Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by John Milius and written by Milius and Oliver Stone. Based on Robert E. Howard’s Conan, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones and tells the story of a barbarian warrior named Conan (Schwarzenegger) who seeks vengeance for the death of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom (Jones), the leader of a snake cult. Ideas for a Conan film were proposed as early as 1970; executive producer Edward R. Pressman and associate producer Edward Summer began a concerted effort to get the film made in 1975. It took them two years to obtain the film rights, after which they recruited Schwarzenegger for the lead role and Stone to draft a script. Pressman lacked capital for the endeavor. In 1979, after having his proposals for investments rejected by the major studios, he sold the project to Dino De Laurentiis; his daughter Raffaella produced the film. Milius was appointed as director and he rewrote Stone’s script.

The final screenplay integrated scenes from Howard’s stories and from the Japanese films Seven Samurai (1954) and Kwaidan (1965). Filming took place in Spain over five months in the regions around Madrid and the province of Almería. The sets, designed by Ron Cobb, were based on Dark Age cultures and Frank Frazetta’s paintings of Conan. Milius eschewed optical effects, preferring to realize his ideas with mechanical constructs and optical illusions. Schwarzenegger performed most of his own stunts, and two types of sword, costing $10,000 each, were forged for his character. The editing process took over a year, and several violent scenes were cut out. Conan the Barbarian was distributed by Universal Pictures in North America and 20th Century Fox in other territories. It premiered on March 16, 1982 in Spain and May 14, 1982 in North America. Upon release, the film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, mainly positive for its action sequences, production design, directing, visual style, and effects,

but negatively received for its violent content and screenwriting, as well as some substandard performances. Despite this, the film became a commercial success for its backers, grossing between $68.9 million and $79.1 million at box offices around the world against its budget of only $20 million. However, the revenue fell short of the level that would qualify the film as a blockbuster. The film earned Schwarzenegger worldwide recognition. Conan the Barbarian has been frequently released on home video, the sales of which had increased the film’s gross to more than $300 million by 2007. In the years following its release, it became a cult film, and its success spawned a sequel, titled Conan the Destroyer (1984). It ultimately led to the production of a 2011 reboot of the same name.

Plot.

A sword is forged by a blacksmith, who then shows it to his young son, Conan, as he tells him of the “Riddle of Steel”, an aphorism on the importance of the metal to their people, the Cimmerians. One day, the Cimmerians are massacred by a band of raiders led by Thulsa Doom; Conan’s father is killed by dogs, and his sword is taken by Doom to decapitate Conan’s mother. The children are taken into slavery and then chained to work a large mill, the Wheel of Pain. Conan survives into adulthood, becoming a massive, muscular man. His master eventually trains him to be a gladiator; after winning countless fights and receiving training and education in the East, Conan is freed. He is soon chased by wild dogs and seeks refuge in an Atlantean colonist warrior’s tomb, where he retrieves an ancient sword. Conan wanders the world, encountering a prophetic witch in a hut and then befriends Subotai, a Hyrkanian thief and archer.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Mentioned He’d Play Again His Role As Conan The Barbarian

Following the witch’s advice, Conan and Subotai go to the city of Zamora to seek out Doom. There, they meet Valeria, a female brigand. They raid the Tower of the Serpent, stealing jewels and other valuables (Including the greatest jewel of all: The Eye of the Serpent) from a shrine, and slaying a giant snake in the process. After escaping with their loot, the thieves celebrate. The city guards capture the trio and bring them to King Osric, who requests they rescue his daughter, Princess Yasimina—now a zealot in Doom’s cult—for a handsome reward. Subotai and Valeria refuse to take up the quest; Conan, however, motivated by his hatred for Doom and his desire for vengeance, sets off alone to the villain’s Temple of Set, also known as the Mountain of Power.

Disguised as a priest, Conan infiltrates the temple, but he is discovered, captured, and tortured. Doom lectures him on the power of flesh, which he demonstrates by hypnotically enticing a girl to leap to her death. He then orders for Conan to be crucified on the Tree of Woe. The barbarian is on the verge of death when he is discovered by Subotai and brought to Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds, who lives on a burial site for warriors and kings (and who narrates the movie as Conan’s chronicler). The wizard summons spirits to heal Conan and warns that they will “extract a heavy toll”, which Valeria is willing to pay. These spirits also try to abduct Conan, but he is restored to health after Valeria and Subotai fend them off.

Development.

John Milius first expressed interest in directing a film about Conan in 1978 after completing the filming of Big Wednesday, according to Buzz Feitshans, a producer who frequently worked with Milius. (Milius had long been an admirer of films like 1958’s The Vikings. Milius and Feitshans approached Pressman, but differences over several issues stopped discussions from going further. Oliver Stone joined the Conan project after Paramount Pictures offered to fund the film’s initial $2.5 million budget if a “name screenwriter” was on the team. After securing Stone’s services, Pressman approached Frank Frazetta to be a “visual consultant”, but they failed to come to terms. The producer then engaged Ron Cobb, who had just completed a set design job on Alien (1979). Cobb made a series of paintings and drawings for Pressman before leaving to join Milius on another project.

The estimates to realize Stone’s finished script ran to $40 million; Pressman, Summer, and Stone could not convince a studio to finance their project. Pressman’s production company was in financial difficulties and in order to keep it afloat he borrowed money from the bank. The failure to find a suitable director was also a problem for the project. Stone and Joe Alves, who was the second unit director on Jaws 2, were considered as possible co-directors, but Pressman said it “was a pretty crazy idea and [they] didn’t get anywhere with it”. Stone also said that he asked Ridley Scott, who had finished directing Alien, to take up the task, but was rejected.

Casting.

While they were working to secure the film rights, Pressman and Summer were also contemplating the lead role. Summer said they considered Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone, comedian and ex-rugby player Jethro and William Smith—all of whom had played tough figures, but in 1976, the two producers watched a rough cut of the bodybuilding film, Pumping Iron, and agreed that Arnold Schwarzenegger was perfect for the role of Conan due to his huge, muscular frame. According to Schwarzenegger, Pressman’s “low-key” approach and “great inner strength” convinced him to join the project. Paul Sammon, writer for Cinefantastique, said that the former champion bodybuilder was practically the “living incarnation of one of Frazetta’s paperback illustrations”. Schwarzenegger was paid $250,000 and placed on retainer; the terms of the contract restricted him from starring in other sword-and-sorcery films. Schwarzenegger said Conan was his biggest opportunity to establish himself in the entertainment industry.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Film Career

Thanks to Pressman’s firm belief in him, Schwarzenegger retained the role of Conan even after the project was effectively sold to De Laurentiis. Milius wanted a more athletic look on his lead actor, so Schwarzenegger undertook an 18-month training regimen before shooting began. Besides running and lifting weights, his routines included rope climbing, horseback riding, and swimming. He slimmed down from 240 to 210 pounds (109 to 95 kg). Aside from Conan, two other substantial roles were also played by novice actors. Subotai was Gerry Lopez, a champion surfer, whose only major acting experience was playing himself in Milius’s Big Wednesday. Schwarzenegger stayed at Lopez’s home for over a month before the start of filming so they could rehearse their roles and build a rapport. Sandahl Bergman, a dancer who had had bit parts in several theater productions and films, played Valeria. She was recommended to Milius by Bob Fosse, who had directed her in All That Jazz (1979), and was accepted after reading for the part.

Filming.

Filming started at England’s Shepperton Studios in October 1980, with Schwarzenegger, made up to look like Conan as a king in his old age, reading an excerpt from “The Nemedian Chronicles”, which Howard had penned to introduce his Conan stories. This footage was initially intended to be a trailer, but Milius decided to use it as the opening sequence of the film, instead. According to Cobb, Laurentiis and Universal Pictures were concerned about Schwarzenegger’s accent, so Milius compromised by moving the sequence to the end. The initial location for principal photography was former Yugoslavia, but because of concerns over the country’s stability after the death of its head of state, Josip Broz Tito, and the fact that the Yugoslavian film industry proved ill-equipped for large-scale film production, the producers elected to move the project to Spain, which was cheaper and where resources were more easily available.

It took several months to relocate; the crew and equipment arrived in September, and filming started on January 7, 1981. The producers allocated $11 million for production in Spain, of which about $3 million were spent on building 49 sets. The construction workforce numbered from 50 to 200; artists from England, Italy, and Spain were also recruited. A large warehouse 20 miles (32 km) outside Madrid served as the production’s headquarters, and it also housed most of the interior sets for the Tower of Serpents and Doom’s temple; a smaller warehouse was leased for other interior sets. The remaining interiors for the Tower of Serpents were constructed in an abandoned hangar at Torrejón Air Base. A full-scale, 40-foot (12 m) version of the tower was built in the hangar; this model was used to film Conan and his companions’ climb up the structure.

Box office and other media.

According to Rentrak Theatrical, a firm of media analysts, Conan debuted at the top spot at the US box office, taking $9,479,373 over the opening weekend. Rentrak’s data on Conan covered 8 weeks after the film’s release; during that period, Conan grossed $38,513,085 at the box office in the United States. Universal Pictures received $22.5 million after deducting the amounts due to the cinema owners. This sum—the rental —was more than the money Universal had invested in making the film, thus qualifying Conan as a commercial success; any further income from the film was pure profit for the studio. Marian Christy, interviewer for the Boston Globe, mentioned that the film was a box-office success in Europe and Japan, as well. Worldwide, Conan the Barbarian grossed between $68.9 million and $79.1 million in ticket sales. David A. Cook, Professor of Film Studies at Emory University, said that Conan’s North American performance fell short of the amount returned by blockbusters; the rentals of such films from their release in the continent were supposed to be least $50 million.

Conan’s rental was the 13th-highest for 1982 and when combined with those for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (the most successful film in that year with a rental of $187 million), On Golden Pond, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas—all distributed by Universal Pictures—constituted 30% of the year’s total film rental. According to Arthur D. Murphy, a film-industry analyst, it was the first time that a single distributor captured such a substantial share of the film market. The videocassette version of the film was released on October 2, 1982. Sales and rental figures of the videocassette were high; from its launch, the title was listed in Billboard’s Videocassette Top 40 (Sales and Rental categories) for 23 weeks. According to Sammon, sales of the film through frequent home video releases increased the film’s gross earnings to more than $300 million by 2007. Conan the Barbarian was novelized by Lin Carter and the de Camps (L. Sprague and his wife, Catherine). It was also adapted by Marvel in comic form; scripted by Michael Fleisher and drawn by John Buscema, the comic was one of the rarest paperbacks published by the company.