Conan the Barbarian (1982)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1982
	Director: John Milius (Red Dawn)
	Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Escape Plan), James Earl Jones (Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October), Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, Minority Report), Mako (The Sand Pebbles, Red Sun Rising)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Epic
	Conditions of visioning: 15.07.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Conan the Cimmerien (Schwarzenegger) sees his whole tribe exterminated before he is sent as a child to a labor camp. He will grow to be a fierce warrior driven by revenge.
Review: Tricky question: Who is the main character in John Milius' Conan the Barbarian? My answer would not be the name of the Austrian action hero, but rather the soundtrack composed by Basil Poledouris, sometimes considered (and not only by me) as one the best soundtracks ever. It plays such a huge role in this movie, accompanying perfectly the quests and battles of the heroes, that I can listen to it quite often (about once a week), never getting bored but rather seeing in my head the movie scenes that go with the tracks. More on this at the end of this post. I find that John Milius and Oliver Stone made a wonderful job at adapting the written work by Robert E. Howard from the 30's, itself already adapted to a Marvel Comics series in the 70's. For example they cleverly got away from the classical adventurer look of Conan (athletic, wearing boots and his hair rather short) to make it really look like a barbarian, and they took the risk of hiring an unknown actor barely speaking English for the lead role. Also they made this character speak as little as possible, which I find always works best for this kind of mysterious character (see for example Dredd or Mad Max: Fury Road). Arnold Schwarzenegger is just perfect for the role, it is a pity that we then saw him only in an average sequel Conan the Destroyer and an unofficial spin-off Red Sonja. Further projects (Conan the Conqueror) were cancelled, I didn't like at all the 2011 remake with Jason Momoa, and even if a new adventure is planned with Arnold taking back his role (The Legend of Conan), it will never be the same again. A usual criticism to this movie is that story is very simple and played by uneven actors. I cannot argue with that but at the same time it doesn't bother me, having excellent performance by Schwarzenegger, the great James Earl Jones and a brief apparition by Max Von Sydow, next to other more forgettable actors. The strength of the movie for me is in its Epic proportions and battles, carried as I already mentioned by a perfect soundtrack. Take for instance the opening scenes: introduction to the Cimmerian village interleaved with the enemy approaching and culminating with the attack and the capture of Conan. Then the movie and music together flawlessly evolve into the "Wheel of Pain" scene in which we will see Conan reach adult age. I counted that during those first 17 minutes there is only one short scene with dialog (not counting the spoken introduction): when Conan's father teaches him the strength of steel and tells him about their God Crom. Those 17 minutes are probably the strongest opening I have ever seen in a movie, in all genres. Heroic Fantasy is a sub-genre that is easy to turn into ridicule (see all the laughable Conan copycats that followed, mainly from Italy), but for me the original Conan the Barbarian is a masterpiece in this genre. Be careful to watch the uncensored version (see more details below).
Rating: 9 /10 I remember that I saw the movie for the first time at an age when I was probably too young for it, I then had nightmares involving serpents and spent some months if not years trying to find the title of this movie that made such a strong impression on me. The next time I watched it and re-discovered Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), my quest was over. Note that it is only at a later age that I became almost obsessed with the soundtrack. I have already mentioned in this dedicated article about movie soundtracks that I own several editions of the Conan one: the original recording, the remastered edition, the version recorded by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the DVD limited edition of Basil Poledouris himself conducting an orchestra to play his compositions. I can recommend those CDs for the quality of their content, but also because their booklets provides precious information on the creation and recording of the tracks. Finally a word about censorship: I am strongly against it, I believe that once a director or studio puts together a version of a film they wish to release, nobody should be allowed to alter it, and this is why I am always looking for the uncensored versions of movies. I have thus stopped buying Blu-rays in Germany because they have a bad habit of editing scenes, even when the age limit is 18-years old! I find that outrageous, I am an adult and give my money to watch a movie, nobody should be allowed to decide for me if some scenes are too disturbing. I was particularly shocked when watching Above the Law with Steven Seagal that is amputated of 15 minutes in the German edition! The ending doesn't even make sense anymore. Anyway, for several years I was looking for a complete version of Conan the Barbarian, I thought I had found it four years ago with the UK Blu-ray edition but was utterly disappointed when noticing that a coupled of scenes were edited out and this was particularly disturbing as it was done without even arranging the musical transitions, just a simple slice through the movie that you immediately notice as a cut through an otherwise perfect score. Very very annoying as it happens during the climax battle scene. I learned later that the edited scenes don't even involve extreme physical or psychological violence, but horse falls! I am not particularly keen on watching horses fall and hurt themselves, but the poor editing (especially with respect to the music) spoils the rest of the scene. I then came recently to buy the French Blu-ray edition, supposedly unedited, and faced the same frustration when watching it before writing this review. I finally learned on forums online that to benefit from the unedited version, you have to set your Blu-ray player to display the Menus in French by default, not the spoken language of the movie or the language of the Blu-ray player interface, but the disks menus (see screen captures below). Quite unbelievable but that did the trick. Left: Blu-ray menu in French that allows you watching the uncensored version of Conan the Barbarian. Right: Menu in English leading to the censored version.