Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Conan the Barbarian" (1982). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

How can you not like the hedonistic overflow from the 1970s, as it maintained it counterculture ethos well into the 1980s?  And popular culture depictions such as the 1982 action epic "Conan The Barbarian", perfectly summed up the already acceptance of sexuality and violence, as the cornerstone to the tumultuous 70s.  And the sociological argument, that it was indeed hedonism that held back proto-Fascism from evolving under Ronald Reagan throughout the 80s, ala the
'moral majority' and the attempt at reasserting 1950s family value sensibilities after two decades of counterculture ethos of the 1960s and 70s.  Conan the Barbarian, based off Robert E. Howard's uber violent, sword wielding character from a mythical Middle Eastern country (Persia?), was an American pulp fiction writer of the 1930s.  Later reinvented and reinvigorated by the late L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter, also both pulp fiction style writers, and more importantly, conceptualized in quintessential 70s-esque, hedonic, scantily clad realization, was the fantasy art of the late Frank Frazetta.  

The original Conan the Barbarian script was written by Oliver Stone in 1975, then rewritten by director John Millus, then later pitching the film project to the De Laurentiis production dynasty under the late Dino De Laurentiis, who in turn offered the production to his daughter Raffaella.  Millus, with his updated and revamped Stone's script, gave it, literally, more muscle and masculine charge, via a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was paid only $250,000.00 for the role, with reduced dialogue, and statue like presence, fitting perfectly into Frank Frazetta's 1960s concept art of Conan.  Yet, Schwarzenegger showed that method acting, albeit just on aesthetics only, can be achieved, as long as the directional forte holds, and for his breakout movie, that being Conan, under Millus, it was with an ageless finesse.  

Despite the grindhouse stylisations which Conan the Barbarian showcased in its late 1970s risque of nudity, sex and violence for a epic blockbuster movie, Universal, the film's Distributor, under new found film codes of the 1980s requested that the original cut remove a portion of the blood and gore, chopping the run time for its final cut, from 140 minutes down to 126 minutes.  And if you are fortunate enough to require the 2000 Special Edition DVD cut, you'll see some of the gore, nudity and extended sex scenes return, including the close up of the orgy room of the "Thulsa Doom" (played by the late and great actor James Earl Jones) cult, including gutted and dismembered bodies as ingredients for a giant soup bowl, consumed by the 'intoxicated' cult members.

Conan the Barbarian, in some ways offers paradoxical elements to it subplots, reflecting the era that it was born out of, that being the 1970s.  Clearly with backlash elements to the 1960s and the hippieness, with the many cults the surfaced into the 1970s, as the end of the 60s handed out disillusionment aplenty to the many late twenty year olds, before entering, as mentioned, into the hedonism of the 70s.  Seen with Thulsa Doom's cultish fixation, with flower holding followers offering themselves to be sacrificial subjects to his cannibalistic, pagan like 'snake' cult.  Conan, and his cohort, "Valeria" (Sandahl Bergman), are less moral crusaders, but more akin to serving justice, against the Fascist like Thulsa Doom, who earlier in the movie, kills Conan's father, and decapitates his mother, after raiding Conan's village and turning the young Conan into a slave.  Yet,Valeria (Bergman) sexual personification of a 1970s liberated woman stands out as an equal to Schwarzenegger, as not only does she match Conan's sword wielding prowess, she supasses Schwarzenegger's lack of dilaoge, with a strong willed and fierce dedication to her character.

Conan The Barbarian was released 44 years ago, still remains as a cult classic under the sword and sorcery genre, spawning a many of B-grade rip offs, as the 80s rolled on.  The original is by far the best, with its toned down sequel in 1984, "Conan The Destroyer" forgettable to say the least, due to its comic book approach and silliness.  We get a snapshot of how influential the epicurean excesses of the 1970s was on culture and cinema, well into the 1980s.

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(A.Glass 2026)

All CHIAMUS Cult Cinema trailers/commentary to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chiasmus%20cult%20cinema