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Arnold Schwarzenegger's first really big movie was Conan the Barbarian. Oh sure, you can argue it was the documentary Pumping Iron that got people's attention-but as for Arnold becoming known to people on a widespread basis, Conan is the flick. Arnold went through an insane amount of workouts to get ready for this movie, although he was already an award-winning weight lifter. Conan is the movie that features Arnold at his prime. After watching his parents get slaughtered by James Earl Jones, Arnold decides it's payback time. He meets with an archer, a warrior chick, and a reclusive wizard who reminded me of Yoda. Conan the Barbarian has some good things going for it besides Arnold's charisma as the lead: the soundtrack and the fight scenes. The soundtrack to this movie is superb and it sounds familiar because it's used in a lot of different trailers for movies. The fight scenes are all well done and choreographed-surprisingly not that many stunt doubles were used in this movie for the lead and supporting actors! The basic plot is nothing creative, but works. In a documentary I watched on this movie, it said the director wanted Conan to have a prehistory time setting and, consequently, he re-wrote the script to be more realistic. The original script by Oliver Stone was more pure fantasy and closer to the original books-that version would have been more interesting! All the scenes between the fight scenes drag. Some of the make sense (the training montages) while others don't (the sex scene montages). Also the characters do a lot of pointless walking and make not one but three trips to James Earl Jones' hideout in the movie. 30 minutes could have easily been cut from this movie-although cutting 45 minutes would make a better, tighter film. I am sad that this movie wasn't as good as I remembered it to be, although it's OK for a classic Arnold movie and great compared to his recent crap-fests. If you saw Gladiator, you can see a lot of ideas and shots they ripped off from Conan. I haven't seen the sequel yet, so maybe I will like it better-although it's supposed to be cheesy! Conan uses a decent amount of blood and has far more nudity and sex scenes than I remembered! I give Conan the Barbarian **1/2 out of ****. |