This monument to the adventure film is 40 years old and hasn’t aged a bit

Remember that time when the muscle monster appeared on the screens? After a small screen appearance, Arnold Schwarzenegger went full biceps for a brutal and bloody role: Conan the Barbarian in director John Milius’ adventure film.

Conan the Barbarian adapted by Robert E. Howard’s fantasy novels and tells the story of a violent adventurer who seeks revenge on the cruel Thulsa Doom, responsible for the destruction of his home village and the death of his family.

Accompanied by Basil Poledouris’ magnificent music, this basic revenge story takes on an epic breath thanks to Milius-inspired staging and Conan’s animalistic charisma, conveyed by the extraordinary stature of his interpreter, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At the time, the vogue for bodybuilding actors had just (re)started with Rocky II and its Sylvester Stallone with a much more sculpted body than the first film in the saga. With Conan the Barbarian flexing his muscles, Schwarz becomes an action star and continues his adventure two years later with Conan the Destroyer and, despite himself, in Kalidor, Legend of the Talisman.

Conan was released at the end of May 1982 in the United States, and in the same year, in the summer, we already find Dar the Invincible, the story of a warrior who is also scantily clad but can transform into an animal, which will have two sequels. : Dar the invincible 2 – The door of time (1991) and Dar the invincible III – the eye of Braxus (1996). Sorceress comes out in November, The Dark Crystal in December, and it’s been an avalanche since then.

Between 1983 and 1985 alone, Hollywood Deathstalker, Hundra, Tygra, Ice and Fire, Krull, Kaine the Mercenary, Ladyhawke, the list goes on; Add to that Italian, British and Asian productions and you have a truly global vein for fantasy and heroic fantasy films.

But forget the copies and revisit the original that started it all (with Dragon of the Lake of Fire and Excalibur, released a year earlier) and don’t let your enjoyment of Conan Cimmeriel’s warlike adventures get in the way. A monument of fantasy cinema!

The Conan the Barbarian films are not free of inconsistencies:

*This mod isn’t new, as we can sort through the 30’s Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller, as well as many Hercules and McQuist movies from the 50’s and 60’s.