Having only known Conan from the two Arnold films, I bought a collection of the original Howard stories a handful of years back, and was surprised at how fun they were. The original Conan is a great adventure story character, and way more well-rounded than I think a lot of people realize.

My favorite movie ever. And I'll always maintain, it is terribly misunderstood. Obviously a telling of hero's journey, and the whole movie Conan fails until the end. But the ending gives Conan a sense of reluctance. He burns down the Mountain of Power, only after some time of contemplation. And finally repudiates all that is Thulsa Doom, by walking past the princess as she bows to him. On one hand it represents a greater triumph. Not enough to kill Thulsa Doom. Conan then does not fall into trap of becoming his enemy. But there is also a sense of bitter-sweetness to the victory. Conan is a warrior because he has to be in that world. And perhaps he will fight in my wars and feuds to come, but it is because he must.

Much of my youth was spent reading the books and absolutely absorbing the comics, especially: Savage Sword Of Conan. Some of my best times were spent in those pages!!!

19:00 I'm eternally astounded at how much faith Milius had in Poledouris - who was pretty unproven at the time. Conan NEEDS its score, more than most movies. Since there's so little dialogue, the score is the only thing holding scenes together. If Poledouris had failed, the entire movie would have likely failed. But instead, of course, he nailed it and delivered an absolute GOAT.

Funny thing to consider, that Stone's Conan script, being set in a Post-Apocalypse wasteland, with cloning, mutants and freaks, sounds uncannily like the Hanna-Barbara cartoon series Thundarr The Barbarian. Wonder if there is a connection there...

A while back I started reading all the Conan stories written by Howard. What I like about is, is that in his tales Conan is often a tool used to create a variety of adventures. Sometimes he has to sneak his way in, other times he's leading entire armies. In one tale he is even a murder suspect. It shows a complexity in Conan's character and the world he lives in, that's lacking in other barbarians.

With recently diving in head-first into Conan Exiles, I found myself quite captivated with even just the small snippets of the grander universe and story of Conan. Perfectly timed, good sir.

Two Gun Bob really REALLY looked like he belonged in Capones operation didn't he?

Added "save Robert Howard" to my time machine TODO list.

Such an incredible soundtrack. The original release version was part of my gym soundtrack for years, pumping iron to the Anvil of Crom/Riders of Doom makes you feel like an ancient warrior king

That was an interesting backstory! Fell sorry for Howard - both him and Lovecraft didn't had happy lives; they are had short and rather tragic existence even though their work live on...

When Conan was done conquering he relaxed and hosted a late night talk show.

So Oliver Stoned wanted to turn Conan into YOR: HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE.

Boy I never thought to make that connection before, Conan is absolutely a hero for those who are sick and tired of responsibility and just want to go be a barbarian and pillage.

Basil Poledouris' complete score is available on a 3CD set from the Intrada soundtrack label.

The image of Charles Bronson as Conan making his prayer to Crom is one that will not be leaving my mind anytime soon.

All I knew about Conan before Arnie's film was the Marvel comics in the 70s. After I saw Arnie's Conan film, I read in a magazine that it was based off of some dude named Robert E. Howard in the 30s, and I was flabbergasted, I thought it was just the comics. So I saw a good deal at a bookstore for the Howard books, and the Sprague De Camp novels, and read them all, and wow! I was hooked. People may not agree with me, but I've always felt that De Camp's books were a nice addition to Howard.

I love how REH's Conan is in fact an dilettante intellectual with a grasp on cerebral subjects like cartography, linguistics and applied metaphysics.

I was the only one in the movie theatre, since no one of my friends was interested, but didn't regret seeing it - as a german Conan comic book fan back then.

So interesting to find out about Stone's proposal to set it in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, fighting mutants... considering that a Conan ripoff in just such a setting actually predated this movie, in the "Thundarr the Barbarian" saturday morning cartoon.

Nice, this is gonna be a fun series of vids to watch. Know little to nothing of Conan beyond the two films.

Would love to see a limited series based on the original books...By a studio that respects the source material.

Poledouris' score was incredible. It really does rise to the level of an opera.

In the days of high adventure, Before the Oceans drank Atlantis, Thulsa Doom lived for a 1,000 years b4 he met my Master King Conan. The Phoenix & the sword.

Such a cool channel to find. Amazing video and jumping straight into the next one.

I started watching your videos about a year ago and now I feel nostalgia by the sound of your voice.

Robert e Howard’s work is amazing, even it was written in the twenties it’s is still imaginative, entertaining and far better than most of the crap written today.

Thank you for this most informative video!

Robert Howard’s life ended very tragically after he wrote the Conan stories. He had a tumultuous relationship with a woman, and then his mother died. After that, he took his own life.

I have to say I'm very excited to find this playlist; Conan the Cimmierian/Barbarian, and more widely Weird Tales and the Swords and Sorcery genre are absolutely my trash and I adore them. Though trash I don't think is the right word, I mean it's not high brow by any measure and one of things I love about the Hyborian Age is that It was was never meant to be taken seriously all the time; it can be delved into more if one wishes but it's always meant to be a good time. With that kind of mindset kept Conan and other like genre stories from falling into nihilism or 'grim and gritty realism' (which actually isn't all that realistic) that kept me from liking series like Game of Thrones or The Witcher short stories. Give me high flying, fun adventures with Robert E. Howard or some Absurdist Humanism with Sir Terry Pratchett and we can see what happens to a Barbarian Hero in his old age.

I had the fortune of living through the cable TV era where the movie channels played this all the time. What an incredible movie and the soundtrack is one of the best. Man Arnold was the meteoric biggest star in the world after this movie.

Conan was my comic book hero💪💥🍻

Conan the Barbarian is a masterpiece. Spaghetti western style fantasy. Thanks for the video.

Conan what is best in life!? A unique lore of a believable world The Terminator And a great Music score of the 80's Correct!

To this very day whenever I do any fantasy computer gaming I put on the scores for both Conan and Conan the Destroyer. Basil Polydouris was a genius.

The barbarian is one of my all time faves but i recently tried to rewatch the destroyer after decades and couldnt get through it.

This is some good stuff. You know what you're talking about and you make it interesting enough. I would recommend you make sure you know how to pronounce the names of everybody involved. Even seemingly simple ones like Bob Fosse. It would add much to your credibility. Good stuff, though. Keep up the good work.

Technically, the first Marvel movie.

This is well timed. A new edition of JRR Tolkien's letters just came out, and a new letter from 1957 has Tolkien praising the storyboards and concept art from a 20 year old Ron Cobb. "Cobb's taste and style seems, on the whole, to fit The Lord Of The Rings better than I should have thought possible." No surprise he'd shine as production designer for another mythic, lost pre-history that feels lived in 20+ years later. I wish we could see those storyboards. The 1982 movie still stands apart for how it depicts and conveys its sword-and-sorcery setting.

From the title I thought this was going to be the shooting locations video. The background. Right? That would be a great video

I remember watching this movie in the theaters. not sure if i was ten or eleven. i just loved it. i couldn't enough of it. They used to make manga type comic books. Usually sold at shopping centers. I had my comic book adaptation of the movie close to me at all times. lol. I tricked my sisters to watch the movie. they had not idea about Conan. i could see them looking at me every time there was sex or nudity. lol . thanks for the memories.

4:55 - Is that a picture of Depression Era Seattle? I can tell because of the Smith Tower in the background.

Oliver Stone's Conan sounds killer.

30 years old? Wow. I did not know that.

I knew there was more to Conan than the Arnold movies, but I didn't know it had such a rich history

Nice

9:35 God what a Small World we live in :) It fascinates me how many Artists are connected through little Meet ups and gatherings. Sadly, I’ve never gotten a chance to ever be at this level.

Fans loves a well defined "canon" that answers all their questions. The thing that fans hate most, is meta. Here's the meta. Howard wrote a Kull story, but couldn't sell it. He reworked it, changing the name of the mc from Kull to Conan, and it sold. This Conan is a king. Intelligent, cultured. The problem is that the mag was on board for a barbarian more than another Kull story. So now Howard has to have some way to explain the King Conan story, and says that after all his barbarianing around, he eventually becomes a king. A cultured, politically savvy barbarian, er, former barbarian. It was always a problem, getting to that king part. It makes a much better life story for him to die fighting overwhelming odds. Oh, and most importantly, the Milius Conan story is NOT NOT NOT Conan. That "barbarian" comes directly from a Franzetta painting, and NOT from the source material. Conan wears CHAINMAIL for most of his stories. It's the preferred armor for his world. He speaks MANY languages, being a wandering sword for hire. He would not have any kind of German accent, since his "land" sits on current Scotland/North Sea, NOT cold wastes. His people were NOT metal workers. Any other things? Oh yeah, THERE IS NO MAGIC, in the high fantasy sense. If anything, the Conan world leads to the world of Lovecraft, since they swapped ideas and used each other's in their own stories. Conan is science fiction/horror. It was NEVER high fantasy, at least not until a bunch of writers came along and pretty much trashed the Howard "Canon."

This makes me hope he will start reviewing Conan books and comics

King King (1976) was a box office success? Well, then as now, there's no accounting for taste.

The author of the books was from Cross Plains, a small town wher eI have family

One of the conditions was that he couldn't give it away, including luxurious gifts. That's why he was hiring everyone. But Spike stuck with him when the money was gone. Spike was like "I still got plenty of money. Let's take a trip."

Heh. I can't hear "Conan" without thinking of the cartoon version, and of Cohen, from Discworld. Also, He-Man has so many differences in story that it's clearly "inspired by", being its own thing. And not even in the Disney "wink wink it's actually plagiarism" way of, well, Disney, but in a "yeah we need something new, but in the same vein" sense. These background videos are also very interesting too, with lots of info not usually said in lesser documentaries.

02:22, where is the "kymeria"??? Never heard of it and can't find it on a map of the Hyborean Age. (anyone)

Tolkien work as big budget movies, and Conan would work better as a TV-show

The intro never grown on me.

I've recently been reading Tolkien and Lovecraft. I guess with Howard, they must be the inspiration for basically every RPG game, plus Warhammer.

What is best in life?

What is the difference between this Channel and your red channel?

I really want to get Oliver Stone’s vision made.

They killed Conan off at Marvel.

Red Nails was the best story....

…I actually think a post-apocalyptic Conan could be cool.

Ima Slaine fan myself

15:50 It’s actually pronounced “Foss-ee”

Man from Hjelmdall

For some reason the hero has to be a vitally strong barbarian or warrior and never a weak-chinned wizard

Am I the only one expecting a history on the character?

If you read Howard's original stories that this movie was based on, there's a lot of casual racism and xenophobia in there. Pretty common for authors of pulp fiction at this time, including HP Lovecraft who was an overt racist. It's not surprising that some of this made it into the movie. That being said I don't think that this movie was particularly egregious. It's just kind of the way that the source material was written.