Conan the Barbarian

John Milius builds on Robert E. Howard’s character, but most of the plot was invented later. Oliver Stone wrote the first screenplay, set on an Earth ruined by nuclear war and filled with mutant armies. Milius threw that half out, kept the crucifixion and the tower of Set, and added the childhood and slavery stretch. Stone later said Milius took what he wanted and made a strange hybrid of a spaghetti western and a sword and sandals saga. The result is an almost wordless opening: wheel, training, pit. Arnold Schwarzenegger says very little, and Basil Poledouris fills the gap with a score recorded in Rome by close to ninety players and a choir of twenty four. The chorus of Riders of Doom sings Latin adapted from the thirteenth century hymn Dies irae; the music narrates rather than accompanies. The talking goes to the villain: James Earl Jones, leading a snake cult, gets the longest speeches. Shooting ran in Spain, around Segovia and Almería, with the opening sequence made at Shepperton in England. Sandahl Bergman, who plays Valeria, won the Golden Globe for new star of the year. A good fit if you want the opening carried by music rather than dialogue and treat Thulsa Doom’s sermons as the real text. Not for anyone expecting one Howard story faithfully adapted.