I was kind of pissed the other day, because I was trying to find a DVD for "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) -- the REAL one, and all I could find was the remake. Now, I haven't seen the remake, but I highly doubt that it could hold a candle to the original movie. In the larcenous drive to remake movies, when I'd heard they were doing that with "Conan," that felt the most quixotic to me, simply because the original has its own peculiar alchemy to it. Although critics sniffed about the violence and it having fascist overtones (or undertones) and saw something sinister in Austrian Arnold beheading Black James Earl Jones, to me, it's just a good fantasy movie. One of the best, in truth. From 1982 until 2001 (when LOTR came out), "Conan" reigned as one of the only true successes in fantasy moviemaking -- it had the right epic feel, had great battle scenes, and even its neo-Nietzschean ethos fits like a gauntlet. The movie is fun. Thulsa Doom is a great villain, Arnold is great as Conan (even his character's silences are kind of endearing and perfect -- I mean, the guy IS a barbarian, right?) Subotai, Valeria, Subotai, Thorgrim (sp), Conan's dad, Mako as the Wizard, even Max Von Sydow phoning it in as King Osric (if memory serves) -- all of it flows really well together. The deliberately low-key way they did magic was an inspired touch, and, I think, it one of the things that lent "Conan" its special character -- the magic is there, but it's done in such a low-key, matter-of-fact way, it works perfectly with the story, without causing a distraction.
I first saw this movie as a kid, with my family, in a drive-in theater! How retro is that? But my liking of it didn't stem from some nostalgia for that; rather, I appreciated it more over time, as I'd caught it over the years. Maybe the great soundtrack is part of it (heh, I actually have the soundtrack on CD), conveying that grand scope that's vital to any fantasy movie.
My only complaint is that the end doesn't quite work -- after the high point of the Battle of the Mounds, it's kind of a letdown when Conan finally dispatches Thulsa Doom. All of that buildup throughout the movie, and then the final confrontation is kind of meh, especially after all that had come before it. But it's only a slight complaint; I love the movie.
So, I'd had it on VHS over the years, and, when I replaced that with a DVD player, I hadn't gotten around to getting a DVD copy of "Conan," figuring I'd eventually get there. Then that damned remake came out, and now that's displaced the far worthier original -- for a whole generation of kids, THAT is "Conan," now. Ridiculous! Fortunately, I was able to get it from Amazon, and made a point to, before it somehow disappeared. I'm looking forward to catching it again.
