The Ultimate Conan The Barbarian Retrospective

[Music] on the 1st of january of 2019 conan the barbarian returned to marvel comics five months later on may 1st he even joined the newly formed branch of savage avengers alongside other high-profile marvel anti-heroes however you may feel about that this is a homecoming of some significance because while conan didn't originate with and even predates marvel comics it was arguably that initial conan comic book run from marvel that more than anything else paved the way for the 1982 feature film conan b barbarian by john millius starring arnold schwarzenegger and thereby the character's mainstream success in this retrospective i will go through that mainstream success by exploring conan's literary origins and how conan came to marvel in the first place then i'll explore the production and the philosophy of the conan feature film and to this end i will also provide the definitive answer to the riddle of steel unlike most other conan retrospectives out there i will also detail the differences between the schwarzenegger conan and the literary conan and why the movie for all its standalone strengths and virtues remains controversial with fans of the literary and comic book versions of conan finally i will explore the movie's legacy the sequels the attempted sequels and the other spin-offs that followed it few characters are as intrinsically tied to their creator as conan is to hiss texan author robert e howard any worthwhile exploration of conan must therefore begin with an exploration of robert e howard so let's begin there and go through the cliff notes if nothing else howard was born on january 22nd 1906 in peaceter texas but grew up and would settle in across plains texas in 1920 when howard was still in his early teens oil was found and crossed plains became an oil boom town the town was subsequently swarmed by new arrivals looking for oil wealth and by other new arrivals looking to capitalize on the first batch of new arrivals looking for said oil wealth the population quickly grew from 1500 to 10 000. new businesses sprang up from nowhere and the crime rate increased to match as such booms attracts no shortage of shifty characters being the son of a local doctor who worked from their home howard had frequent exposure to the effects of the violence and injuries that came with not just the sudden and dramatic increase in crime but also due to accidents on farms and oil fields on top of that texas still had one foot steeped in the wild west first hand tales of gunfights lynchings feuds and indian raids all profoundly influenced the young howard and contributed to his distinctly texan hard-boiled outlook on the world howard learned the value of physical strength and violence as a means to confront and overcome real-world bullies and enemies and he came to be a fan of all contests of violent masculine struggle howard grew up to be a big burly fellow who enjoyed his drink and who enjoyed to fight which he was quite good at he mastered boxing in both theory and in practice to such an extent that he at one point even considered a career as a professional prize fighter all of this is relevant because it all seeped into his writing and that wasn't all for all his love for physical toughness howard was also an avid reader of history mythology classical literature and the pulp stories of the time above all though he was an accomplished poet and a professional writer who had honed his skills for years howard had an innate talent for visual wording and for infusing not just his literary influences but also his real life experiences into his writing he applied those experiences to distant lands and epochs and that way made his stories come alive on the page in a way few other writers ever could the central theme in howard's writing is that of civilization versus barbarism and nowhere was this more apparent than in howard's conan stories which he started writing in 1932 for weird tales magazine howard wrote conan as not only the biggest badass there ever was but as a noble savage of sorts and a measure through which not just the double standards and hypocrisy but also the fleetness of civilized society was reflected his philosophies on strength and violence and experiences growing up in a boom town with one foot in the modern world and the other firmly planted in the wild west all went into his conan stories howard would even describe conan as an amalgamation of the dominant characteristics of a number of men he had known or otherwise been in contact with men who included various prize fighters gunmen bootleggers oil field bullies gamblers and honest workmen with the conan stories howard would also establish the first fully realized fictional world predating lord of the rings the hyborian age took place after the sinking of atlantis but before the onset of written history the conan stories would even share continuity with howard's earlier stories about king cull which took place when atlantis was still above sea level meaning that even if they took place thousands of years apart many of howard's stories took place within one lifter of the universe long before any unified dc or marvel comic book universe came to be in the documentary cone and the barbarian unchained director john milius would describe howard as a nutcase and as someone who literally believed conan stood behind him and dictated his adventures to him milius is not the only one to believe some variation of this yet it is blatantly false while calling him nuts as a misrepresentation and pushing it howard may have been unusual that itself is not unusual for creative types john milius himself famously served as the inspiration for john goodman's character in the big lebowski what didn't help howard in this regard though was his mother she was a woman of higher standing who felt she married down when she married howard's father the physician and she apparently had no qualms about letting either father or son know however she was the one who instilled the love of reading and writing into howard and fully supported his efforts to be a writer according to howard's girlfriend novel and price ellis that alone made him stand out in crossplains as his preoccupation with history and with writing instead of the price of corn and cotton was something the rest of the town fault could not understand according to howard biographer mark finn howard's mother may have installed something else into him too namely her own depression by all accounts she was domineering and sickly and bedridden towards the end it was her son robert e howard and not her physician husband that would be her primary caretaker when she succumbed on june 11 of 1936 robert e howard ended his own life as well at the age of just 30. how far howard could have gone as an author if he had lived on we will never know there probably wouldn't have been many more conan stories though as he had already left the character behind when the end came before he was the kingpin and after he was pyle vincent d'onofrio portrayed robert d howard in the excellent feature film the whole wide world it is well worth checking out howard's life was over but his lifter the output most notably conan would find new life outside the pages of pulp magazines following roberty howard's death the courts gave his father the rights to his estate meaning his literary output howard's agent otis adelbert klein continued to serve in that role so how it wouldn't be forgotten over the next decade a couple of howard collections would be published and the rights would be how the state and to conan would change hands conan would make a comeback in 1950 when gnome press published conan the conqueror which was a retitled the hour of the dragon the only full-length kona novel howard ever wrote this was sufficiently successful that gnome press would continue to publish reprints of howard's conan stories the fifth one published in 1955 was incidentally titled conan the barbarian the first time that title was ever used with the latter volumes of the gnome series however came else brag the camp he would edit as in rewrite howard's conan stories and even rewrite howard's other stories featuring other characters set in other times into conan stories and the hiborian age alongside swedish howard fan bjorn nebarik he would even write the first of many conan pesticious that is brand new conan stories not at all based on any original story by howard tekamp would eventually get control over all the conan stories and oversaw yet another round of rewrites for the release of the lancer editions in the 1960s which much later would be followed by the ace editions these were the paperbacks that featured the artwork of frankie frasetta frassetta's artwork on these covers would set the standard for how conan would be visually presented forever afterwards these paperbacks were huge hits selling millions of copies around this time in the mid to late 60s a whole slew of new characters from other publishers also appeared on the paperback scene all of them directly or indirectly inspired by conan the sword and sorcery sub-genre of fantasy was firmly established and howard was its progenitor but conan was about to gain success outside of the paperback market as well [Music] in the late 1960s spurred by the popularity of sword and sorcery paperbacks marvel comics increasingly received fan mail requesting them to make sword and sorcery comics and the most requested character was conan the gold standard of sword and sorcery stanley didn't get the genre himself but he understood there was a demand for it while marvel could easily have created their own sword and sorcery character the decision was made to acquire the comic book rights to one that was already established and stan lee's successor and number one man roy thomas was given the task of finding one this one was not conan marvel may be the biggest brand in the world today but at this time they were the struggling publisher of comic book characters that had not yet taken over popular culture without ever approaching them marvel self-eliminated themselves by pretty much deciding that the conan right holders would never give a shitty little competitively penniless company like marvel comics the time of the day so instead thomas was aiming for a lesser character one of the conan ripoffs like thon god of lemuria by lynne carter the right soldier of that might accept the pittance that marvel could offer in licensing pay more on a whim than anything else though thomas decided to give conan a shot anyway and approached then howard littered at the agent glenn lord thomas argued that while marvel comics couldn't pay much they could make the character known to a whole new audience much to his surprise glenn lord agreed and the deal soon came together roy thomas familiarized himself with all things conan and set about writing the first couple of issues of conan the barbarian which was the chosen name of the irregular ongoing conan title and the second time it was ever used from the very beginning thomas approached conan differently than he did marvel's other comics featuring superheroes specifically he did not use any thought bubbles opting instead for more extensive information boxes to ascribe the character's thoughts which was more reminiscent of the narrative style of the paperbacks he also did not use any onomatopoia which while a marvel hallmark would not fit the tone he was going for the landmark first issue was released in october of 1970. thomas initial plan was to leave conan for another writer after that while he returned to his beloved superheroes but after that first couple of issues thomas was hooked in love with the world and the characters howard had created instead of leaving he stayed with the title a choice that would not just define his career forever afterwards but also bring forth a new level of popularity for conan and facilitate the eventual road to the big screen marvel's conan the barbarian became a huge hit and thomas himself who had started out good got ever better and better at capturing the essence and philosophy of robert e howard better by far than else brag at the camp had ever been the artwork first by barry wintersmith and then most notably by jon buchama ernie chan and others further elevated the series later agreement editions with glenn lord would allow thomas to not only adapt howard's original stories for conan but also to adapt other of howard's non-conan literary stories into conan stories for the comic much like the camp was already doing for the paperbacks thomas couldn't go all out though as conan the barbarian was subject to comics code authority restrictions which meant that conan had to be toned down compared to his literary version other than that there was very little difference between howard's conan and the marvel comics conan as written by roy thomas the two practically became the same in 1974 with the release of the black and white magazine the savage sword of conan which was not subject to comics called authority restrictions meaning howard stories could be more faithfully adapted featuring both more mature themes nudity albeit tasteful and lest we forget heads and limbs being graphically locked off with time thomas was even allowed to adapt the new conan pesticious by alterac the camp and others for the savage sword comics as well the painted covers by artists such as boris valejo earl norem joe jusco and bob larkin contributed to the magazine becoming a massive hit also it is worth noting that marvel's conan stories were part of the canon pre-history of the marvel comic book universe twelve thousand years before peter parker was bitten by a radioactive spider or the silver surfer held the fantastic four drive of galactus conan the barbarian roamed the earth being separated by such a distance in time conan naturally never interacted with any of the marvel heroes apart from that one time but in the pages of what if the watcher did explore what might have been conan the barbarian and the savage sword of conan were in continuous print for more than two decades and thereby exposed howard's conan to a whole new and possibly even bigger audience than before but the comics had a far greater significance than that the earlier mentioned conan paperbacks featuring the frasetta covers were selling like hotcakes but this did not prevent their publisher lancer from going out of business in the mid 70s until ace took over their conan story several years later marvel comics alone were their source of new conan stories and what kept conan in the public consciousness as such these comics serve to further increase the character's popularity and recognizability to the point that even hollywood took note conan begun the road to the big screen on may 17th of 1976. that's when filmmaker edward summer visited his friend producer ed pressman during the course of their conversation summer mentioned that conan which he was a huge fan of would be ideal for the movies pressman on the other hand had never heard about conan summer explained what conan movie could be and showed pressman the paperbacks the fan scenes and the comic books by marvel these in particular had a huge impact as they visualized the content in a way which immediately made it clear how well this could be translated to the big screen one week later they set about trying to secure the conan movie rights the week after that they caught the screening of pumping iron and decided that arnold schwarzenegger had to be conan and set about trying to secure his participation that turned out to be easy the movie writes not so much as they were scattered between so many stakeholders that all had to be approached individually like glenn lodge else bragg of the camp lynne carter lancer and more it was such a hot mess that pressman and summer didn't even know where to begin but summer knew someone who did roy thomas the man in charge of all things conan at marvel so they approached him and got him aboard as a consultant roy thomas subsequently introduced them to glen lorde and the others followed from there even so the riot situation was so entangled that it took a couple of years and the formation of a dedicated legal entity conan properties inc which was set up specifically to deal with hollywood to entangle it thanks to the formation of this entity and roy thomas contributions towards setting it up pressman and summer got the movie rights not just to conan but also to robert e howard's other literary creations such as red sonia solomon kane and king kal the exile of atlantis among others it should be noted though that there was no immediate intention to actually make any movies based on these other characters the main purpose of obtaining them was to preclude other studios from picking them up after the conan movie was out and presumably a success so any conan sequels wouldn't have to compete with movies from other studios also based on howard's characters after conan properties inc had been founded and the right situation cleared right thomas was also commissioned to write a script synopsis alongside edward summer the story they came up with was extremely true to the spirit and philosophy of conan and featured an amalgamation of several conan stories but predominantly rogues in the house it featured an evil wizard as the villain and conan himself had no origin story like in both the original stories and the comics he appeared fully formed while the movie was in development roy thomas even left a bread crump in the comics hinting about the conan and arnold schwarzenegger connection in what if issue 13 released in late 1978 conan finds himself thrust into contemporary new york here thomas emphasized what had always been there but implied between the lines namely that conan has to learn the different languages spoken in all the different countries he roams and therefore naturally he has a barbarous accent furthermore conan was explicitly compared with arnold schwarzenegger who thomas knew one day would portray conan on screen even if it in the end would not be with the synopsis that he wrote the movie was initially set up at paramount who agreed to fund and distribute it provided that a named screenwriter did the script filmmaker and future academy award-winning screenwriter oliver stone fit that bill and joined the project as the screenwriter for research oliver stone read all the conan paperbacks by all accounts he loved them and he really got into the character of conan stone's express desire was to make an ongoing conan film franchise and to have a new movie made and released every couple of years regular as clockwork over the course of four months he wrote the first draft for what he intended to be the first of a total of 12 movies it should be noted though that this ambition was oliver's stones and oliver stones alone it was never shared by the producers who would eventually make the movie oliver stone's draft was something of an original wrapping of his design but within that wrapping it was filled to the brim with hawardian and even lovecraftian elements first and foremost it was inspired by the iconic conan story a witch shall be born but it also contained recognizable elements from several other conan stories like tower of the elephant as i mentioned earlier they had also secured the riots to howard's other characters so oliver stone could and did incorporate elements from the king cull stories the shadow kingdom and the cat and the skull into his conan script the first of these call stories featured the shape-shifting snakeman while the latter featured the villain dulce doom now if you are familiar with any of these you might wonder why would oliver stone appropriate a villain from the cult stories when conan already had a recurring villain in both the lancer paperbacks and the marvel comics adaptations of them in the shape of totham high priest of the snake god set i haven't found a definitive answer to this but i would guess that stone included velsa doom because he has supernatural qualities and a striking visual appearance that fit perfectly with the direction he was taking for wild thoughts a doom can appear as a normal human when it suits his purposes that is a deception in his true form his head is a skull and that is the form he had throughout oliver stone's draft overall oliver stone's conan script is incredibly ambitious the draft has been described as crazy in my opinion having had the pleasure to read it the only crazy thing about this script is how crazy good it is especially considering this is about the first draft i do have a few nitpicks with it but overall oliver stone's conan is conan stone did intend to further refine his script in later drafts but he never got the opportunity his script would have been incredibly expensive to film they hadn't been able to lock down a director and in the end paramount passed on the project pressman and summer's first choice for director was always john milius however the first time they approached him about directing scheduling conflicts precluded his involvement after paramount had passed on the project though a couple of years had gone by so they approached him about directing again this time after having read oliver stone's draft milius was keen to direct provided he could rewrite the script as he saw fit the real challenge though was that he was contractually obliged to make another movie for dino delorentis since pressman and summer were just about out of options at that point they negotiated with de laurentiis about the possibility of trading the movie milius was lined up to direct for him with conan after doing some due diligence delorentes agreed his company would produce the movie and universal were distributed in the u.s however dino delorentis did not want any other producers on the movie than himself and his people so for the deal to happen ed pressman had to agree to be bought out reluctantly pressman agreed the conan feature film was now set up at universal and delantes it would be produced by dino's daughter rafaela delarentis and in the tuesday june 26th of 1979 editions of the daily variety and the hollywood reporter the conan feature film to be directed by john milius was formally announced showing how influential the comics were the announcement described conan ass an original comic book character by robert e howard from there things came together quickly one important lesson hollywood learned from star wars was just how much money there potentially was to be had in merchandising to this end conan properties inc approached and entered the licensing agreement with mattel the toy company of barbie fame about producing toys and playsets for the movie mattel were given a substantial quantity of material on all things conan which from what i understand included the oliver stone script character descriptions concept art comic book art and a lot mattel allegedly put a lot of resources into designs and modes but the working relationship was a strained one rumor has it they weren't entirely pleased with millio's rewrites which took out a lot of the fantastical elements that had appealed to them about the oliver stone draft the zombies were taken out and the snake men were merged with also doom while also doom's distinguishing feature the skull face was written out entirely through all the rewrites and introduction though the movie retained its r rated nature and at some point someone in mattel decided that their target audience of kids not only weren't going to be able to see the movie they might not be quite ready for a conan crucified on the tree of woe playset i know of at least one kid at the time who would have been all over that but in the end they decided not to risk it and instead cut their losses so in january of 1982 mattel requested that the license agreement be terminated don't feel too bad for them though according to conan properties inc mattel were able to put the work they put into conan and felt sedum into good use not too long after clearly the script underwent some heavy changes when john milia started rewriting it unlike stone millius was neither a fan of nor that familiar with either howard or the conan stories he was very much so a fan of praseta's artwork though so he wanted to make a movie that looked like that but that told the story he wanted to tell a viking samurai story which was infused with his philosophy both oliver stone and john melius are credited as green writers of the finnish movie but to be clear they never worked together on it rather melius used stone script as a starting point which he rewrote streamlined and reworked to fit the story he wanted to tell and the message he wanted to convey millio's finished screenplay was radically different from the oliver stone draft it started out as but there was enough left from stone's draft that he got credit case in point all the howwardian references in the movie are leftovers from the oliver stone draft milius rewrote conan's character extensively in order to make him more of a silent type that arnold could pull off stone was less than pleased about the changes to his script at the time but they settled their differences and became friends later on as a standalone film conan the barbarian is great cinema not just good but great it features excellent production design by ron cobb and one of the greatest cinematic scores of all time courtesy of basil poladoris given the direction taken arnold schwarzenegger is the perfect choice to portray conan above all though the fairly straightforward screen story is layered with milius injecting his preferred themes and philosophies many of which would not fly in the current political climate where the movie thematically is going is made clear already in the opening screen with a quote from nietzsche that which does not kill us makes us stronger this is illustrated both in the opening scene with the forging of the sword which is tied to the riddle of steel as well as conan's journey and growth through the story the blacksmith forging this sword is conan's father we first see young conan when his father shows him the sword and tells him about the riddle of steel the father explains that their god is scrum an angry god who sits on his mountain and asks all recently deceased if they have solved the riddle of steel if they have not they will be laughed at denied entry into valhalla and cast out luckily conan won't ever suffer that fate because his father tells him the answer that you can trust steel or rather swords made by steel illustrated by the sword forged by his father this you can trust it will not break and it will never let you down shortly afterwards conan's tribe is attacked by the troops of dulce doom played by james earl jones young conan's entire family is killed he is taken into slavery with the other kids and chained to a mill where he will stay and push a wheel for the next 15 or so years the other kids presumably succumb one by one as the years go by but not conan he is the last one standing and what is more he is stronger for it he becomes so strong that he is made a gladiator and a pit fighter and he is sent to a far east dojo to get even better at it with time though conan's captor who's also been with him since he too was a kid must feel sorry for him because he lets conan go once conan gets over the surprise and puzzlement over being free he starts looking for thulsa doom as he wants revenge for the death of his family and his people conan finds some friends a quest and a romantic interest along the way and eventually thulsa doom he manages to infiltrate doom's cult of hippie followers by implying to one of them that there will be some gay peace love and understanding in it for him if he'll just come over here where no one can see because conan is a bit shy this exchange ends with conan getting a hippie outfit to blend in the gay hip be getting a bashing and millions getting to share his general feelings towards hippies with the audience they're not people they're hippies despite being dressed like the hippies though conan doesn't fully blend in and is soon caught thulsa doom mocks conan with the sword he stole from his father and proceeds to tell him the real answer to the riddle of steel which is very different from the answer that conan's father told him doom says that steel is weak it can break much like conan's father's sword eventually does flesh however is strong it is flesh that actually wields the steel it is through the power of flesh that the hippie cultist followed also doom and his instructions like lemmings flesh not steel is power then conan is beaten to the brink of death crucified and left to die but with a little bit of help and sacrifice from his friends conan lives and again comes back stronger for his final revenge after praying to his god krom in a way which suggests that his faith has depreciated considerably conan proceeds to kill thousadom's henchmen and finally thulsa doom himself while the cult of left-wing hippie followers watch as their temple and by extension their entire belief system burns then conan sits down to think and ponder this is honestly the weakest part of the movie as while arnold can pull up action and drunken stupor with equal sincerity he can't really pull of quietly philosophizing without saying or doing anything regardless what he is meant to ponder is the riddle of steel which he now finally solves all by himself he didn't even share the answer with the audience they have to solve it for themselves too did you solve it do you want to know what the answer is shall i tell you okay then let's solve the riddle of steel first of all it has been pointed out to me that this apparently is not how you forge a sword not unless you want it to break so cool looking intro but not without floss that nitpick out of the way let's get down to the real business conan's father is not in valhalla as per his own belief system krom kicked him out and laughed at him because he got it wrong that is not the answer to the riddle of steel as dal saddum pointed out steel is nothing without the flesh that wields it and tulsa wasn't wrong about this case in point the strength and reliability of the sword didn't help one bit when conan's father was curled up in a ball because dogs were biting at his flesh but just because dulce doom accurately pointed out how conan's father was wrong doesn't mean that he got it entirely right either no krom laughs at him too dulce doom maintained that flesh was ultimately stronger than steel a point which was illustrated by the sword actually breaking however for all the power that also doom boasts that his flesh had the steel of even the broken sword made short process of the flesh that kept his head attached to his body now we are getting to the heart of the riddle of steel both flesh and steel may be strong but they are also weak what is truly strong is will anger does not change the fact that your father failed to act the man had a gun could that stop you let the training the training is nothing the will of everything the will to act see russell ghoul gets it crumb welcomes him to valhalla the answer to the riddle of steel is will the will not to allow yourself to be broken or defeated the will to endure it is will that makes flesh strong and by the extension of that it is will that makes steel strong it is by force of will that conan went from being a slave to eventually becoming a king the answer to the riddle of steel can thus be summarized by the quote in the beginning that which does not kill us makes us stronger all told this is great cinema as a standalone movie everything from the direction to the casting to the cinematography to the score comes together perfectly however fans of the original conan stories as well as fans of the conan comics whether from marvel or darkhorse tends to have conflicted feelings towards the movie by contrast many fans of the movie who aren't necessarily familiar with the source material find that puzzling the movie certainly looks like the preset the covers and schwarzenegger hacks down people left and right so what's the problem what more do you want from a barbarian well for starters that he actually be a barbarian the themes in howard's writing and the theme simelius put into his movie do to some extent overlap apart from in the most crucial aspect of all conan himself as we covered in the beginning the central theme in howard stories is that of civilization versus barbarism and nowhere is that more apparent than in the conan stories and in the character of conan the literary conan and this is true for the comics as well is a barbarian he grew up fearless and untamed in a tribal society he is a skilled fast and strong survivor because every day of his life was a fight to survive against the elements the local wildlife rival tribes and other invaders coleman has no formal schooling but he has natural cunning and ferocity he doesn't really get political correctness or other social conventions instead he has the moral code of a tribal society be good be chivalrous to women protect the weak don't offend others lest you want a confrontation that may end with your skull being split and as long as you don't bother others too much you can otherwise do pretty much whatever else you want conan the barbarian is thus a noble savage through him the hypocrisy and double standards of civilized society is exposed such as how in civilized society everyone is supposed to be equal but some are more equal than others how rules can be bent under the right circumstances how actions done by someone in a defined out group are labelled evil but when the same actions are done by the in-group they are justified how any great civilization decays from within before it is conquered from outside that is what the conan stories have as recurring themes and they ride on conan being a barbarian always a contrast to civilization the milius conan however is not a barbarian not by the definition robert d howard used where the literary conan grew up in the wild and with natural cunning and morals this conan grew up in captivity mentally adult and then he learned from books where the literary conan learned whatever skills worked with the sword at a very young age and augmented them with ferocity this conan logic fight in a dojo a civilized way worthy literary conan speaks countless languages and is innately an excellent strategist and a leader this conan is a bit thick nowhere is this better illustrated than in the scene with a legendary quote what is best in life crush your enemies see them driven before you they hear the lamentation of their women [Applause] that is a great and a memorable quote it is actually from genghis khan a real-life conqueror who in many ways was not unlike howard's original conan but imagine if the conversation had gone on for a little bit longer and the wrong follow-up question had been asked conan what is best in life crush the enemies see them driven before you and you the lamentation of the women yeah but what does that mean i don't know yeah my master makes me say things like that or he beats me this conan may have crushed other downtrodden slaves like himself in the pit but he has never seen any enemies driven before him nor has he heard the lamentation of their women on the contrary this conan has only experienced pushing a wheel training in the dojo killing other competing slaves and then have women and books brought to him this conan is a product of the very civilization that the literary conan finds so corrupt he is not so much a barbarian as he is a freed slave one that even had to be chased away because he didn't get the concept of you are free that above all is the major issue fans of the literary and comic book versions of conan have with this movie it can all be traced back to conan being enslaved and how that fundamentally broke the character granted the slavery angle helped the story that milius wanted to tell for the movie and served to illustrate the riddle of steel but to be clear the riddle of steel is an invention of john milius for the movie there was no riddle of steel in the preceding oliver stone draft nor was there any such thing in the original stories there are other issues too but only minor nitpicks compare to conan being a freed slave instead of a barbarian in howard scents of the wood i don't want to come down too hard on it most conan vans myself included are happy to acknowledge that milius made a great standalone movie with layers of subtext it is only as a conan adaptation that the movie is lacking worse yet in being a movie that is so popular and was seen by so many it actually watered down the public perception of conan prior to the release of the movie millions knew conan from the original stories the various paperbacks in the comics and their respective artwork with the movie however the general public's perception of conan was supplanted by the image of arnold schwarzenegger and how the movie portrayed the character of conan rather than a pretty cunning barbarian conan came to be seen as something of a dim-witted brute and this would color the perception of the character for decades to come the conan comics at the time weren't much help either as by the time the movie opened roy thomas who truly got the character had left the conan books over a dispute with marvel the writers filling in for him during and in the immediate aftermath of the movie being in theaters simply weren't up to his standard so they weren't of much help what also did not help matters was that the millions movie would come to represent the undisputed highlight of conan on film it was all downhill from there over the course of the next two decades conan the barbarian was followed by conan b destroyer red sonia two animated series a live action series and numerous attempts at making a king conan movie one of which was transformed into cull the conquidu eventually though marvel comics handed back their conan comic book license marking the end of an era in comics and of the contemporary batch of movie adaptations based on the same source material all of that will be covered in the follow-up to this retrospective following the original marvel years dark horse picked up the comic book license and eventually new movies and even high profile video games based on how its characters were made those stories too shall be told to make sure you get notified when these follow-ups are published please subscribe and indicate that you do want notifications when new videos go up until then please help share this video and let me know your opinion on conan and the different versions of him in the comments [Music]

Channel: Midnight's Edge

Views: 227,288

Keywords: Conan, Conan The Barbarian, Marvel, John Milius, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert E. Howard, Oliver Stone, Riddle of Steel, Roy Thomas, Batman, Batman Begins, Solomon Kane, Red Sonja, Kull The Conqueror, He-Man, Skeletor, Thulsa Doom, James Earl Jones, Savage Sword of Conan, Earl Norem, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Joe Jusko, Bob Larkin, Groo, Stan Lee, L. Sprague De Camp

Id: awKwt27MCYU

Length: 42min 42sec (2562 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 29 2019