1980s represented a decade marked by many great, unforgettable and influential films that in many ways, like the title of recent Netflix documentary series suggests, “made us”. However, it was also the time when many of such great films became ruined or nearly ruined by unnecessary or disappointing sequels. Even Conan the Barbarian, the film the author of this review considers to be among his favourites, didn’t escape such fate, at least judging by its 1984 sequel Conan the Destroyer, directed by Richard Fleischer.
Like the previous film, this one begins with the short narration describing Hyborian Age, period before recorded history in which long-lost kingdoms and civilisations existed in the world. The plot begins with references to the events in previous film and with protagonist, barbarian warrior and adventurer Conan (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) still mourning the death of his beloved warrior woman Valeria. He is approached by Tamaris (played by Sarah Douglas), queen of Zamoran city of Shadizar. She offers to bring Valeria back from the dead in exchange for Conan taking part in hard and dangerous mission. His task is to escort her niece Princess Jehnna (played by Olivia D’Abo) who was prophesied to find the horn necessary to revive dreaming god Dagoth. Conan agrees and goes on journey together with his partner, small thief Malak (played by Tracey Walter) and Bombaata (played by Wilt Chamberlain), captain of Tamaris’ guard who was given secret orders by his queen. Trio is joined by ferocious woman warrior Zula (played by Grace Jones) and Conan’s old friend, wizard Akiro (played by Mako). In order to locate the horn, Jehnna must first find the precious jewel in a castle held by formidable evil wizard Thoth-Amon (played by Pat Roach).
Seen as a standalone piece, Conan the Destroyer is decent fantasy adventure film. Veteran Richard Fleischer directs the film well, keeping the tight pace and delivering couple of effective action scenes. Cinematography by Jack Cardiff is also very good. Unfortunately, the unavoidable comparison with previous film point to great disappointment, at least to the fans of Conan the Barbarian. This has lot to do with decisions of producer Dino De Laurentiis who insisted on tight budget, making Destroyer look much cheaper than epic Barbarian. Even more important was decision to make the second film more family friendly, which resulted in no sex or nudity and the violence being significantly toned down. It was supposed to be compensated with more use of fantasy motives like wizards, demons or fantastic monsters, but in the end it led to the use of special effects that look cheesy and unconvincing today. One of such examples is final showdown between Conan and demonic deity, which is played by Andre the Giant in rubber suit.
The biggest disappointment is, however, script by comic book writers duo of Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, which reduced the intriguing world of Robert E. Howard’s fiction to cliches like virgin princesses and evil wizards. Dialogues are especially bad and it is best seen in the character of Malak who was supposed to be some sort of comic relief, but not even the talent of formidable character actor Tracey Walter can save him from being obnoxious. Schwarzenegger is, however, solid in this film, although he is forced to talk much more; script mercifully allows him to show evolving acting skills in the scene where Conan gets drunk. Teenage Olivia D’Abo is quite adequate as princess, just as famous basketball player Wilt Chamberlain in his only major film role. Famous model and singer Grace Jones almost elevates this film with her iconic presence, although her character isn’t used enough. Sarah Douglas with her exotic look might have been formidable villainess, but she appears to little in film to leave proper impact. Soundtrack by Basil Poledouris, while adequate, also suffers in comparison with masterpiece Poledouris made for Barbarian. In the end, Conan the Destroyer turned out to be successful at the box office but Schwarzenegger was still unhappy with family-friendly direction franchise was taking and refused to take part in the third film. Knowing what Hollywood greed and incompetence could do to great films, it is hard not to think that it was wise decision.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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This was always a guilty pleasure of mine but watching both films in a double feature was eye opening. The second is fun with lots of problems.
That's interesting to hear about the reasoning that Schwarzenegger did not take on a third film.
The remake of Conan in 2011 certainly didn't revive the franchise 😀
This was such a huge letdown after the first one. It seemed as though they were trying to go more mainstream and make the film less for an adult audience and the special effects were pretty sub-par as well. It really didn't even seem like the same series. I might be remembering incorrectly, but I think that this film killed the series as they had intended to make a lot more of them. It wasn't just because Arnold didn't want to do it anymore either but after the critical reception for this one was so terrible, they killed the plans for the rest.
Good critical article of this cult film from the 80s, I was unaware of the shortcomings of this film that in its time worked very well. It was a blockbuster, certainly, but as you perfectly say, it lacked a solid and compelling narrative. Regards! @drax
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