watch the opening sequence when Thulsa Doom's hoard attacks the village and you will see how perfectly the music, choir and instruments coincide with the action on screen.
Cool, thanks for the info Brother!👍
Stop saying Richard, it's Robert E. Howard.
Think of it this way. He didn't tell people how R E Howard died. Which could be good for Conan.
@@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv Yes, I read a comprehensive biography of Howard some years ago, long before the movie. It said Howard lifted whole chunks of mythology and history from other works, thinly disguised, even in some cases, changing the spelling of names just enough that only experts would know what he'd done. He was a thorough "Mama's Boy" and after her death couldn't go on... Stay safe.
Thank you haha
It's amusing that most of the "10 things you didn't know" are incorrect. This guy tends to pull facts out his arse:)
@@mrhed0nist
The writer does make mistakes. Usually gets most of it right. Simon just reads it.
Conan was also a direct descendant of Kull of Atlantis. When escaping the wolves the tomb Conan finds is King Kull's... it''s Kull on the throne and the sword is Conan's birthright.
Really? You gotta source on that? I'd like to check it out.
Really. I wasn't aware of all of that, but the entombed giants were certainly meant to be Atlantean kings, and Conan was meant to be the descendant of doomed Atlantis! I believe the movie's script follows a story from the Marvel comic books based on Robert E. Howard's creations, and so the comics would be the first place I'd look (I'm pretty sure the movie isn't based directly on any particular Robert E. Howard story, and as far as his own work is concerned, the Atlantis angle is mostly "all there in the manual" in essays that REH wrote about his character, which Marvel's writers would have referred to for the comic.)
That Atlantean background is what makes Oliver Stone's unused script sound tantalizing and vaguely frustrating: Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age actually WAS a post-apocalyptic setting, following the sudden fall and destruction of a relatively sophisticated (but not precisely "futuristic") ancient Atlantis, and Howard's Conan stories were actually canon for H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, where alien monsters and subhuman mutants actually were a thing - they popped up all the time in Robert E. Howard's stories, including a few examples in the Conan stories, and very similar Bran Mak Morn stories set in the same universe, in Roman-era Britannia ("Worms of the Earth", for example, is as fine a sword-and-sorcery cosmic horror story as any ever written, with some pretty darned terrifying mutant creatures in it!)
But, Oliver Stone's script does NOT sound like a proper Conan story - I don't think Oliver Stone was very familiar with Robert E. Howard or Lovecraft, and his futuristic post-apocalyptic world doesn't sound like it would have been grounded in the Theosophical "deep history" angle that weird fiction runs on, so I'm pretty sure Stone's script would have gone pretty wide of the mark, coming off sounding something more like a John Carter adaptation in spirit than a Conan adaptation - not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it could still have been a fun fantasy movie - but it wouldn't have felt much like Conan, by the sound of it!
Anyway, the tomb Conan finds is absolutely a post-apocalyptic remnant of the fallen Atlantean civilization, of whom the Cimmereans - and ultimately Conan - were some of the last survivors.
There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.
I met Arnold a year or so before Conan was released in the UK, I was already a big Conan fan reading the books, comics and collecting the artwork. but was also into bodybuilding and this is how I came to meet him, he was doing bodybuilding seminars around the UK and he appeared at the Ritz in Manchester he looked great although he didn't pose, I think it was Bill Grant who guest posed. I asked him about the movie and if he was excited about it's release? Anyway it was good to know that I met Arnold before he really hit the big time and he was just as funny, engaging as his hollywood persona went on to be. Personally I think the way to make a Conan film successful is for it to be ultra violent and realistic with no regard for PC scripting, unfortunately the way Hollywood is today I very much doubt that would ever happen
This is one of my favourite films. It's a spectacular film with a great and very fitting soundtrack by Basil Poledouris (which I used to write one of my stories to, stories that nobody ever reads). I also liked the sequel with Grace Jones, who had that perfect wild like quality for her character. Your reviews are very interesting and humorous. I have only recently discovered you, along with UA-cam, Google, Netflix etc. after having lived for many years in a country where all of these things were forbidden. So, I have only recently subscribed to your channel and am now trying to catch up on everything I missed, now being back in England. One feels your passion for films, and that's really good.
I don't know how they could of been hesitant on hiring Arnold, i can't see any but Arnold for the part.
He was too short
Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women!!
Spelled like a true barbarian.
CRUSH your enemies.
@@MLBlue30 good looking; and that's crush
My wife is a Doctor, I'm a country boy. As a result I end up at a lot of academic functions with many PhD's and the like. Once I was asked What do I find best in life by one of them.
Your post was my answer.
Best. Line. EVER !!!!
They could not use the name "Conan" in Red Sonja because of licensing issues.
So they opted for an alternate name that he "went by".
He still used the sword from the first film (one of them anyway).
The soundtrack composed by Basil Poledouris is absolutely serene!
The Poledouris soundtrack is unreal. I've listened to it a thousand times and it gets better with every listen.
The newer extended remaster is even better.
2:54 it's ROBERT E. Howard, not "Richard" 😅🤦🏼♂️
He says Richard later in the video too!
I wondered if anybody caught that too
Might be getting his wires crossed thinking of the actor Richard E. Grant.
Monty Monty Monty, you only got it right ONCE in the beginning. ROBERT E Howard, mate, NOT Richard.
(Yeah,... I know it’s “Minty”,.... see how aggravating it is?)
Wow, I didn’t know arnold went through all that training for the role. That’s dedication
this is by far my all time best movie ever, hands down....
Trivia: In 1997, Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to return as Conan in a 3rd Conan movie "Conan the Conqueror" which was adapted from one of Robert E. Howard's fantasy novels. But, Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't do the movie as he was busy working on Batman and Robin and the script was rewritten and the movie became "Kull the Conqueror". The film's title protagonist Kull was also a sword and sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard. Kevin Sorbo was cast as Kull and Tia Carrere was cast as the movie's main antagonist Akivasha. Kull the Conqueror was a good movie. But my only issue with the movie was Kevin Sorbo's bad acting.