Finally, the writers' preoccupation with steel seems oddly coincidental, given that Genghis Khan's birth name, Temujin, is frequently translated as "finest steel. At around 48 minutes, the stuntman Terry Leonard who was dropped down the well by Valeria in the Tower Of Set fell into a big pile of empty cardboard boxes to avoid injury. His leg still broke from the fall.
Thorsen has since appeared in other 14 films starring Schwarzenegger, either as an actor or as a stuntman. Oliver Stone asked Ridley Scott , fresh off Alien , to direct.
He declined. Neither Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Sandahl Bergman had ever done a love scene before this film, and both felt awkward about doing one together. The film is named for Conan, but the character's personal history seems to be based on Kull the Conqueror. Robert E.
Howard , the creator of both characters, gave a more detailed origin to Kull. Conan was a young adventurer who apparently left his homeland voluntarily. He was never a slave or gladiator in any story by Howard. While Kull was exiled from his homeland, and spend time as first a slave and then a gladiator before usurping a throne. The character Thulsa Doom is both named after and partly based on an enemy of Kull and not of Conan. The Serpent cult features prominently in tales of both characters.
When Oliver Stone wrote the script, he made Arnold Schwarzenegger read comics and fantasy novels to see how he handled period dialogue. Stone set the story in the future after the downfall of civilization; it was to be a four hour saga and had a whole host of creatures. John Milius wound up rewriting much of Stone's script, which cut the budget by more than half, which also called for a change in location.
He wanted the fantasy accurate in every detail. At around 21 mins, The swordmaster was played by Kiyoshi Yamasaki , swordmaster for the actors in the film. Mako was chosen for the role of the Wizard of the Mounds and the narrator because of his considerable acting experience. He had been acting in film roles since John Milius originally wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the narrator.
But executives at Universal had problem with Arnold due to his accent, and Mako narrated instead. Arnold Schwarzenegger modelled his performance as Conan after Steve Reeves and his performances as Hercules. A Conan expert was brought in to tutor Arnold Schwarzenegger on how to live like the character, e.
Schwarzenegger thanked him by getting him cast as an enemy warrior hacked to bits by Conan. He was delighted that Schwarzenegger had been cast as Conan, as were the fans.
At around 25 mins, Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered a back injury among other various assorted injuries while filming when the dogs who were chasing him jumped him from behind and he fell down the rock he was climbing to escape them. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the first and only choice to play Conan. Max von Sydow did this movie for his son, who's a longtime Conan fan. According to the original script, the tomb where Conan gets his sword was from the lost city of Atlantis.
The talwar sword used by Valeria, a curved sword or sabre, was not a typical choice for American films. It is a sword design from the Indian subcontinent and primarily associated with the Mughal Empire. The design is thought to have influenced the Pattern light cavalry sabre used by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. Arnold Schwarzenegger had to familiarize himself with the Conan comics because there was no script at first to work from; he had never even heard of the character but he seriously wanted the part.
He also assisted in the choreography of the sword fights. Yamazaki had a cameo in the film as one of Conan's instructors. The snake cult of Thulsa Doom is modeled after the Flagellants-a cult that arose in Germany at the time of the Plague of the Black Death in the mid 14th. They are wearing similar white robes and some are whipping themselves. The on-set snake trainer's assistants were all beautiful girls, which made John Milius say, "He was sort of like Thulsa Doom.
All of Conan's enemies had to be bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger , something he wasn't used to. At around 1h 17 minutes, The scene with the vultures at the Tree of Woe made use of both real birds and a fake one. The real ones were placed in the branches of the tree, while the one Conan bites was mechanical. The dummy bird's feathers and wings were from a dead vulture, and its control mechanisms were routed inside the false tree.
The Conan stories were rediscovered and reprinted in the s. Their popularity has waxed and waned over time, but most remain in print. Conan fandom is divided among "purists" who only appreciate the original stories and unfinished drafts by Robert E. Howard and those who also appreciate the stories edited, completed, or written by other writers. At around 24 minutes, Conan's response to the Mongol General's question, "What is best in life?
According to producer Raffaella De Laurentiis , pre-production for the movie initially began in Yugoslavia, but due to the political instability in the area, it was ultimately decided to move the rest of the movie's production to Spain.
Thulsa Doom's two lieutenants were played by professional athletes. Some of the stuntmen took too long to die and had to be paid extra just to lie down and stay down. The draperies in king Osric's throne room where closely based on rune stones. One shows the Norse god Odin on his eight legged horse Sleipner. To give the characters' costumes a more authentic and "lived-in" look, Dino De Laurentiis had the cast members wear their costumes both during rehearsals and the actual scene shoots.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was 33 when filming began on the film in Sven-Ole Thorsen got one of his first roles in the film as a heavy, on Arnold Schwarzenegger 's recommendation. Conan's mother was played by Nadiuska. She is a German actress of Polish and Russian descent who made a notable film career in Spain. Her only previous role in an English-language film was the exploitation film Guyana: Cult of the Damned The brief scene with an older Conan sitting on the throne of Aquilonia was filmed in , prior to most of the other filming.
This footage was initially intended to be a trailer but John Milius decided to use it as the opening sequence of the film. Following concerns from the producers, the scene was moved to the end of the film. Universal was worried the film's violence was too excessive for viewers. Sid Sheinberg , the president of Universal saw a rough cut and thought it too violent for a holiday release so it was pushed back.
On Golden Pond was Universal's Christmas release instead. The censors asked John Milius to tone the violence down which he did, but in the end it still wasn't enough for them. Arnold Schwarzenegger was annoyed about that, but now thinks it brought more people to see it; it was his first real taste of large scale studio marketing and he also helped promote the film in six different countries. Sandahl Bergman was a professional dancer whose few previous film roles were in dance-related films.
There is an enduring urban legend about the so-called "Conan toy line". The story is that the Mattel Toy Company started to make some Conan action figures, but after viewing the film, the executives realized that they couldn't afford to be associated with a film with such graphic sex and violence.
They gave their doll blonde hair, called him "He-man", and thus created He-Man and the Masters of the Universe However, since the first He-Man figures were released in , the legend appears to be false. In , however, now-defunct toy company Remco released an officially licensed series of Conan action figures.
Ironically enough, once the He-Man action figures became immensely popular, numerous knockoffs were produced, including a repainted He-Man figure that had brown hair, making it look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The knockoff was sold mainly through mom-and-pop dollar stores and came in generic packaging labeled "The Barbarian". Conan the Barbarian was the last film released by a major studio with a mono soundtrack. Arnold Schwarzenegger was reportedly chosen for the role of Conan after the producers viewed a rough cut of his bodybuilding film Pumping Iron In the original stories, the most often epithet for Conan was "the Cimmerian", identifying his race and origin.
While a barbarian character, Conan was not called "the Barbarian". The four dragon heads at the top of the Wheel of Pain are exact replicas of the dragon heads on the Gokstad Ship-a Viking ship of the 9th century. Due to production delays, Arnold Schwarzenegger took smaller supporting roles in the interim to give him more experience in front of the camera. During filming, he was away from Maria Shriver for five months, so she tried visiting the set as much as she could.
James Earl Jones reportedly was offered the role of Thulsa Doom at a time when he was considering applying for another film: Grendel Grendel Grendel He wanted the part of Grendel. When he lost interest in that production, he read the Conan script and agreed to take the part of the villain. Whenever Arnold Schwarzenegger was injured, John Milius felt the film was going right, even when Schwarzenegger required stitches.
Certain scenes of the film have been noted for using a pattern, introducing a literal or symbolic concept of death, followed by a journey into the underworld, and then a rebirth. This is a common element in many myths and fictional tales. While this and the crucifixion scene have reminded some scholars of Christian imagery, John Milius himself has pointed out that the film is full of pagan ideas.
Stunt coordinator Terry Leonard broke his leg doing a fall. Sure enough, they started dating afterward. The Cimmerians of the Hyborian Age, Conan's tribe, are named after a historic tribe of that name.
They first appear in the historical record c. In BC, they fought against Sargon himself and killed him in battle. In BC, they are recorded as migrating to Anatolia, invading and conquering Phrygia and destroying the capital Gordium.
In the s BC, they invaded Lydia again and sacked Sardis. They also raided the Greek cities of Ionia. They were eventually defeated by Alyattes, King of Lydia reigned BC , and they disappear from the historical record.
It is thought possible that they migrated to Cappadocia. Several later tribes have been suggested as their descendants due to name similarities, though no evidence seems to confirm it.
While expensive to create, the primary swords created for the film proved heavy, unbalanced, and unsuitable for actual combat. They were mostly used in close-up shots. For the fight scenes, they used lighter versions made of aluminum, fiberglass, and steel.
The other weapons used in the film were not as elaborate; Valeria's talwar was ground out from an aluminum sheet. Arnold Schwarzenegger 's contract restricted him from starring in other sword and sorcery films. The Temple of Set was built on the mountains to the west of the city of Almeria. Built out of various woods, lacquers, and tons of concrete.
Its stairway had steps. John Milius and Basil Poledouris worked together during the production to determine the themes and "emotional tones" for each scene. Milius' original concept for the film and its music reportedly involved an opera with little or no dialog. Poledouris composed enough musical pieces to cover most of the film. Gilbert Taylor was the film's original cinematographer and was replaced after the dailies of the first interior footage that they shot looked too dark.
Taylor had been working with very low light levels and being sure his exposures were all right, asked to send the negative to a UK lab to get developed. But when the dailies still came severely underexposed, they found out that there was a problem with the stop markings on the lenses, which weren't accurate and didn't reflect the actual transmission of light through the lens to the film stock. Since the first assistant cameraman of the show was Peter Taylor , Gilbert's son, the production fired him as they felt he should have checked the lenses prior to the shoot.
The final cut of the picture only feature a few scenes which were shot by Taylor, such as the opening scenes with the village being attacked, Conan trying to escape from the wild dogs a scene which has been timed day-for-day for the Blu-ray, but looked like day-for-night in previous transfers and the scene with Conan and the witch. When Callaghan took over the film, the crew performed precise lens test to hand mark the actual and real transmission stop on each lens, and thus the underexposure risk due to faulty markings was gone.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had trouble riding the camel. It kept walking him into the hut's wooden beams. While Conan is chiefly remembered for his strength and fighting skills, the character was not created as dumb muscle.
Stories where Conan is cast in a leadership position tend to depict him as a talented commander, tactician, and strategist. The character's creator also depicted him as having reading and writing skills and a talent for learning languages during his many travels.
According to one of his stories: "In his roaming about the world the giant adventurer had picked up a wide smattering of knowledge, particularly including the speaking and reading of many alien tongues. Many a sheltered scholar would have been astonished at the Cimmerian's linguistic abilities.
Gerry Lopez who played Subotai was a champion surfer but had little acting experience. His only notable previous film role was playing himself in the film Big Wednesday , also directed by John Milius. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Sandahl Bergman to be careful jumping on him. Crom, Conan's deity, is not an original creation of Robert E. His notes included referenced to an entire pantheon of Cimmerian deities, all based on deities and other figures from Celtic mythologies.
He is named after Crom Cruach, a god of Ireland whose worship supposedly included human sacrifice. Howard 's Conan tales are thought influenced by pre-existing philosophies and literary schools: Romanticism, Neo-romanticism, Aestheticism, and the Decadent movement. They influenced such story elements as a disdain for reason, tradition, and any form of tyranny, a love of beauty, color, and pageantry in the descriptions of anything from battlefields to decadent cities, themes of wanderlust, black magic, accursed jewels, and snake figures.
They also influence Conan's personal philosophy: "Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.
Conan's father's sword "Master's sword" and the blade he finds in a tomb "Atlantean sword" were co-created by prop maker Tim Huchthausen and swordsmith Jody Samson. Their blades were hand ground from carbon steel and heat treated and left unsharpened. The hilts and pommels were sculpted and cast through the lost-wax process; inscriptions were added to the blades via electrical discharge machining.
Samson and Huchthausen made four Master's and four Atlantean swords. A few critics of the s expected that any film based on pulp stories, comic books, or both to be inherently light-hearted or corny. They were both surprised and dismayed by the use of Nietzschean themes and ideology. When this film was released, audiences filled up three auditoriums; a third of the audience were made up of bodybuilders.
People lined up around the block in 16 cities for up to eight hours to see it. Besides the historical Cimmerians and the theories about the descendants, Robert E. Howard likely drew inspiration for Conan and Cimmeria from a description of mythological Cimmerians in the Odyssey by Homer. According to a 19th century translation: " Conan as a character is considered influenced by existentialism, despite his creation before the heyday of this philosophy.
He "defines his own purpose and shapes his own destiny. When Conan ultimately becomes King of Aquilonia, he is not preordained to do so by fate nor is he the legitimate heir; he seizes an opportunity to make himself king.
Conan is the consummate self-determining man. Valeria as depicted in the film has been described as an Amazon character, a female warrior whose battle prowess matches that of Conan, serves as his equal in behavior and status, and is bound to him by loyalty and love.
John Milius was very knowledgeable about barbarians from history and told the cast how to behave in the proper way, as well as the decadence of Ancient Rome for the orgy scene.
Valeria's name is not spoken in the film; the only scene where she was named, her self-introduction, was cut. The final battle against Thulsa Doom's men was inspired by Seven Samurai While the film was only a modest box office hit, it was still among the most commercially successful comic book and pulp adaptations of the s. John Milius devised the tactics and booby traps. They built a miniature model set for a dry run before shooting. John Milius hired Ron Cobb to be the production designer after seeing his work on Alien At around 1h 30 minutes, Thulsa Doom in the film briefly shape-shifts into a snake.
This may be inspired by the Serpent Men, a shape-shifting, humanoid-snake race in the works of Robert E. Howard and their adaptations. They figure prominently in both the Kull the Conqueror and Conan stories. The painting of symbols on Conan's body and the swarm of ghosts during the barbarian's resurrection did not derive from Conan tales.
They were inspired by the Japanese horror film Kwaidan , a collection of ghost tales. The scenes are primarily based on the film's depiction of "Hoichi the Earless", a traditional tale abound a blind musician who is asked to entertain ghosts.
Executives insisted for certain violent scenes to be removed prior to the film's release. Among them were close-up shots on the decapitated head of Conan's mother, Subotai's slaying of a monster at the top of the Tower of Serpents, and Conan chopping off a pickpocket's arm in a bazaar. There were no architectural plans for Thulsa Doom's mountain fortress. The set designer looked at some drawings and just built it on the spot.
Howard conceived of Cimmeria, Conan's homeland, prior to creating the character himself. In February, , Howard wrote the poem Cimmeria, about a "land of Darkness and deep Night", a gloomy place with dark woods, dusky silent streams and a leaden cloudy sky.
According to John Milius , his primary influences for the depiction of the Serpent cult and its assassination plans were the Hashshashin Assassins and the Thuggee Thugs. Arnold Schwarzenegger had never seen or ridden a camel before this film.
The usual practice of the film industry is to hire a composer following the completion of filming of the main scenes. Basil Poledouris was instead hired for Conan before the filming started. He was able to compose the film's music based on the initial storyboards and to modify it throughout filming, before recording the score near the end of production.
John Milius initially wanted to have Thulsa Doom's introductory scene use either parts of the cantata "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff , or music patterned after it. He changed his mind when he learned that "Carmina Burana" had already been used for the music score of Excalibur Arnold Schwarzenegger 's first time filming a Hollywood Film in a foreign country; he picked up a lot of Spanish because few people on-set spoke English.
He enjoyed some sightseeing while he was there. The film contains scenes where Conan is chased by wild dogs, discovers of a crypt, and within it a sword and a mummy. These are all taken from the short story "The Thing in the Crypt" by L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter. Missing is the key scene from the short story, the mummy rising and fighting Conan. The film's depiction of violence polarized fans and critics in the s.
Some felt that the film was too violent and included too many deaths. Others felt that some of the violent scenes were exciting but not all were well-executed. Finally others, including those familiar with the original Conan stories, claimed that the film overly toned down the violence and gore, making the depiction cartoon-like.
Basil Poledouris ' music theme for Thulsa Doom included energetic choral passages, sung in the Latin language. The lyrics were composed in English and where then roughly translated. The Latin words where chosen primarily for the way they sounded, and do not always make sense.
The melody of the theme was based on "Dies Irae" Day of Wrath , a Latin hymn of the 13th century whose authorship is disputed. The hymn is known both for being part of the Requiem Mass of the Roman Catholic Church and being frequently quoted by composers. The artist most associated with Conan is likely Frank Frazetta whose covers redefined the visual appearance of Conan and influenced many subsequent artists. Gerry Lopez 's lines were re-dubbed in the final cut of the film.
The voice used was that of Sab Shimono , an experienced stage actor. The script by Oliver Stone included the raid on the Cimmerian village. It was one of the few elements of that script which John Milius chose to keep, expand, and to provide follow up to. He followed the scene with with the barbarian's enslavement at the Wheel of Pain and training as a gladiator.
The principal photography was supposed to take place in Yugoslavia. There were also concerns over the stability of the country following the death of President Josip Broz Tito The producers elected to move the project to Spain, which was cheaper and where resources were more easily available.
However, the relocation from Yugoslavia to Spain delayed filming for several months. Ironically, there was a coup in Spain while they were there. Race and racial traits of both barbarian and civilized tribes and kingdoms played a prominent part in the original Conan tales.
They formed the basis of characterization as well. While often considered racist in attitude, Robert E. Howard at times included sympathetic black and Jewish characters in his work.
Both were at the time considered undesirable minority groups in the United States. Another of Robert E. Howard 's personal beliefs that influenced the Conan stories was his placing of supreme value on individuality and individual liberty above the restraints of laws and customs.
According to his writings on the subject: "I'd rather be a naked savage, shivering, starving, freezing, hunted by wild beasts and enemies, but free to go and come, with the range of the earth to roam, than the fattest, richest, most bedecked slave in a golden palace with the crustal fountains, silken divans, and ivory-bosomed dancing girls of Haroun al Raschid.
An important plot point in several of his stories is the contrast between Conan as a barbarian and rogue with the more civilized or sophisticated people of the tales.
He tends to appear significantly more honest or honorable than them. For example in "Rogues in the House" , Conan is contrasted with two corrupt politicians. One of them admits, "This Cimmerian is the most honest man of the three of us, because he steals and murders openly. He admits that the Cimmerians are barbarians but "We do not sell our children". The first series character by Robert E. Conan the Barbarian is an unconnected, standalone tale, with Jason Momoa in the title role.
In , a Red Sonja movie arrived in cinemas, with Brigitte Nielsen in the title role. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the movie…. The Conan movies are the work of multiple directors. According to IMDb , the Conan films are ranked as follows:. I hope this information about the Conan movie series has proved useful. Should you wish to know more about other long-running movie series, please check out one of the recommended reads below.
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You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Milius didn't want anything phony in his portrayal of author Robert E. Howard's creation. Because of his amazing physique, Schwarzenegger's films usually let him do the fights and action mostly alone. In a few films, he has a sidekick or two but was usually the sole butt-kicker. In Predator , Arnold was the leader of a more than capable team of mercenaries.
Schwarzenegger is a big guy and his team had to reflect his tough persona. It was nice to see Arnold fighting alongside actors that could match up and hold their own with the superstar.
Out of the many "warrior and sword" films throughout film history, Conan the Barbarian is considered the best of the bunch for many reasons. One of the keys to the film's well-regarded stature is Schwarzenegger's authentic sword skills. Conan's sword is a big, steel, weapon of death. Arnold worked with skilled trainers and director John Milius himself to master the style and skill needed to accurately portray the combat scenes.
The training worked, as the film has been praised for its brutally realistic sword battles. By the world knew Arnold Schwarzenegger could do all kinds of action. Sci-Fi was a genre that Schwarzenegger had yet to try. Jim and John Thomas' screenplay for Predator was a perfect blend of Sci-Fi and Action and proved to be the perfect jumping-off point for the actor to try his hand at a new genre.
The film was a tremendous success and showed fans and critics that Arnold could handle switching genres with ease. If it is one thing that Arnold's fans love its big, explosive action.
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