DVD Review: Conan the Barbarian Special Edition

When is a Special Edition not a Special Edition ? The answer seems to be 'when it’s a DVD'. More and more times we are shelling out our hard-earned cash for a Special Edition, an Ultimate Edition or a Collector’s Edition just for another one to come along.

In August 2003, 'Conan the Barbarian Special Edition' was released, and what a great disc it was. Roll on to this month and 'Conan the Barbarian 2 disc Special Edition' is released. Why, I hear you ask ? This is happening too many times, mostly to cash in on some cinema outing of some related work - but should 'Special' not mean exactly that ? Firstly, 'Conan The Barbarian' is a great slice of pulp. There is little difference to what was released before, so why go to the length of repackaging and re-releasing this movie in this edition ? What is new is the movie has now a DTS sound option, but apart from Basil Poledouris' wonderful score, it’s not exactly a pumping soundtrack to notice the difference from the previous Dolby Digital 5.1. So are there any differences in the extras ? Yes there is a new documentary, but it is a short 18 minute featurette, which looks more at the books of Robert E. Howard and the comics thereafter than actually the movie. The cast and crew biographies on the previous release have also been dropped; did someone just misplace these ? So, before you spend anymore time reading this, just one question. If you have the already mentioned Special Edition, do not read on ! The differences between these two are not worth spending any more cash or time here on. So just go and have fun, put on your old disc, slap on the baby oil, and get lost in a tale of high adventure from the Hyborean age. The print on disc 1 is the same as the last edition, with the exception of the aforementioned DTS track. This is not the theatrical print but the extended international version. The contrast on the print itself is much lighter than on the theatrical version, which makes certain things more noticeable and at times loses part of its mystery. There are some scene extensions and more dialogue including an important talk of revenge spoken between Conan and Subotai. The ending, which contains the most additional footage, makes more sense and the epilogue titles have changed too. Before we had "A King by his own hand"... "but that is another story" has been changed to read "And this story shall also be told". The UK prints have some slight edits. Some of the horse falls are omitted (of which are shown in the extras on disc 2) and the sex scene between Conan and the witch has been shortened.

The movie starts with a sword being made over the title credits, which sets the tone. This is about strength. A band of marauders ride into a settlement and slaughter the inhabitants, stealing the remaining children afterwards. One of these is a young Conan, and as we get glimpses of him through his years turning the wheel of pain and turning his body into a vehicle for the killing machine he is to become. He is thrown into his first pit-fight, where his taste for blood and revenge is awakened. Fight after fight, Conan becomes victorious and an unstoppable whirlwind of death and destruction. As a reward for his countless victories he is sent to be trained and schooled in methods of war and philosophy (although we never really get the impression of him exchanging the whys of the world, more like he sees so he takes). In one scene he quotes a line from Genghis Khan "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women" which sums Conan up precisely. His master sets him free, and his journey begins. Meeting a witch who tells him where to begin his search and joining up with a chained thief and archer, Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he heads into the dark stink of a city that is Zamora, fouled by a snake cult that is plaguing the land. With the help of another thief, Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), they break into one of the towers of the snake cult and Conan gets a glimpse of a medallion that resembles a standard from his past. King Osric the Usurper (Max Von Sydow) catches them and in doing so saves them from the wrath of Rexor (Ben Davidson), the right-hand man of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones). He gives them a mission to save his daughter who has been taken away with the cult. This points Conan towards the killers of his people, the meaning of his existence, and things take on speed to the inevitable bloody outcome.

The movie looks great, but due to the lightness in the contrast of the print, some of the skies look grainy. The Spanish landscapes are fantastic: Sergio Leone had used many of the locations previously for his ‘Dollars’ movies and John Milius himself with ‘The Wind and the Lion’.  There is little dialogue from the mains buts that is fine, this is an ensemble of athletes who are there to look the part. Arnold was at the time a Mr. Universe and he gets all the time he wants to use his poses, Ben Davidson a football player, Gerry Lopez a world-class surfer, Sandahl Bergman a trained dancer and Sven-Ole Thorsen was the worlds' strongest man. The acting honours are there for Max Von Sydow and James Earl Jones, and help keep the acting heads high.

Kudos should go to Ron Cobb (Alien, Star Wars) for his outstanding production design, the orgy scene for example, and for Basil Poledouris’ (a high school friend of Milius) incredible score. Arnold and director Milus are on the audio commentary and it's like two guys sitting down and having a few drinks sharing a few thoughts. It’s quite endearing and amusing, and Arnold even comments he gets laid quite a lot in the proceedings.

Robert E Howard

Disc 2 has the new documentary, an 18 minute ‘Conan – The Rise of a Fantasy Legend’ which looks upon the origins of the books and comics leading up to the making of the movie. It seems that Conan was the alterego of the off-the-wall author to say the least. More detailed and engrossing is ‘Conan Unchained: the making of Conan the Barbarian’. This has most of the cast and crew discussing their time on the pic. In many of the shots we see Milius wearing his trademark beret like a general directing his troops.

John Milius

‘The Conan Archives’ is a montage of production sketches and drawings, photos, in front and behind the scenes and some publicity stuff (mostly based on the work of Frank Frazzeta) all shown accompanied by Poledouris’ main theme. The 'deleted scenes' are Milius making his cameo and different camera takes on the abandoned sequence of the killing of King Osric. There is a special effects split screen comparison which is not worth the time going into and only shows how dated the optical effects that were used are by today’s standard.

There are a few theatrical trailers, the first of which uses some stock music instead of Poledouris’ score, and are great despite being slightly grainy. Last but not least are some text pages of informative 'Production Notes'. 'Conan the Barbarian' is out to own now in the UK and available via Amazon UK and as and as of yet has no date for release for this version in the US.