WHAT IS BEST IN LIFE!? Thank you everyone for the support!

Basil Poledouris' score for this movie is a classic.

One of the best Sword and Sorcery movies ever made.

And thus every D&D character's backstory was born.

Let’s not forget max von Sydow who played the row of the king searching for his daughter. He may have been on the screen for just a few minutes but damn he left an indelible impression. What a great actor, what a great scene

Conan isn't just "another" Arnold movie. It is THE Arnold movie. That one startet his career in Hollywood. Before that he was a 5 time Mr. Universe in two of the most rennomated bodybuilding leagues. And because of his austrian accent the producers didn't wanted him to talk to much, but in the eyes of the fans, that thing made him even more iconic.

"This you can trust." Conan's father's sword shattered in the final battle because it would not betray the child of its maker. Thanks for watching this! It's often overlooked.

I love how James Earl Jones has this luxurious head of hair and looks so calm and peaceful, while his 2 big henchmen look like they were members of Motorhead before he recruited them.

Gotta love the meeting between Conan and Akiro. It's basically two crazy guys deciding to become best friends in an instant.

One thing that often gets overlooked is Valeria coming back to help Conan in his hour of need... In the mythology, Crom (who is also a real-world Irish deity) cares only for those who are willing to fight to the death to achieve their goals and defeat their foes- with or without His help. Crom sends Valeria back from the afterlife to help Conan only when he needs it most because when the chips were down, Conan and his friends exemplified Crom’s highest ideal and stood alone against their enemies with only themselves to rely on; proving that God [or the gods] gives help those who help themselves.

It’s amazing what you can do in an hour and half with good writing, a great score, and no cgi when you’re focused on good storytelling. Modern movie makers could learn a lot if they got back to the basics.

The discovery of the sword in the cave, that intention of that was to convey the passing of the Atlantean Age to the Hyborean Age. The skeleton on the throne was the King of Atlantis, Conan took his sword and the King appeared to bow to him-one King of an Age no more to someone who would someday be a King by his own hand

"Between the time when the oceans drank atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you the tale of high adventure."

"What is best in life?" Conan: "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."

"Steel grows brittle, flesh decays, but will is unbreakable" That's the most accepted answer to the Riddle of Steel. And I think the movie teaches us this. Definitely one of my favorite movies ever and a god-tier soundtrack

"All the gods, they cannot sever us. If I were dead and you were still fighting for life, I'd come back from the darkness. Back from the pit of hell to fight at your side." - Valeria's promise to return to save Conan later in the film.

James Earl Jones gave Arnie acting lessons during the filming of this.

One of my favorite parts is after Conan is resurrected, as they try to talk him out of going after Doom, he just looks at them, and then sharpens his sword. So much can be said without words.

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” Conan The Cimmerian

Of all the classic Arnie lines “Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, and why we died. All that matters is that today, two stood against many. Valor pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, the HELL with you!”...that is my favourite thing he has ever said.

The first guy that Conan battles in the pit fighter scene is a friend of mine. It was his first movie, he's now a prop master in Hollywood, and he's the guy on the right in my avatar. :)

Valeria was my first movie crush when I was a kid.

There is a scene in the directors cut, Just before the big fight. Conan is talking to Subotai about his youth in Cimmaria Where the winters are particularly brutal. He spoke of how, once in a while, he would smell a hint of spring on the winter winds. His friend Subotai spoke of how they had those winds where he lived too. “Such winds blow in the north of all men’s hearts.” One of the best scenes of bro bonding.

Conan's mother's death is one of the best shot deaths I've seen, watching her hand slowly pull away from his and his reaction was amazing.

"Succes can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary". So much said in one sentence. This movie is philosophical to the bone.

Sandahl Bergman's take on Valeria is an underrated female character. "You don't even have a rope."

Comes out of the cave with a sword, looks at dogs, hard cut to Conan wearing dog skins.

Literally EVERYTHING in this movie is symbolic. From the music, to the lighting, even to where the character are standing according to each other in the scene. This movie was a passion project and is art. Pure art.

Conan trivia for the day. "Schwarzenegger suffered a back injury while filming when the dogs who were chasing him jumped him from behind and he fell down the rock he was climbing to escape them. Apparently the dogs used in the movie were very dangerous. Milius said, "When you had the dogs chasing Arnold Schwarzenegger and he's running, he's actually running for his life because he knew those dogs were very dangerous and they even attacked their trainer.""

The huge warrior with the Hammer is actually Arnold's friend and stunt double for many years.

John Milius, who wrote this movie, also wrote Apocalypse Now, and he killed it on both. The story is so much more abstract and, as mentioned, artistic, than a typical action movie. Then you add such a great soundtrack, and gorgeous cinematography, and you end up with a great and underrated movie. This movie really feels like an epic in the style of something like Beowulf. So great.

My favorite part is that even from Valhalla, Valeria came back to protect Conan. She swore that if she was dead, she would come back from the darkness, and she did!

When you realize it's actually Subotai who slaughtered most of the army in the final battle ... dps rogue confirmed

The answer to the riddle of steel is that flesh is stronger than steel but willpower is greater than both.

I love the depiction of magic in this movie. It has such an eerie supernatural feel. No sophisticated "Harry Potter" shit, no attempt to explain it, just weirdness and power.

Samantha's facial expression when Conan throw the Witch into fire is priceless.

I love how y'all appreciate the ride that is Conan. The story, the relationships, the friendships, the comedy, the action the drama. And the killer monologues. James Earl Jones had one of the best. He thought steel was strong, until he came across the will of flesh, desire and the power to control it. That is real strength. SO EPIC.

For the glorious narration, it helps that he was played/voiced by the utterly unforgettable Mako, who was also famous for voicing Aku from Samurai Jack.

As Valeria said "All the gods, they cannot sever us. If I were dead and you were still fighting for life, I'd come back from the darkness. Back from the pit of hell to fight at your side..." she returned to Conan as a Valkyrie on the field of battle.

- This is based on a series of novels and short stories written by Robert E. Howard in the 1930's. - The "Conan the Barbarian" film contains several of Howard's "Conan" short stories. - The Conan stories take place around 10,000 BC - Conan's people, the Cimmerians, are supposed to be the descendants of the survivors of Atlantis. - Schwarzenegger played Conan in 2 more films: "Conan the Destroyer" and "Red Sonja". A third Conan film was attempted ("Conan the Conqueror"), but Schwarzenegger's contract had expired at three films, so they used Kevin Sorbo (from the "Hercules" TV series) and changed the protagonist to Kull, another of Robert E. Howard's characters, and it was released as "Kull the Conqueror". - The novelization of "Conan the Destroyer" was written by Robert Jordan (who authored the "Wheel of Time" series), and also wrote 6 additional "Conan" novels under contract to Robert E. Howard's estate. - Harry Turtledove, author of the "Videssos" series, also wrote a "Conan" novel for the Howard estate, "Conan of Venarium". - Conan eventually becomes King of Aquilonia after strangling the previous tyrannical king on his throne.

Legendary score that is forever engrained in my brain since childhood, and feel it only gets better with time somehow. "riddle of steel" : P

Yes!! "And unto this Conan, whom will wear a crown of Acqilonia upon a troubled brow. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure." - Mako, RIP.

This is by far one of the best movies in "Swords & Sorcery" genre and one my all time favourites. I watched this movie at least 5 or 6 times and it ages well. The soundtrack of the movie is one of the best movie soundtracks of all times, composed by legendary Basil Poledouris.

"Do you want to live forever!" that has to be one of my favorite things in any movie ever when Valeria there is a Valkyrie angel

Thulsa Doom is a character from Kull the Conqueror, another character created by Robert E. Howard. I think Conan's love interest, Valeria, is too.

another cool thing is that Arnold said that according to Hollywood, that he would never make it in the film business, because his body was too big, and he also had an accent. nobody at the time was looking for someone like that, but Arnold wanted to be a big star, and when this movie was being made, he became the perfect person for the role DUE to his accent and bodybuilder like body, making him prove Hollywood wrong :)

It's a great movie. A classic. Dear to my childhood. It launched Arnold's career because this was one of the most epic movies ever made, and he was brilliant in it. Along with James Earl Jones and a legendary classical soundtrack. The end of an era of strunt work. Many stuntmen got hurt making this. Arnold sprained his ankle and split his finger, among other injuries. Arnold was swinging around a real sword during his training sequences. And his trainer was a real-life weapons expert. They had to hit pouches of blood in the suits with sharpened edges to make them open up and splatter. A miss could cause injury. Those kinds of sword fights can never exist today. Especially not with A-list actors.

2 great movie villains, Thulsa Doom and Darth Vader, voiced by the same great talent; James Earl Jones.

This movie is incredible. I never get tired of it. It's a masterpiece. James Earl Jones voice is so commanding

"You're no guard" is apparently the ultimate pickup line, as it's about the only thing Conan says to her throughout the entire film.

The voice of Darth Vader is the villain. Perfect. But this time, he said, I'm not your father.

One thing you missed was that Conan learned the Riddle of Steel, from his enemy no less. He realized this after the demons on the beach and was clean of the ink tattoo's while he was practicing with his sword. Such an EPIC movie.

30 years later we are STILL waiting for King Conan's return...

Cool as this movie is, some of the older Robert E. Howard (Conan's original creator) stories are as immersive as well, a lot of cool worldbuilding. Marvel liked the old stories so much they adapted it into some pretty damn good comics, too back in the 70's. I remember the opening of one of the stories pretty vividly: Conan has brusies all over his body, possible broken bones in several places, and one of his eyes is swollen shut with blood leaking out of his mouth as he walks into a tavern full of people who tricked him and left him for dead, brandishes a sword so heavy no one but him can pick it up, and all he says is..........."Who dies first?" I dunno about anybody else but that is one badass anti-hero! And yeah, the first movie is pretty good, too. :)

You looked so confused when the dead girl came back to help him in the battle, did you miss the part where she told him that even if she was dead and he was still fighting, she would come back from hell to his side?

The cinematography, music and cast in this are all perfect. Such a great film.

I always love the Atlantean tomb part, where Conan gets his sword. It's supposed to be a tomb of the king of Atlantis, a civilization older than that of Conans. When Atlantis sunk, the cataclysm it brought formed world Conan lives in. this whole set piece was handmade and everythinging this scene has meaning.

Subotai Gerry Lopez is a Champion surfer from Hawaii. John Milius the Director, was big into surfing. Kind of cool he cast his buddy as Subotai, Archer and Thief. Check out Gerry Lopez surfing.

Conan's creator Robert E. Howard pretty much invented the swords & sorcery genre. Conan's backstory in the movie is a bit of a departure. In the original short stories, his village was not destroyed when he was a child and the children were not enslaved. Conan was just a natural-born wanderer.

The mustache guy was Ben Davidson, a famous member of the Oakland Raiders back in the 1970s. And the thief was Subotai, and his girlfriend was Valeria. Valeria was also a pirate character in a Robert E. Howard Conan story called Red Nails. The wizard is Akiro but is more commonly known as The Chronicler to Conan fans. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's one of my favorite movies.

Fun fact: the musical score during the initial raid when Conan was still a kid, was used in the reveal trailer of Zelda: Twilight Princess at E3 2004. It was this epic.

Thorgrim, played by Sven-Ole Thorsen, has had a very interesting career. Appearing in several Arnold movies and a couple very high profile movies as well (Gladiator, Hunt for Red October).

Such an old movie but god damn do I love it, old-school cheesiness and all. The film gives a deep mythological feel to it, and the soundtrack is S tier.

Fun Fact - the original Marvel artist to draw Conan was a British fellow named Barry Smith. He started working on Conan when he was 21 years old. According to his autobiography, he was a bit mentally unstable (and at times virtually homeless). He was also seeing "shadow people" dressed in old timey clothes, and even what he thought were interdimensional portals. He is now named Barry Windsor-Smith. I think it was his madness that brought so much power and attention to the comic, that made this movie so anticipated. I was so excited when I saw the first photo preview (the end shot of King Conan) around 1972. Then I literally waited 10 years for Conan to be released! Sheesh!

The Citizen Kane of the Sword and Sorcery genre.

As a kid who read the Robert E. Howard books, and then later the comic book series based on the Conan adventures, and also a great fan of the Frank Frazetta paintings, I was ecstatic when this movie was announced. I picked up all of the movie magazines at the time with articles about it. Fell in love with the Basil Poledouris soundtrack right off the bat and was not disappointed with John Milius' interpretation of the Conan Universe. It was intended for a mature audience. I also believe this was intended to be the first of a whole series of films leading up to the final scene you see with Conan as the old, brooding King. Too bad the powers that be chose to abandon that brilliant, serious style in the second film. If I remember the articles at the time, the money men/women wanted to make the second film more child friendly, so they dumped competent characters and replaced them with more slapstick versions. Made returning characters sillier. The story line was more cartoony in general. The "romance" elements immature. As with many films, there was an interesting snippet here and there, but overall it was far inferior. And of course, being inferior, 'Conan the Destroyer' killed off the pursuit of further projects in this Universe. Something to keep in mind if you screen the second film. A fun aside: Sandahl Bergman was a dancer. If you ever watch the Olivia Newton-John musical 'Xanadu', see if you can pick her out in that film. I believe this was among the last handful of Gene Kelly's films. And included Michael Beck who is often remembered from the cult film 'The Warriors' ("Warriors... come out and play-ay...") An interesting movie recommendation if you haven't seen it, that could fall into this barbarian adventure genre - 'The 13th Warrior'. Like you, I enjoy sharing films I've seen with other people, but without having many in my personal circle who enjoy them as much as I do (my own collection is nearing 2200), I have turned to channels like yours to fill the void.

the warrior-thief woman Conan fell in love with was named Valerian, that was her spirit that appeared as a Valkyrie at the end that blinded the henchman giving Conan an opening to kill the henchman....

"Reminds me of the endings to the Mad Max films" Spot on! I always thought they had similar vibes. Glad you enjoyed it, this is one of my favorites

The movie version of Valeria is really a combination of two characters from Conan lore. Her personality and storyline are very similar to Bêlit (the Queen of the Black Coast) who was basically the lost love of Conan's life. But the name "Valeria" comes from a different heroine in a different story.

The music By Basil Poledouris is amazing and epic! Love it!!

7:16 The cave he found is actually an Atlantian tomb. It's never said outloud in the movie but the bad guy, Thulsa Doom, is supposed to be the last living member of the race that lived on Atlantis. hence why the armours in the tomb look so much like the armou worn by the raiders at the beginning of the movie

One of the best musical scores of all time. Simply amazing.

There's a lot of backstory told in small pieces that don't make sense unless you're familiar with the legendarium. Conan lives in the Hyborian Age, the period after the end of Atlantis (Thurian Age). Thulsa Doom is an Atlantean sorcerer who survived the Deluge and is rebuilding his power base. That's why he spent so much time searching for steel. But after he established himself, he went full-on cult leader (to sustain his immortality) and realized the power of flesh. Notice that he's a Black man with straight hair and blue eyes--he's the member of a race that perished with Atlantis. But Thulsa Doom is a composite of 2 characters: Amon-Ra and Thulsa Doom. Amon-Ra was the Atlantean sorcerer and Thulsa Doom was one of Conan's adversaries, but they merged the 2 characters into 1 for the film.

Ron Cobb, the designer who did mot of this movie died last year, he also did quite a bit of Alien as well, especially the ship The Nostromo and the mechanical design for that movie.

The bit about Conan being King of Aquilonia is from the Conan novels, because that's how his long life of adventure finally ended. He helped a revolution overthrow a tyrant and ended up becoming king by his own hand. The movies paid homage to that with Mako's narration, even though they never remotely got that far in the timeline themselves.

So many filmmakers have used this film as inspiraton. The Matrix...when Trinity protects Neo at the end when he is shot by the Agents and dies... declaring to Neo her love and has him wake up & fulfill the prophecy...that is so reminiscent of when "The Girl" wakes Conan from the dead. Conan is a great film.I'm glad you chose it. Much thanks.

I first saw this at a slumber party for my 10th Birthday party!! Gotta love 80s parenting!! =D

One of the best quotes: " What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

"Crom is your God. Crom, and he lives in the Earth." Very possibly the greatest father to son talk in history.

4:30 There is actually. Arnold was so strong that crew was needed to push back the wheel of pain, so that it would look like it's heavy for Conan to push it.

The tomb Conan found before he killed the dogs was Atlantean. Ancient even by that day's standards, and with a greater treasure of metalworking in it than even his people had. The whole thing about the Atlanteans in the Conan stories was that before they were scattered and essentially went extinct, they'd already forgotten more about metalworking and magic/technology than anyone in the books could ever learn.

I love this film. Its such a shame that the John Milius trilogy didn't happen, so literary and far deeper than any other Conan adaptation.

Around 1988, SSOC (Savage Sword of Conan) by Marvel comics, had an editorial about some storyboards that were found, from about 60 years earlier. They were found in some desk secret compartment, sometime in the 80's and all I can tell you is, they were EPIC. These were both; set designs and storyboards at the same time and they were exquisite. The man who drafted them fell on hard times during the depression or some such, and thus the movie was never made. He was some art director or producer who was known for epic scenery and scale in his movies. Sadly, that's about all I remember... If you can find them, marvel (no pun intended) for the Conan movie that never was.

Conan's been a slave, a sailor, a king, a thief, a war lord, a pirate. I can not recommend the short stories enough. They're all worth reading at least once.

I keep forgetting how awesome these old movies are, there is just something special about them 😇 Great reactions, by all means watch the next one too 👍👍

One of the best fantasy movies to come out of the 80s. One of my favorite movies.

In the behind the scenes video, Arnold was pointing out different areas where he got hurt filming this movie. At the end of that behind the scenes, they had an outtake of a boom mic dropping and hitting him in the head. He said "even in the behind the scenes of Conan I get hurt." LOL :D

It's not explained in the movie but the skeletons in the tomb were the one group of survivors from Atlantis, hence why Conan's sword is called "Atlantean Sword". Its a reference to the "Kull of Atlantis" short stories by Robert E. Howard. It's interesting reading on the history but basically Kull of Atlantis is the direct literary forerunner of Conan the Barbarian. Basically, in 1932, after a rejected Kull story, Howard rewrote it and created Conan. There are other references to Kull in the movie, one big example is Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) was the main antagonist for Kull.

Time for Conan the Destroyer, fairly underrated but a very fun adventure.

Fun Fact: The guy at the first that y'all thought was coming to warn them was Arnolds buddy Franco Columbo👍

Steel is strong, flesh is stronger, but the true riddle of steel is that friendship and love are the strongest of them all.

Born to play the role. A fantastic movie that holds up very well. BTW Valleria appeared as a Valkyre to save Conan near the end.

my favorite part is when Arnold knocks out a camel with one punch 😂

15:34 the voice of Uncle Iroh in Avatar., The Last Airbender

PLEASE, PLEASE...someone praise the AWESOME production-design of RON COBB (RIP), one of John Millius' favorite artists, despite that Millius was a "right" and Cobb was a "left"!

Some details almost lost in the editing of this film: the sword Conan finds is the sword of the Atlantean ruler King Kull (which was made as a far inferior film years later 'Kull the Conqueror' with Kevin Sorbo), which is another tale by Robert E Howard. The Wolf Witch is the one who sent the wolves that chased Conan into the tomb and then didn't come after him. Then she wanted to take his life and power (and possibly his future as the King of Aquilonia), but failed. The Conan tales cross over with the H P Lovecraft cosmic horror tales in several places, you'd have to read most of them to find the details, but it's fun realising that these two, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth and others all knew each other and helped each other out with stories.

I saw this when it first came out and still holds up to til this day... The score, the heart, the action and whoever was the casting director is TOP Tier!!! Also the directing and cinematography was Cool!!

Perfect film for Arnold. A good blend of humor, tragedy, supernatural and philosophy.

John Milius has always been a pretty eccentric character, but the man has an undeniable genius when it comes to writing and directing epic movies!

Sandahl Bergman (Valeria) originally was a dancer. She was one of the "Muses" backing Olivia Newton John in "Xanadu". She makes another appearance as the evil queen in "Red Sonja". Max Von Syndow as King Osric. He is also well known as "Ming The Merciless" in "Flash Gordan". Filmed in central Spain, which is well known for those medieval fortresses and desert locations.