Thanks for the shout out!

“Everything you thought was cool when you were 12 is what is actually cool: Arnold, war, metal, huge boobs; all of it.”

Not a family movie, not at all. It’s a “father and son” movie.

Every Conan story in a nutshell is: A Barbarian walks into the Civilized lands, looks around and says “By Crom, you’re all fucking savages!”

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” -Robert E. Howard (From Tower of the Elephant, arguably the greatest Conan short story Howard ever wrote.)

Fun Fact: The stunt double who did the jump on Thulsa Doom’s order scene, set the Women’s Free Fall record at 182 feet.

"For those unaware... I like Berserk a lot." Understatement of the decade.

I love that HP Lovecraft and Robert Howard were chill irl and did collabs together.

Me watching as a kid "Conan is the best. Arnie kills everyone." Me watching as an adult:"Conan is the best. The movie is so much deeper than a surface level viewing would suggest."

We need a return to old-school masculine characters like Conan, OG He-Man and even old Shonen characters like Kenshiro and Dark Schneider

I remember when I saw Conan the first time as a boy, I spent every day of the next week in the woods behind our house looking for my own Atlantean sword.

Another creation of Howard that doesn't quite get enough love is Solomon Kane.

I work as a security guard, so I do a lot of sitting or walking around and doing nothing. It helps pass time to have books on tape and I was so happy to get the complete 30 hour omnibus of Robert E Howard's Conan. Best $20 I ever spent. And yes, I've listened to it more than once.

Something Ive always enjoyed about Conan is that the cultures and people take real world inspiration.

A bit of trivia: Conan retrieving the atlantean sword from the skeleton is a nod to a Conan short story called "The Thing in the Crypt" which was also adapted in The Northman when Amleth enters a similar tomb to claim the sword Draugr.

The director of Conan with Arnold Schwarzenger has been blacklisted from Hollywood for decades because he directed Red Dawn. A movie about the communists are the fucking bad guys!!

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 bear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is the Almighty Loli who alone can tell thee of this saga. Let him tell you of the days of high adventure!

Fun fact: Conan was shot in my country (Spain) shortly after the death of General Franco and the end of the dictatorship and right during an armed coup made by a faction of the army against the new democratic government. Even that is metal about this movie

Conan works because of how little dialogue there is. It lets the fantastic music tell the story.

“What is your goal in life?” “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women.” -The Ultimate Male Fantasy

Fun fact, in Russia we have literally a whole book series about Conan... Which have nothing to do with the original author, but written by him. How could this be you ask? Answer is simple, Conan was a big hit when books about him were translated into russian language, so big, that publishers literally hired some authors to write books about him and then release them as if it was written by the original author. It was back in the later soviet and early Russia era.

Arnold is fantastic as Conan but also props to Max Von Sydow as King Osric. Max was only in for a short while but he nailed it. The monologue about how family is the only thing that matters also showed how the movie is more than just a mindless hack and slash.

“It’s fuckin metal as FUCK dude!!” - Jontron

Conan is one of those characters that, almost poetically, is incredibly well known himself but tons of people don't know his legacy, namely the sheer breath of franchises and IPs the character has inspired. Hell, while Tolkien's work created the fantasy landscape we know today , the likes of Conan and Elric helped build the *foundation* of modern fantasy.

Sobatai is the ultimate bro. Conan picked a fight with a powerful wizard, at any point he could leave but doesn't. Faces impossible odds yet stays.

What is best in life? hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper

Berserk and Conan the Barbarian got me back into the gym. Both of their OSTs are in my workout playlist.

I love the second movie. While Conan the Barbarian was a character study on a man seeking purpose, Conan the Destroyer is straight up an old-school D&D adventure and that pleases me greatly!

It’s worth mentioning that the riddle of steel as represented in the movie is very much a creation of the director and it plays into the narrative of stoicism that makes up the philosophical core. The movie is very much it’s own thing in comparison to the Howard stories and they have very different philosophies.

Frank Frazetta’s art can never be replaced. Set sends his regards. 🎩 🐍 no step on snek!🇺🇸🇭🇰

When you realise pulp is the og of everything we love, you can't go back: no batman without the shadow, no the witcher without elric, no dark-cloaked, large-hat-wearing wayfaring avenger without solomon kane. even Dune is a pulp, it's sections published separately in analog magazine before it was reworked to be a novel. LONG LIVE PULP

My favorite fact about Schwarzenegger is that he never did German-language dubbing for his own roles, because he has some country bumpkin accent that sounds goofy to German speakers.

Conan the basedbarian. Bring back classic heros

I like Conan The Destroyer quite a bit. It honestly feels more like a Dungeons & Dragons movie, more so than actual D&D movies.

Man I really need to go through the Conan books, they seem REALLY fun. As far as Conan-inspired stuff, Dungeons and Dragons as a whole takes a lot of inspiration but one of their dedicated settings, Dark Sun, was explicitly attempting to emulate Conan's Hyborean Age. It may not have been as popular as Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, but it's certainly a major part of D&D history.

I am among the biggest living Conan fans under the age of 40. It is definitely worth exploring especially to get an idea of Fantasy beyond just Tolkien because there are other ways to do the genre. In fact any person writing Fantasy fiction or even running Dungeons & Dragons Campaigns owes it to themselves to read just about everything in the Appendix N of the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. The things you will find, discovering where certain tropes originated, the depth and variety of what many call a stale genre will shock you. Though one thing I'd like to mention in the discussion of Conan's backstory, his enslavement as a child was made up for the movie and is a very controversial addition to the character. Mostly because him being a slave so young takes away from the idea of him having developed a lot of his folk knowledge and unpredictable Savagery outside of Civilization, in the movie he is trained to fight and kill by Civilization for their enjoyment. In the original stories Conan shocks people from more settled nations by just how ruthless and animalistic he can be in combat, he lacks formal training but honed what works into a vicious fighting style going off of instinct and a mish mash of things he picks up. Also a big part of him being a POV character in the Hyborian Age is he is just as much an outsider to the Civilizations he visits as we are.

I'm surprised you didn't bring up The Northman at any point. It really does feel like the closest thing to a modern spiritual successor to the original 1982 film and Robert Eggers even went on record stating that it was one of Northman's main influences.

Started listening to audiobooks of the Savage Sword Series of Conan. Legitimately some of the best writing I've ever listened to. Robert E. Howard was a true king.

Before Gut’s could learn to walk, Conan was there to guide him to the path of a warrior.😺

Conan is just an amazing character and enjoy the world Robert E Howard created.

Conan goes from just a good solid character to a legendary one for 3 key reasons: 1) The template. With Kull and Solomon Kane, Howard pretty much created the standard pulp action-adventure story template, but with Conan, he perfected it. The result is that over the years, even mediocre writers of Conan stories (mostly looking at the Marvel comics days) could figure out the nuts and bolts of *how* a Conan story was supposed to work, and implement it themselves. The result is that while there are a ton of middling Conan stories out there, even they tend to be at least OK, but when a good writer gets ahold of him again, you can really see something special take shape (highly recommend the Dark Horse run from the mid 2000s if you want to see some really solid Conan stories btw). 2) The Theme. With Conan, the theming of a "barbarian at odds with civilization" is so central that again, even mediocre writers pick up on it. It's a unique theme in most story telling because, being the result of some kind of functioning society, most written work tends to have a pro-civilization bias. Societies formed from mutual cooperation are good and provide law against the chaos of nature et cetera, et cetera. But with Conan, the core theme is at direct odds with this notion. It allows for any decent writer to find some kind of gripe they have with society at large and turn that gripe into a central tenet of any given story, which tends to have a lot of resonance with readers. Because all of our qualms about civilization (primarily over the dishonesty of it) so rarely get aired, a good Conan story allows a psychological release of what are often pent-up frustrations with society, mostly because . . . 3) The Action Focus. Because every Conan story understands that quintessentially, it always comes down to some sort of sequence where Conan must take action. There may be a build-up of dread or foreboding or lots of people talking or pondering, but at the end of every story (if not throughout) Conan *must* take action to resolve the conflict, and this surety of action means the reader knows that at least some part of the story will be both exciting, and won't end with some kind of anti-climax. Lots of tales end on weak down-notes because the writer struggles to figure out a good way to get the characters out of the jams they put them in, and they often resort to pulling out some kind of deus ex machina where another character resolves the situation, or a conversation resolves the situation, but with Conan, you *know* that's never the solution. It's always going to end with some kind action, whether that's him using his acrobatic wiles to get out of a dangerous crumbling tower or besting someone in a fight to the death, you won't know until the end of the story, but you know it's not going to be some mealy-mouthed waste of your time and attention. Anyway, that's my TED talk on Conan. Thank you for reading this novel.

REH's Conan wasnt orphaned or enslaved as a child that was the movie. He left cimmeria to wander the world. Thulsa Doom was Kull's nemesis, dead long before Conan

Scathach is pronounced "skah-hahh", and she's a Celtic mythological character famous for being an all-round badass warrior woman, who went on to train the mythic hero Cú Chulainn (and his adoptive brother-in-arms, Ferdia) in the art of making war and of using the dreaded Gáe Bolg (a blood-red spear made of thorns which, when tossed from the foot, would cause anyone hit to sprout 30 thorn branches inside the wound)

Conan the Barbarian and Elric of Melnibone are two essentials of Dark fantasy. The Black Company is also a good series.

What if Conan the Barbarian is the great grandfather, He-Man is the grandfather, Berserk is the father, and Primal is the son. Conan the Barbarian, He-Man, Berserk, and Primal all share one common theme: a lineage of big men with tragic backstories wielding swords, fighting off Lovecraftian demons. 😂

ConAnon, what is best in life?

"I have memories of my dad sitting me down as a kid and having me watch this." Same. My father and I watched *so* many 80s, 90s & 2000s action movies. Didn't matter how violent it was, we always sat down together on a Friday night and watched whatever we chose from his MASSIVE collection of tapes/DVDs. A collection so massive, it to this day, takes up a 6 foot tall, 6 section line shelving unit. And it's a tradition I plan to continue on with my son once he gets older. If anything, I feel the fact I watched such movies with strong male leads, is what made me who I am today: A father and husband, who knows that I have to be strong for myself and for those I have a duty to provide for; while raising my son into a just as strong man. All the while protecting my wife and son from potential evils of this world. Is that a bit dramatic? Yeah, but it doesn't change how badly the world needs more men like so, in this day and age. On a random note: The only movie my father ever had a problem with, was John Carpenter's Ghost of Mars and only because of how much swearing there was. Not the massive amount of violence & gore in it.

I actually always felt like the Father in the movie knew that the answer was human will and not actual steel. A literal secret left by gods, to be made and used by mere man. The sword is just a tool afterall and has to be made and wielded. I felt that was the actual lesson. And while it broke, clashing with the Atlantean sword, did it break, betray, because it was inferior? Or did it break because it was wielded by an inferior, weaker willed man comapred to Conan? I'd like to think it's actually the latter. In the end, the supposed broken sword, wielded by indomitable Conan, still ended Thulsa. Oh and the little amount of extra and extended scenes from the Extended Cut add so much flavour. Conan and Subotai's dialogue about spring winds is just awesome. Conan is peak low fantasy. My favourite genre. And I consider Berserk low fantasy. Most definitely.

I’d also add that Arnold’s thick Austrian accent further added to his portrayal as Conan because it reinforced the dichotomy of the character coming across as a brutish brick house of a man who in actuality is scary brilliant from how he behaves.

love that you used The Witcher 3 soundtrack for Conan contemplating, it fit really well.

Robert E. Howard was writing heavy metal before heavy metal was invented. A lot of heavy metal bands actually take a lot of inspiration from his work. Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock is another huge influence on dark fantasy and heavy metal culture.

A Conan review that dedicates a segment to the score. Finally. Fucking thank you. Easily one of the best music scores ever composed. Too many folk talk about the movie and never go into the score that is the backbone of it all.

Didnt know conan was rhis cool. The thought of conan being the indomitable human spirit that fughts and wins against horrors beyong comprehension is really sick. Imma look into him. Awesome video

Conan's world is pretty cool. I love the Sumerian and early Indo-European vibes of it and ths OG movie really has a lot of historical echoes of the period in costumes, references and even religion. Like Conan's companion believeing in the sky god who is definitely Tengri. And in Conan the Destroyer they literally had Ahriman who is like the opposite of God in Zoroastrianism. Most people have no clue about things like these.

Saw Conan the Barbarian as a child in the theater with my father, and I have rewatched hundreds of times since. Audiences today, more than ever, need media like Conan.

Very accurate detailing of Howard’s life. Being a strong country boy with a smart imaginative mind. He even lost a pen pal because said friend was disappointed to learn Howard had a southern accent. His parents didn’t divorce though. May have just been a slip of the tongue though. But from what I read his parents relationship was very strained.

John Milius was a badass writer and director and his Conan the Barbarian was a fucking masterpiece

I remembered binge reading a bunch of Dark Horse Conan comics by the volumes. Specifically one storyline sticks out of him leading a mercenary group into victory against a numerically superior force led by an undead warlord sorcerer as Conan took full advantage that the guy is kind of a simp towards the princess that Conan and his allies are protecting. ...It was pretty damn awesome even if my recollection was horrendously spotty, not gonna lie.

I first saw Conan the Barbarian with my dad as well. It's one of his favorite movies and he was really passionate throughout the whole time watching it.

Unrepentantly rated-R. It has the integrity of an action movie of a long-gone era, when studios weren't trying to make movies that appeal to the broadest demographic of consumers, churning out Rated-PG13 blandness. Conan the Barbarian was so well crafted, each scene has meaning. For me, it is a movie I can hop on at any point in a station broadcast and enjoy the movie from any point of the movie I began to watch.

Exceptional shout out to Grim Dark (Half Off), randomly encountered him while sampling Conan lore during a Conan Exiles gameplay phase and his content is an absolute pleasure, putting y'all in good company. Excellent video as always!

The Story of the writer is very interesting and I hate how the Strong Male lead / power fantasy is being seen as 'toxic masculinity' by the leftists. I think it is important to have these characters I mean I some of my earliest memories of spending time with my dad was watching Conan the Barbarian, he is disabled and the last thing he wanted to see was a main lead that was disabled it would only remind him of his hardships, he much preferred getting to see the fantasy of A Strong Warrior, rather than that of a cripple.

The Robert E Howard novels read similar to Tolkens, in terms of the language used. Old english and old terms and slang really added to the flavor of the novel, the reader had a sense they were reading ancient tales or stories. Conan was a man's man. Honorable, powerful, purposeful, and surprisingly compassionate.

Solomon Kane is also a great and influential character created by Robert E Howard with puritan swordsman's adventures leaning a little bit more into the horror aspect of low fantasy alll the while being a different character to Conan, he's my personal favourite

I love the Hyborian Age setting! It's funny to hear that Howard did it purely because he was too lazy to write fiction within a normal historical setting because of the huge amount of homework he'd need to make the story fit in and catch the reader up on any relevant info, so he just made an anachronistic post-Atlantean, prehistoric fantasy era and he still wrote an entire essay to worldbuild its history.

I think it’s super cool that your willing to talk about a 2 and a half hour Soviet art movie like Stalker, but also talk about Conan the Barbarian. Love the diversity of this channel.

Im glad I've heard someone else say it too now. Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movies of all time. I truly believe it is among some of the best movies ever made. It's a beautifully masculine story of determination, companionship, and valor, dressed in an awesome robe of sword and sorcery.

The problem with Arnold, especially with recent reveals, is his tendency to be a scammer. If memory serves, he made his fortune after arriving in America in brick laying. He barely spoke English, but he did manage to pull a fast one on his clients. You see, he would offer two different types of brick laying, the normal price one, and a higher priced European one. What was the difference? The price. So his clients would wax on about their fancy European bricks, while no one could tell the difference, and he walked away being paid more than the normal asking price. Hence his ability to act, as he had to sell people lies in real life, but it falls apart when his reputation died during the lockdowns. He is now desperately trying to repair it, but no one will see his movies, no matter how much he lies about it. Like the Conan movie, that was suppose to be done in the late 80s and early 90s, at the peak of his popularity, he turned it down at that point and tried to sweep it under the rug. Now he pulls it out to try and win back support, as many wanted to see that movie at that time.

Well done sir. I read Savage Sword of Conan every month as a boy, and when the film released in 1982 I was 11 years old. I don’t agree with anyone who chooses to hate on the film because they think Arnold can’t act. Every time I watch that film it’s apparent to me just how eager and willing he was to learn from his co stars and especially his director. John Milius clearly had an influence on Arnold. Watch the film with Arnold and Milius’ commentary, it’s a blast! Arnold absolutely OWNS the character. Milius knew it and it’s why he famously fought with the studio for Arnold. I highly recommend anyone watch the documentary about John Milius simply titled “Milius”. He is a fascinating man. I have one criticism of this video: be mindful of what you choose as your sound bed. From the 9 minute mark until the 15 minute mark, there is an incessant whistling that really took me away from your content, which was frustrating because your content is otherwise very well delivered. Thanks.

When it comes to fantasy Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Miura and Moorcock are my absolute favourite. And all have pretty much the same theme. Struggle. They view it in different ways but it still embodies the struggle of mankind

"Robert E. Howard actually likes the idea of badass women" Based

I'm surprised you didn't mention the cartoon series, tamed for sure, but it was still good and the theme song rocks.

I like the part when Conan said "It's berserking time " and then went berserk

also good use of the Deadly Premonition soundtrack!

You missed a moment in the first movie. When he's sitting on a rock thinking, and you see him perk up and come to a realization. That's when he finds the answer to the riddle of steel. Also an interesting thing. Not many people know about berserk, the anime. When it first released on DVD, the English dub actor realized halfway through that he could sound like Conan The Barbarian, so he did that in some bluepers that were added to the DVD.

surprised you didn't mention Frank Frazetta, his paintings gave Conan his look that we all know because Robert E Howard had Conan in armor most of the time, unless he was sneaking like during tower of the elephant, that is when he'd wear a loincloth.

I'm a simple man, I hear Motörhead and I like.

One of my favorite authors, and one of my favorite characters. Thanks for shining a spotlight on the Hyborian Age (and even the Thurian Age).

Just came out of Dune 2 to see this on my feed. As a lifelong lover of fantasy, this movie was my exposure to the more adult aspects of the genre (one year before GOT arrived on HBO). Wheel of Pain ( as well the rest of Basil Poledouris' majestic score) is the soundtrack to my gym sessions. I revisited this movie in theaters last December for its 40th anniversary. I'll always be grateful for discovering this iconic film...and only at the ripe age of ten. Perfection 😅

Conan The Barbarian is probably one of the most influential series to me just as Berserk is, however the film itself isn't exactly true to the source material, whereas the 2011 mostly is in comparison despite that one being worse than the original. I've actually become a loremaster for this series, as well as a bit of a "Howard-purist" in a sense, because even in the books quite a bit of the work after Howard's death ended up trashing a lot of stuff he had established for his world, and just blatantly misrepresented his character so many times that it's basically uncountable at this point in time. There's a good reason why George RR Martin and Tolkien himself were big fans of Howard's work after all.

id say Elric of melnibone is way more like berserk. a white haired prince who finds himself sickly and near death. gets betrayed by somebody close to him and goes on a journey where he finds a powerful weapon that he relies on with his life developing a symbiotic relationship with. but in the end takes everything from him in continual tragedy

I watch the two Arnold movies at least once a month. I miss these kinds of stories. No nonsense, just pure sword and sorcery badassery.

Since you made the 20 hour berserk vid, you are the only person i can watch talk about berserk

After 30 years, my father and I actually got my mother to sit down and watch this for the first time last year… and she LOVED it! She’s not about to cosplay Valeria anytime soon, but I do catch her listening to the OST every now and again.

One thing I would disagree with. Conan is not a warrior poet, that would be Kull. From what I gathered reading the original novels is that Conan gets through various phases in his life. Just look how different he is in the story The Frost-Giant's Daughter and Beyond the black river. In the first story Conan is young and filled with rage that often puts him in various dangerous situations. On the other hand in the Beyond the black river he is much older and wiser - just read the dialogue between him and the young Balthus. Overall though I do think you've done a great job with this vid! Lots of interesting stuff there. Thank you :)

The OG REH Conan stories are fantastic I actually adapted a few stories and Bloody hell are they beautifully written holy shit

Robert E Howards other character Soloman Kane is pretty cool too. Love both of them though. I love the short stories. I have both of their collected books.

Great vid, thank you. I highly recommend that everyone go and read Howard's Conan stories. While the Arnold film is very good, it's not really Conan as Howard depicts him. Conan is not a man who would waste his time pursuing vengeance. He is free of such petty "civilized" tendencies.

Barbarian GRINDSET! proving ACTION speak LOUDER than words!

A KZfaqr (the cyberarian) who does dramatic readings of Conan audiobooks does a fantastic job of explaining and describing the story of Conan. I fucking love Conan. Great job man.

There is a very clear moral to the classic film. That moral is that what is best in life is making friends, being there for them when they need you, and being saved by them when your own strength fails you. Conan's the ur-shounen hero.

The origin that Conan received for the 1982 film was not his origin. He was never a slave, nor was he ever forced to participate in any gladiatorial matches. The 1982 film was more of a Kull of Atlantis movie than anything.

If you like Conan there is a DnD setting called the Dark Sun which is directly inspired by Conan.

Yesssss!!! The soundtrack is unreal. Battle of the Mounds and Anvil of Crom are tops

This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Excellent work!

Please make more content 🙏 Your editing is top tier and your breakdowns of movies and their influences could put some professors I know to shame. By far one of my favorite content creators anywhere 🔥👍

Worth a mention, too, is that the Fallout franchise has their own spin on Conan; Grognak the Barbarian. In fact, he's part of a larger pulp series, and if Bethesda had any sense, they'd make this an actual series. Just goes to show how prolific Conan is, that even genres that have nothing to do with high/dark fantasy reference it.

Conan is great, as is his Quaker cousin Solomon Kane.

Great video, I'm glad I found your channel! As an 80s kid, Conan was a huge influence for on me growing up, and Berserk is easily my favorite manga/anime series of all time.

As always you prove yourself to have great taste! The Conan the Barbarian film is something that just can't be replicated, its many layers of a deeper meaning as well at the spirit you feel when watching the film is something that came together because all the right pieces were there. Unfortunately most other Sword and Sorcery films I've seen, as fun as they are, aren't anywhere near the quality of this one. Also thanks for mentional Red Sonja, she's one of my all time favourite characters, well except from when Gail Simone is writing her lol