OFF: That one obscure album.. Conan

[Andrew Apold]

At 12:55 AM 3/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
>On lvr 27 mar 1999 11.56 -0500 Sprawl <sprawl at BBOARD.COM> wrote:
I would have preferred to see a single
>story
>brought to life, instead of the most dramatic parts of several being toned
>down and pieced together.
>(Destroyer)
>Funny..  this one actually followed a complete original story...  to a
>point.  Again, under-played.
>Should have been several shades darker, and with very little "fun."

Um, are you saying you preferred Destroyer to Barbarian?  eh.

Barbarian is far superior.
In being aware of the stories from which scenes were lifted,
you probably seperated them plot-wise.  I find the overall story
in the sense of coming full circle with Thulsa Doom held together
well enough.  I didn't read the stories until after I'd seen the
movie.

Milius had originally envisioned a trilogy, with three themes, the theme
of the first one (Barbarian) was "Strength".  (I think the last was
supposed to be "Death").

Conan the Destroyer was not directed by Milius, he left after feuding
with Dino Delaurentis, and has no central theme at all.  It had lame
attempts at humor and was never able to lose itself in the ambience
and spectable like the first movie.  Wilt Chamberlain was notable in
being one of the few people they could've gotten to be a believable
adversery for Schwarzennegger in a brawling match.  Going cheaper
on location (Barbarian was filmed in Spain, Destroyer in Mexico)
also hurt Destroyer, you don't get those wonderful old walled cities
in Mexico.

BTW, among other things that Milius fought with DeLaurentis was that
on the first movie, Dino wanted a "pop" score, and Milius had to
fight tooth and nail to get Poledouris and a full orchestral score...

The downward slide finished with "Red Sonja", by which point the
dialogue had gotten so bad it was painful.



=============================
"To dwell within Samsara, however, is to
 be subject to the works of those mighty
 among dreamers."

 - Mahasamatman, in Zelazny's "Lord of Light"

Andrew Apold