(Re)discover a classic of 80s adventure cinema which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Do you remember this time when a monster of muscles arrived on the screens? After small appearances on the screen, Arnold Schwarzenegger landed with all his biceps out to play a brutal and bloody role: that of Conan the Barbarian in an eponymous adventure film directed by John Milius.
Conan the Barbarian is adapted from the fantasy novels by Robert E. Howard and tells the story of a violent, raking adventurer seeking revenge on the cruel Thulsa Doom, responsible for the destruction of his native village and the death of his family.
Accompanied by the superb music of Basil Poledouris, this basic story of revenge takes on an epic breath thanks to the staging inspired by Milius and the bestial charisma of Conan, transmitted by the extraordinary stature of its interpreter, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Universal Pictures Arnold Schwarzenegger with his hair in the wind and a sword in his belt
At the time, the fashion for bodybuilded actors had just (re)started with the release of Rocky II and his Sylvester Stallone with a much more worked body than in the first film of the saga. With Conan the Barbarian showing off his muscles, “Schwarzie” becomes an action star and continues the adventure by filming Conan the Destroyer two years later and appearing – in spite of himself – in Kalidor, the legend of the talisman.
To know more about Kalidor
Conan was released at the end of May 1982 in the United States and the same year, in the summer, we already find Dar the invincible, the story of a warrior also scantily dressed but able to change into an animal, which will know two sequels : Dar the invincible 2 – The door of time (1991) and Dar the invincible III – the eye of Braxus (1996). Sorceress comes out in November, Dark Crystal in December and from then on, it’s the avalanche.
Between 1983 and 1985 alone, Hollywood Deathstalker, Hundra, Tygra, Ice and Fire, Krull, Kaine the Mercenary, Ladyhawke, the list goes on; add to that the Italian, British and Asian productions and you have a veritable global vein for fantasy and heroic fantasy films.
Universal Pictures
Conan
But forget the copies and see the original again, the one that started it all (with The dragon of the lake of fire and Excalibur, released a year before) and do not sulk your pleasure in front of the warlike adventures of Conan the Cimmerian, monument of the cinema of fantasy!
The Conan the Barbarian films are not free of mismatches:
*This mode is not new since we could classify the Tarzan films of the 30s with Johnny Weissmuller as well as the many Hercules and Maciste films of the 50s and 60s in the same vein.