The beginning of the movie adventures of Conan the barbarian Relatively recently, I read Arnold Schwarzenegger’s excellent book 'Remember All: My Incredibly True Story'. It just so happens that at one time I have not seen all his iconic films, and now I am catching up. It's Time for 01 Conan the Barbarian (1982)
The primary source is an endless string of books about Conan, a fictional barbarian warrior from Cimmeria, written by Irwin Howard in the cycle of stories about the Hyborian Era. The author very cleverly arranged the cycle. In what Wiki says:
' The books about Conan have no end-to-end plot and no exact sequence. Basically, this is a story about individual adventures in different parts of the world, not related to each other. Robert Howard thwarted any attempts to build up stories about Conan in chronological order, because, in his opinion, when warriors talk to each other at the campfire about the affairs of the past, they rarely adhere to any chronology of their stories, recounting what was remembered at the moment.
In the first part of the conditional trilogy (Schwarzenegger himself considers only the first part successful, from the third he disowned in advance) in the center of the plot is the story of a young barbarian Conan, who is trying to take revenge on the high priest of the cult of Snake Tulsa Duma for the death of his parents. There are two films: Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer. There is a failed spinoff Kull-conqueror, I consider the third part Red Sonya (also a failure).
Filming was conducted in Spain, in the province of Almeria. Arnold described the shooting as very difficult physically. From the use of special effects (optical) refused, all tried to do in nature. Unfortunately, at the time, the film was recognized as very cruel and severely cut, as it alienated the audience. By today’s standards, the film is absolutely lamb.
The trouble of the tape is an incomprehensible fantasy setting that can not be penetrated in one hour. This isn’t Game of Thrones or Harry Potter, where we’ve been told what the world is all about. It's not Indiana Jones where there's a lot of action. This is not the Scorpio King, where there are many jokes and tricks. Here Conan has a vague goal, and he goes to it not directly, but long loops, besides he is an antihero, because the era of barbarians is coming. It is very difficult to empathize with anyone in this cold world, to become attached to no one.
At the same time, this is a very honest film with good (no matter what anyone says) textured actors, real shooting, love for detail. This is a film of a bygone era that from 2020 looks like the Hyboric Era. There is a very strong literary basis, very good lines that catch on. Unfortunately, with such a sweep of scenery singled out a very small combat crowd and put not convincing not spectacular battles.
Arnold foolishly insulted Dino De Laurentiis, so even in the credits is not the first.
I am not in the world of Conan, I will not read books and comics, but I will overcome the trilogy.
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