Why? Largely because of this:
https://twitter.com/MuseZack/status/995420535755427840
Now I almost have to watch the movies. Also: I’ve been quoting “ENOUGH TALK!” from Conan the Destroyer at the gaming table for twenty years now; I should sit down and watch these movies again. Really, I’m overdue.
That isn’t…exactly how Robert E. Howard wrote his Conan stories (although Arnold is actually doing a pretty good King Kull)but those two films have some great scenes in them and the first movie is a classic, thanks to a great soundtrack and the genius of John Milius.
I beg your pardon; something triggered my REH rant reflex. I’ll stop now.
If nothing else, they inspired works of genus such as this :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGOQ7SsJrw
.
*sings* …and hear the lamentations of the women!
re: jeboyle
Thulsa Doom is a character from Kull, and Conan himself is Howard’s retry at doing Kull afresh (Kull took place when Atlantis is still a thing, and Conan many centuries after). Hell, the Atlantean warlord whose tomb Conan stumbled into might as well be Kull.
I’ve never seen any more than small pieces of Conan the Barbarian and I never saw Conan the Destroyer. Like a lot of 1970s-1980s movies, by the time I was in a position to see them, everyone I was hanging out with had already seen them to death and didn’t want to see them again.
The best part of Conan the Destroyer is the music. I would suggest just listening to the soundtrack instead of watching the movie.
Conan the Barbarian is a good movie. I would recommend it. It comes closer to the spirit of the source material than anything except perhaps the John Buscema Conan comics.
I wish they’d have completed the Red Nails animated movie. That would have been superb.
What surprises me is how many people I have met who have never actually READ a Conan story by REH, but still like Conan stories. The movies, the comics, the pastiches are all diluted and seen through a glass, but Howard’s storytelling still has the power to entertain them.