---
title: "Conan the Barbarian"
year: 1982
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/conan-the-barbarian"
fi1m_id: "conan-the-barbarian"
imdb_id: "tt0082198"
tmdb_id: 9387
wikidata_id: "Q309003"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 60
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-10-04T17:53:09.500145+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-04T17:53:16.572728+00:00"
region: "MX"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Directed by John Milius · 2h 10m · Adventure, Fantasy, Action

## Identity

Conan the Barbarian

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/conan-the-barbarian
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** conan-the-barbarian
- **IMDb ID:** tt0082198
- **TMDB ID:** 9387
- **Wikidata ID:** Q309003
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082198/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9387, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q309003

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 60 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* Schwarzenegger barely speaks, James Earl Jones barely blinks, and the orchestra never stops

> John Milius treats a pulp barbarian with total seriousness, and for long stretches it pays off, carried by Basil Poledouris’s thunderous score. The middle sags, the snake is rubber and the lead cannot yet act, but it has a weight its imitators never found.

## Synopsis

In the Hyborian Age, riders led by the warlord Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) burn a Cimmerian village, kill Conan’s Father (William Smith) and chain the surviving boy to a wooden wheel. Years of pushing it make him Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is sold as a pit fighter, taught to kill and one day set free. He takes a sword from a dead king’s tomb and falls in with the thief Subotai (Gerry Lopez). In the city of Zamora they meet Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), and the three rob the Tower of the Serpent, where Doom’s snake cult keeps its treasure. The theft brings them before King Osric (Max von Sydow), whose daughter has gone over to the cult. He wants her back; Conan wants Doom’s head.

## Review

John Milius’s *Conan the Barbarian* takes Robert E. Howard’s pulp swordsman and treats him as if he had come out of scripture. The script, by Milius and Oliver Stone, has no small talk in it; people speak in pronouncements or not at all, and for long stretches nobody speaks. It is slow, it is humourless, and its star cannot yet act. It is also, at its best, stirring in a way few films of its kind have managed, and if the genre is yours it is worth the evening. It is 130 minutes long and certified 15.

It opens with a sword being made. Conan’s Father (William Smith) hammers a blade in the snow and tells his small son that steel is the one thing he can trust, and Basil Poledouris’s score comes in under him, drums, brass and a male chorus, as if the forging were a coronation. Then riders led by Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) burn the village, and the boy is chained to a great wooden wheel and left to push it for years. The cut from the child at the wheel to Arnold Schwarzenegger at the wheel is the film’s first joke and its first act of faith, and it got us: we laughed, and then the chorus came back and we found we had stopped. Poledouris wrote something close to a continuous score, and it carries every scene the dialogue cannot.

Schwarzenegger in 1982 is not an actor. He is a shape, and Milius films him as one, against skylines, hauling chains, on thrones. Given a line he reads it off the back wall; given a task he is entirely convincing, and the film sensibly gives him many more tasks than lines. Jones goes the other way. His Thulsa Doom hardly raises his voice, talks about flesh and steel in a tone of grave reasonableness, and is more frightening for it. Sandahl Bergman’s Valeria, a thief Conan meets on a rooftop in Zamora, moves better than anyone else here, and her scenes with Schwarzenegger are the only ones in which he looks like a man rather than a monument. Gerry Lopez’s Subotai supplies the few grins. Max von Sydow’s King Osric has one scene, mourning a daughter who has gone over to Doom’s cult, and it is the best-acted five minutes in the film.

Duke Callaghan shoots wide and still: plains, snowfields, a low horizon and small people against it, and indoors he lights by torch, so that faces come and go in the dark. Ron Cobb’s sets do as much as the music. The Tower of the Serpent is a black cylinder with a pit at its foot; Doom’s mountain temple is terraced in white and gold and looks like a holiday resort run by a death cult, which is about right. John Bloomfield puts Doom’s lieutenants in helmets crested with snakes and horns, and Conan in furs or nothing much. Carroll Timothy O’Meara cuts to the music rather than against it, holding shots long and letting scenes end some time after they have finished, and that is where the trouble starts.

The middle hour is slow in a way that is not always on purpose. Once Osric sends the thieves after his daughter (Valérie Quennessen), the film spends a long time crossing country, climbing a mountain and watching white-robed followers file about, and somewhere on that mountain we were bored, properly and restlessly. Milius does not do jokes, and a film this solemn needs one now and then to let the air out. The giant snake in the tower is a rubber tube with a face, and the camera stays on it long enough to make sure. The ideas the film is proudest of, about steel and flesh and what a man should trust, are said three or four times, and saying them is as far as it gets.

The second half takes a turn we will not describe, and it is where the film finds its grief and earns its finish. Set against the sword-and-sorcery films that followed it through the 1980s, most of them cheap and jokey, this looks like the real thing: a film that believes in its barbarian and lets the orchestra do the believing where its star cannot. Watch it on the largest screen you have, with the sound up. The long silences were written for an orchestra, and at low volume they are only silences.

*Fi1m score 74, published 4 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Conan the Barbarian worth watching?**

*Conan the Barbarian* is worth watching for sword-and-sorcery fans who can tolerate a slow, solemn adventure; we score it 74/100. Basil Poledouris’s orchestral score and the imposing landscapes give it unusual weight, though the middle drags and Schwarzenegger is much more convincing wielding a sword than delivering a line.

**How long is Conan the Barbarian, and what is it rated?**

*Conan the Barbarian* runs 2h 10m. It is an adventure and fantasy film.

**Where can I watch Conan the Barbarian in Mexico?**

*Conan the Barbarian* is streaming on Disney+ in Mexico. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Conan the Barbarian, and is it suitable for children?**

*Conan the Barbarian* carries a UK 15 certificate and is not suitable for children: its opening includes a village being burned, a parent killed and a boy enslaved. Pit fighting and a threatening snake cult make it a better fit for older teenagers and adults comfortable with violent fantasy; James Earl Jones’s quiet menace supplies much of the fear.

**How does Conan the Barbarian compare to Excalibur?**

*Conan the Barbarian* is a slower, more physically grounded fantasy than [*Excalibur*](https://film.one/film/excalibur), which is equally solemn but much wilder in its bloodshed and sorcery. We favour *Excalibur* for its photography and supporting performances, though its characters sometimes get lost in the spectacle. *Conan* better suits an appetite for muscular adventure carried by an orchestra, provided patience survives its sagging middle.

### Reviews we read (9)

- **Empire**, Clark Collis (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an epic, entertaining piece of mythmaking that rises above its pulp origins and technical limits. He singles out Milius’s earnest, serious approach for elevating the story, despite an unconvincing giant snake. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-conan-barbarian-review/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Budd Wilkins (75/100, inferred): The critic treats the 1982 film as a rousing, thoughtful epic and finds its ideas more complicated than its macho reputation suggests. He particularly praises the warmth of Conan and Valeria’s relationship, which softens the film’s otherwise bellicose outlook. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/conan-the-barbarian-conan-the-destroyer-blu-ray-review/)
- **Time Out** (64/100, inferred): The page frames Schwarzenegger’s later action-star fame as hard to imagine at the time. Its available blurb highlights the contrast between his early persona and eventual celebrity, but gives no clear overall verdict. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/conan-the-barbarian)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (2.5/4): Ebert finds the film ponderous and often boring, though it has some interesting elements. He singles out Sandahl Bergman’s striking athletic presence as a strength. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/conan-the-barbarian-1982)
- **Radio Times**, Tom Hutchinson (3/5): Hutchinson finds the sword-and-sorcery adventure entertaining but too humourless. He praises its fabulous look and the movie’s fantasy atmosphere. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fqhuru/conan-the-barbarian/)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (35/100, inferred): The review finds the film promising at first but ultimately weakened by a thin script and Schwarzenegger’s limited acting. It praises Milius’s setup and the anticipation around Conan’s emergence, while faulting the adventures that follow as meaningless. [Read](https://variety.com/1981/film/reviews/conan-the-barbarian-3-1200425238/)
- **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Conan the Barbarian as a brilliantly staged, memorable fantasy that makes strong use of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He singles out John Milius’s vivid world-building and the film’s thoughtful moments, while also noting that the Blu-ray transfer looks excellent. [Read](https://collider.com/conan-the-barbarian-blu-ray-review-conan-the-destroyer-blu-ray-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Gator MacReady (75/100, inferred): The review is positive about the DVD release, especially its improved presentation. It singles out the widescreen picture and remastered soundtrack as major improvements, while noting occasional picture problems. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/dvdreview/conan-the-barbarian-dvd-review-by-gator-macready)
- **The Playlist** (10/100, inferred): The headline signals a strongly negative verdict on the film. It singles out the film itself as “unbelievably awful,” without enough accessible text to identify a more specific criticism. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/empire-big-screen-11-review-by-crom-conan-the-barbarian-is-unbelievably-awful-20110816/)

## Details

- **Director:** John Milius
- **Director:** John Milius
- **Writer:** Oliver Stone, John Milius
- **Cinematography:** Duke Callaghan
- **Editor:** Carroll Timothy O'Meara
- **Music:** Basil Poledouris
- **Production design:** Ron Cobb
- **Costume design:** John Bloomfield
- **Producer:** Raffaella De Laurentiis, Buzz Feitshans, Dino De Laurentiis
- **Cast:** Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan; James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom; Sandahl Bergman as Valeria; Ben Davidson as Rexor; Cassandra Gava as The Witch; Gerry Lopez as Subotai; Mako as The Wizard; Valérie Quennessen as The Princess
- **Runtime:** 2h 10m
- **First release (Spain):** 16 March 1982
- **Genres:** Adventure, Fantasy, Action
- **Budget:** $20 million
- **Box office:** $69 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLBes2Gr8E

## Where to watch in Mexico

- Disney+: streaming, hd

*Checked 2026-10-04.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor 1983: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Excalibur* (1981), Fi1m 79: Boorman’s Arthur, equally solemn and far wilder, with armour that gleams green in the forest. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/excalibur.md)
- *The Northman* (2022): Eggers’ Viking revenge film takes its mud, blood and gods just as seriously.
- *Valhalla Rising* (2009): Refn’s near-silent Norse film: one mute warrior, a lot of fog, no jokes at all.
- *Dragonslayer* (1981): The decade’s best dragon, and an apprentice sorcerer plainly out of his depth.
- *The Vikings* (1958): Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis hack through fjords; the 1950s version of the same appetite.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/conan-the-barbarian