The story is that of a boy torn from his home, his parents slain, and he transformed into an ultimate warrior, a man living day to day on the spare possibility of revenge. He is slowly changed in the story into a man who can both be loved and love himself, and who can give up his hatred for the sake of those he cares about. He's never any less savage, but in that savagery he finds focus and meaning and not emptiness. The snake cult he battles is nihilism and he nearly becomes them to slay them, but is crucified literally and resurrected by the power of love. A new man, he is now able to see life beyond the measure of what his vengeance will give him.
Heavy stuff for a rock'em sock'em sword and sorcery flick. But it's all there as the boy Conan becomes the man Conan. But as good as the first Conan movie is, the sequel is weak.
There's more than a bit of stunt casting in this one too. Grace Jones is entertaining as Zula, a wild warrior woman, but her mannerisms get tiresome quickly. Wilt Chamberlain looks out of place through most of the movie, not really fitting into the world despite his tremendous size and glowering demeanor. The world is more polished in this one, more Hollywood, and that more than any other thing destroys the illusion that this is a real possibly alternate world of pre-history. This is a movie world, filled with many of the cliches of that world. It's diverting, but never anything more. There are some magnificent landscapes in this one though, that I'll have to admit.
But it gets worse.
Add to that an annoying boy actor and drones for enemies and the whole shebang comes across as having almost no substance. There's almost no emotion in this one, nothing to connect to. They do though in this movie like to wear funny hats, as almost every character totes some sort of wacky headgear. Ennio Morricone is the composer for this one and while the tunes are interesting, they don't have the depth of his work on the spaghetti westerns.
These three flicks form the trio of movies that Dino DeLaurentis developed from Howard's materials, by way of the comic books of course. It's good he stopped when they did. But then his daughter Raffella caught the barbarian bug.
Many years later we get a whole new Conan the Barbarian from a whole new gang. Visually the movie is pretty intense, especially in the early parts of the story. The young Conan is a pretty decent actor and has some really heavy stuff to pull off. Ron Perlman as Conan's dad is pretty dang good and offers up a really intriguing look in the role. In fact, all the Cimmerians seemed pretty tough and distinctive. Young Conan takes on some Picts early in the movie and I have to say it's a pretty involving sequence. When the villain Kalar Zym (played by Steven Lang) shows up with his army things really get to humming as an ancient Acheronian threat forms the spine of this story. There's a real depravity to Zym and his cohorts that sets up Conan as the hero despite his own very violent instincts.
Another area of weakness was two of Conan's friends, a pirate named Artus (Nonso Anozie) and a thief named Ela-Shan (Said Taughmaoui) who show up and disappear according to the whims of the plot, but to my mind never really connect with the others in the story in a really powerful way. Both are somewhat sources of humor, so maybe that plays against them. There's plenty of battling in this one, so the movie can't be faulted for stiffing its audience looking for swordplay. The love story (such as it is) seems offbeat, andd it doesn't really connect for me.
I'd give this movie a "B" alas. It's diverting, offers up a great lead and a dandy villain, but doesn't really gel as it ought. Still and all it's still better than Conan the Destroyer and Kull the Conqueror overall. Red Sonja brings up the rear. Only the first Conan the Barbarian movie by Milius is a more complete cinema experience. Like that original, this movie too takes its material seriously most of the time, and that's key to making Howard's stuff work, even a little bit.
Rip Off
Wasn't Roy Thomas involved in some way in the 2nd movie (or one of them anyway)? If so, it's surprising that it wasn't up to much. I know I saw the first one (can't remember if it was at the cinema or on TV), and I think I caught parts of Red Sonja while channel-hopping, but my interest was only in ogling Brigitte Nielson in her scanty attire.
ReplyDeleteRoy Thomas and Gerry Conway both wrote the screenplay for the second movie, but as is often the case in Hollywood, their script was revised and rewritten many times over. There's a Marvel graphic novel with their original story in it called "Horn of Azoth" I think, but it's hard to come by these days and is pretty expensive.
DeleteNone of the films can hold a candle to Robert E Howard's original stories and it's annoying that most people only know the film version of Conan.
ReplyDeleteOr worse they only think of Conan as one of Arnold's movies. Admittedly it was the best of his movies for a very long time, and is still in the top tier. But we live in a world now where most people know the Marvel Universe (and Batman and Superman for that matter) through film and not the primary sources.
DeleteWhen I gab with my daughter who teaches Middle School about what kids know, what we think of as modern, even new is ancient history or worse totally unknown to them. It shakes the timbers for certain.
I have an affection for Arnold's first 2 Conan films , especially the first ome. They weren' R E Howard's Conan but they were fun. Red Sonja was just awful, Brigitte Nielson was too buff to be the Sonja and her acting was dire. When I saw trailers and the posters of the 2011 Conan the Barbarian film I did think they had got Howard's Conan right. Sadly the film wasn't great and just fizzled out. There were some nice points like the "animated" blood and I thought Momoa looked great as Conan but that's was it for me.I
ReplyDeleteColin summed it up well, the films simply haven't been anywhere near Howard's books in scope or quality.
After watching the 2011 Conan again just a few days ago, I thought the movie has a number a very nice set pieces which sadly don't gel into a whole movie. And sadly they have Conan do some strange things. But he looked fantastic.
DeleteI still enjoy Arnold's first movie, but the second still disappoints, not so much for what it is but for what it could have been.
I am slightly torn. The 1982 Conan movie is a truly excellent movie... but I really think Jason Momoa better embodies the feral lawlessness of Conan himself.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with that assessment.
Delete