I think I have watched this film at least 7 or 8 times over the years. The reasons being several; it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger; it’s a serious fantasy which I am a fan of, and it is about the story of Conan. I was always intrigued by the story and the soundtrack. I re-watched it for the purpose of this review. It deviated from the book regarding the early years of Conan’s life. In the book, he was a free boy growing up, but in the movie, he was raised a slave. I think the director made this deviation specifically to help the viewers to understand the build-up of anger between Conan and the main bad guy, masterfully played by James Earl Jones. This is a story of adventure, fantasy, thievery, love, coming of age, and revenge. You get to see Arnold in his prime, physically. He did not have a lot of dialog, but he didn’t need to. Of course, along with the visual presentation, the soundtrack is really, really good. In fact, I have purchased it to add to my listening pleasures.
On re-watching the film, there were a couple of disappointments for me. This one is really not fair, but I viewed it in standard definition. This was much more of a distraction than I wanted it to be. I mean, couldn’t they digitally re-master it in High definition? The other thing that slightly disappointed me was the action scenes were a bit sloppy, if not a bit unrealistic. I attribute both of these issues to the fact that this film came out in 1982. Still, for the time, I believe this film to be a classic and I highly recommend it.
*****
