Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 American sword-and-sorcery film directed by John Milius from a screenplay he co-wrote with Oliver Stone. Based on Robert E. Howard's Conan, the epic film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones, and tells the story of a barbarian named Conan (Schwarzenegger) who seeks to avenge his parents' deaths 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 elements from various Howard stories, as well as 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 the United States and Canada 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 $69 million and $79 million at box offices around the world against its budget of $20 million.

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 Cimmerian blacksmith forges a sword and shows it to his young son, Conan, as he tells him of the "Riddle of Steel", an aphorism on the importance of steel to their people. A band of raiders led by cult leader Thulsa Doom then massacres the Cimmerian village, killing Conan's parents. The children are taken as slaves to work a large mill, the Wheel of Pain. Conan survives into adulthood, becoming a powerfully muscled gladiator and eventually gaining his freedom. He is chased by wild dogs and seeks refuge in an Atlantean warrior's tomb, from which he takes an ancient sword. Conan wanders the world, bedding a prophetic witch and befriending Subotai, a Hyrkanian thief and archer.

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. The three raid the Tower of Serpents, slaying a giant snake and looting the jewels and other valuables it guarded. After escaping with their loot, the thieves celebrate, and Conan makes love with Valeria. The city guards capture the trio and bring them to King Osric, who offers them a reward if they will rescue his daughter, Princess Yasmina, who has become a cultist of Doom. Subotai and Valeria demur, but Conan, who already desires vengeance against Doom, sets off alone for the villain's Temple of Set.

Disguised as a priest, Conan infiltrates the temple, but is discovered, captured, and tortured. Doom lectures him on the power of flesh over steel, which he demonstrates by commanding a young woman cultist to leap to her death. He then has Conan crucified on the Tree of Woe. Subotai and Valeria rescue the near-dead Conan and bring him to Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds (and also the film's narrator), who lives on a burial site of warriors and kings. The wizard summons spirits to heal Conan and warns that they will "extract a heavy toll", which Valeria is willing to pay. The spirits try to abduct Conan, but he is restored to health after Valeria and Subotai fend them off.

Subotai and Valeria agree to help Conan complete King Osric's quest and infiltrate the Temple of Set. As the cult indulges in a cannibalistic orgy, the thieves attack and flee with the princess, but Doom escapes Conan by transforming into a large serpent and shoots Valeria with a magical snake arrow. Valeria dies in Conan's arms, acknowledging the toll that the wizard warned would be exacted in exchange for Conan's life. Conan cremates her at the Mounds and prepares with Subotai and the wizard to battle Doom. Conan asks Crom, the Cimmerian God, to grant him revenge.

By using booby traps and exploiting their terrain, they manage to slay Doom's warriors. Just when Doom's lieutenant Rexor is about to overcome Conan, Valeria reappears for a brief moment as a Valkyrie to save him from the mortal blow. Doom shoots another snake arrow at the princess to deny the heroes a successful rescue, but Subotai blocks the shot with his shield and Doom retreats to his temple. Conan kills Rexor and recovers his father's sword, now broken by his Atlantean sword.

Doom calls upon his cultists to take up fire and burn the world that oppressed them. With the aid of the princess, now freed from Doom's sway, Conan sneaks back to the temple and confronts Doom in front of his cultists. Doom attempts to entrance him, but the barbarian resists and uses his father's broken sword to behead his nemesis. With Doom's spells broken, the disillusioned cultists douse their torches and disperse. Conan burns down the temple and leaves to return the princess to her father. The film ends with the narrator promising to tell how Conan eventually became a king by his own hand.

Characters

The character Conan and the world of the Hyborian Age were based on the creations of pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard from the 1930s. Published in Weird Tales, his series about the barbarian was popular with the readership; the barbarian's adventures in a savage and mystical world, replete with gore and brutal slayings, satisfied the reader's fantasies of being a "powerful giant who lives by no rules but his own". From the 1960s, Conan gained a wider audience as novels about him, written in imitation of Howard's style by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, were published. Frank Frazetta's cover art for these novels cemented Conan's image as a "virile, axe-wielding, fur-bearing, cranium-smashing barbarian". John Milius, the film's director, intended the film's Conan to be "a Northern European mythic hero". Danny Peary described Conan as "muscular, majestic, brainy, yet with ambivalent scruples". Don Herron, a scholar on Howard and his stories, disagreed, noting that the personality of Conan in the film differs greatly from that of the literature. The Conan in the books detests restrictions to his freedom and would have resisted slavery in a violent fashion, whereas the film version accepts his fate and has to be freed. Robert Garcia's review of the film in his American Fantasy magazine states, "This Conan is less powerful, less talkative, and less educated than Howard's".

The female lead, Valeria, has her roots in two strong female characters from Howard's Conan stories. Her namesake was Conan's companion in "Red Nails", while her personality and fate were based on those of Bêlit, the pirate queen in "Queen of the Black Coast". According to Kristina Passman, an assistant professor of classical languages and literature, the film's Valeria is a perfect archetype of the "good" Amazon character, a fierce but domesticated female warrior, in cinema. Rikke Schubart, a film scholar, said Valeria is a "good" Amazon because she is tamed by love and not because of any altruistic tendencies. Valeria's prowess in battle matches that of Conan, and she is also depicted as his equal in capability and status. The loyalty and love she displays for Conan makes her more than a companion to him; she represents his "possibilities of human happiness". Her sacrifice for Conan and her brief return from death act out the heroic code, illustrating that self-sacrificing heroism brings "undying fame". Valeria's name is not spoken in the film, though it is established in the opening scenes of the sequel, whose plot is centered upon Conan's quest to see her resurrected.

Milius based Conan's other companion, Subotai, on Genghis Khan's main general, Subutai, rather than on any of Howard's characters. According to film critic Roger Ebert, Subotai fulfills the role of a "classic literary type—the Best Pal." He helps the barbarian to kill a giant snake and cuts him down from crucifixion; the thief also cries for his companion during Valeria's cremation, with the explanation that "(h)e is Conan, a Cimmerian. He won't cry, so I cry for him."

Conan's enemy, Thulsa Doom, is an amalgamation of two of Howard's creations. He takes his name from the villain in Howard's Kull of Atlantis series of stories, but is closer in character to Thoth-Amon, a Stygian sorcerer in "The Phoenix on the Sword". The Doom in the film reminded critics of Jim Jones, a cult leader whose hold on his followers was such that hundreds of them obeyed his orders to commit suicide. Milius said his research on the ancient orders of the Hashishim and the Thuggee was the inspiration for Doom's snake cult. In the original Howard stories, the worship of Set, though all too fearsome, is no sect; rather, it is the centuries-old formalized state religion of Stygia (which is virtually a theocracy).

Production

Background From the 1970s, licensing problems had stood in the way of producing film versions of the Conan stories. Lancer Books, which had acquired the rights in 1966, went into receivership, and legal disputes existed over their disposition of the publishing rights, which ultimately led to them being frozen under injunction. Edward Summer suggested Conan as a potential project to executive producer Edward R. Pressman in 1975, and after being shown the comics and Frazetta's artwork, Pressman was convinced. Two years were needed to secure the film rights. The two main parties involved in the lawsuit, Glenn Lord and de Camp, formed Conan Properties Incorporated to handle all licensing of Conan-related material, and Pressman was awarded the film rights shortly afterwards. He spent more than US$100,000 in legal fees to help resolve the lawsuit, and the rights cost him another $7,500. The success of Star Wars in 1977 increased Hollywood's interest in producing films that portray "heroic adventures in supernatural lands of fables". The film industry's attention was drawn to the popularity of Conan among young male Americans, who were buying reprints of the stories with Frank Frazetta's art and adaptations by Marvel Comics.

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. He and Feitshans approached Pressman, but differences over several issues stopped discussions from going further.