My Review of "Conan the Barbarian"

Conan the Barbarian is an old Schwarzenegger movie from 1982. It's a movie I didn't get to watch until my late teens. Even then the special effects in the movie seemed kind of dated but yet I loved this movie. There's just something about this movie that drew me to it. Today I once again get to explore this old classic.

It all starts out with a narration from Conan's chronicler. He sets up the mood of the world Conan lives in. Here he describes this land of ancient magic and savagery. It's basically a time of elevated cave people in a world of fantasy.

We then see a young Conan in his village of Cimmeria. It is soon to be raided by a vicious warlord named Thulsa. As the horrible men rape and pillage the land they leave no one alive except for the children. These children are then transported to enslavement camps.

There Conan would live decades as a slave. All the meanwhile, he's developed into a very strong man. I guess the slave masters saw his size and decided to cage him with other slaves to do battle. All the while they are reaping the rewards of people paying to watch and bet on the fights.

Over time Conan becomes a beast in combat and so the slave masters continued to hone his skills for better fights. All the while Conan learns more through his many teachers. Eventually he will be freed and contemplate on his own existence.

When he finds out that the warlord Thulsa is becoming more and more powerful he decides that he wants to enact revenge for his people. That's when the story takes us for another wild ride.

It's a very simple concept and a pretty simple story to follow. That's part of the beauty about this movie. It's something basic to follow but there's little tidbits here and there that capture you into their world. They even have odd foreshadowing throughout the movie. In the beginning of the movie they talk about how the gods fell because they forgot their ways. We see this cycle continue throughout this movie.

I like the fact that Conan has an existential crisis in numerous occasions. In the beginning he didn't know what to make of himself. He really has no way out as a slave but he found his self worth through combat. When he was freed from slavery he still didn't know what to do with his life. All he knew was what people told him to do. Here we have a metaphor for how we all grow up.

We listen to our parents and then eventually we have to leave the nest to find ourselves. Looking at his own past does he figure out what he's destined to do.

There's also a lot of great supporting characters in this movie. They all add life to this movie. Some of them for some comic relief and in some ways Conan himself doesn't take himself seriously as well. The way he punches out that camel still has me in stitches after so many decades.

The art design of the costumes and set pieces are also amazing. I love the direction they went with some of the intricate designs. It all sets the mood to this epic adventure. So does the music. I love the score for this movie. It just screams grand adventure as its blaring in the background while Conan wields his giant sword at his enemies.

Overall, despite the bad quality picture and the outdated special effects (some of the special effects are still pretty good) this movie is a great time. It makes you feel like a kid again. There's this feeling as if you're playing make believe. It's like watching something that you had imagined as a kid. There's also some nostalgia to this movie for me but I think everyone can gravitate to it even today. That's why I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. A classic that I can go back to over and over again.