Conan: The Complete Quest (Conan the Barbarian / Conan the Destroyer) [Blu-ray]

Phenomenal set of movies. If you're a fan of Conan, and you're still watching the old late 90's DVD editions, it's time to upgrade. There aren't a ton of features for Conan the Destroyer, but the movie is beautifully remastered and rendered on blu-ray. Barbarian surprised me, because it actually has one of the extended cut scenes at the end! (The "princess" ending and commentary by Mako at the end titles.) Otherwise, packed full of great little bits. Deleted scenes, director and actor commentary with John Milius and Arnold Schwarzenegger, behind the scenes and making of - wow. Get this one.

Great product

Review for Conan The Complete Quest DVD: This dvd pack is worth it just for the extended edition of Milius's Conan The Barbarian. It's beautifully shot, beautifully scored, and a very memorable film. Its a coming of age story, and a revenge story featuring humanities most beloved archetype, that of the hero. Milius took a good Robert E. Howard character and setting then put his own artistic vision on it. The result is downright Wagnerian. I'm not much of a Fantasy genre fan, but I love this movie. This is the film catapulted Schwarzenegger into a mainstream actor. James Earl Jones is amazing as Thulsa Doom. The relationship between the villain and hero is one of the most brilliant ones I've seen. He is not just the anithesis of the hero, but the catalyst of him taking on the archetype. Then there is of course the memorable quotes and the riddle of steel theme. The sum of all these things make it a great movie. As for the sequel, well it is pretty forgettable, It lacks what made the original great. It is a dumbed down action film with a lackluster quest and a stale "comedic relief" character. The good thing is you get two movies for the price of one. They come on one double sided disc but its still a good deal. That being said, considering the money, what is there to complain about? Bottom line is this is a good starting point for those new to the series, or for those who want the extended edition of Conan The Barbarian. Until the extended edition is released on Bluray with a great treatment, including a healthy dose of extras, this will do for me.

Works and in great condition. Thank you!

"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of...Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandled feet." At least, that was what was written in "The Nemedian Chronicles," the faux ancient text referred to by Robert E. Howard in his stories about Conan the Barbarian. Conan had been a pulp fiction hero in the 1930s and the stories had been republished in the 1960s in paperbacks with great covers by artist Frank Frazetta, with some unfinished stories by Howard completed by L. Sprague De Camp, and Lin Carter, who also wrote some adventures to fill in the gaps in the Conan chronology. Then Marvel comics launched a comic book version, scripted by Roy Thomas and drawn by Barry Smith, with many of the stories being adapted from Howard's original stories about Conan and other sword and sorcery adventurers. It was with that literary lineage in the realm of sword and sorcery that "Conan the Barbarian" was released in 1982, although it ended up doing more for Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting career than it did for the character he was playing, since the film spawned only a single, vastly inferior sequel, "Conan the Destroyer." Director John Milius covers the early years of Conan's career, when he was taken from his home in Cimmeria as a boy by a raiding party of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and sold into slavery. Eventually he began a trained gladiator and eventually earned his freedom, where he became a thief. The script by Milius and Oliver Stone essentially created a new narrative for the film, although readers of Conan will recognize scenes and elements from to "The Thing in the Crypt", "The Elephant Tower", "Red Nails," "Queen of the Black Coast", "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune," and "A Witch Shall Be Born." Schwarzenegger's acting experience was rather limited at that point, but the role essentially required him to flex his muscles and look good. The showcase sequence of the film is when Conan and his companions, Valeria (Sandhal Bergman) and Subotai (Gerry Lopez), sneak into the stronghold of Thulsa Doom to rescue the daughter of King Osric (Max Von Sydow), who has joined the Snake Cult. With some pretty good background music by composer Basil Poledouris, the trio of thieves set up a diversion and launch a quick attack. There is a moment when Conan, his body painted with black stripes as camouflage, gets into position to begin a sword fight that simply looks great. The actual swordplay is rather limited, more slashing that actual swording, but we do get a sense of the power of Conan. James Earl Jones seems a bit distant as the villain, but he was engaged in a weird acting experiment where Milius told him exactly how to do line readings and he did it. In the end, it is Sandahl Bergman who surprisingly provides what little emotional impact the film exhibits. A trained dancer, Bergman's elegant and fluid movements contrast nicely with Schwarzenegger's raw power, and she has a great way of looking at him that makes it clear which one of them has the brains in this outfit. More importantly, Bergman's Valerie seems totally at home in the savage world that the film creates. "Conan the Barbarian" is not a great film, although it is arguably remains the best sword & sorcery film made to date (granted, the competition for the honor is rather sparse). Despite the overall woodenness of the acting, it does have the virtue of taking its characters seriously without descending into camp (they wait for the sequel to do that). If anything this film is reluctance to find any humor in the story (although Conan does slug a camel in an apparent homage to "Blazing Saddles"), which helps keep this 1982 film on the high road, relatively speaking. Consequently, while Conan fans might have hoped for something better, they certainly had ample reason to expect something much worse, and thus were relatively overjoyed by the end product. That is not the case with "Conan the Destroyer," where the story was by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, a pair of writers for Marvel Comics. The story is a basic quest story where Conan escorts a virgin princess to bring back a powerful gem from a crystal palace, which will then be returned to a queen (Sarah Douglas), who turns out to be evil and wants to sacrifice the princess so the gem can used to summon an ancient demon, at which point wackiness will ensue. The problem is not in the story, which certainly allows you to string together a series of Sword & Sorcery adventures, but in the casting. The princess is played by Olivia d'Abo, who simply looks too young (i.e., Conan was forever leaving pregnant princesses behind in his various adventures but there is no chance for that sort of chemistry here). Her body guard, Bombaata, is played by basketball Hall of Famer, Wilt Chamberlain, while Zula, the warrior woman who joins the group is played by Grace Jones, the singer/dancer/model/crazy woman. Comic relif, which was relatively absent in the orignal film, is provided by Tracey Walter as Malak. With such casting the descent into camp becomes inevitable. Besides, there is nothing in this film even close to rivaling Arnold's best moments in the original (especially since the final shot of the old King Conan is recycled from the first film). "Conan the Destroyer" pretty much killed the franchise when it came out in 1984, although Milius is apparently preparing a 2005 film "King Conan: Crown of Iron," which there being a lot of speculation as to who will play Conan now that Arnold is Governor of Cal-e-fornia. Those who have actually read the originally Conan stories will also find it rather distressing that Toth-Amon, the great Stygian wizard who was Conan's biggest enemy in the Howard stories, is reduced to a pit stop on this quest (I remember thinking at the time that this was the equivalent of Darth Vader being one of the guys that got dispatched at the Cantina in "Star Wars"). Thomas and Conway were upset by Stanley Mann's final screenplay, as well as the finished film, and ended up turning their story into the graphic novel "Conan and the Horn of Azoth," with art by Mike Docherty (all the names got changed to avoid any confusion).

i dont remember anything quite like the old Conan the Barbarian movies - the music score and the fighting - pretty cool - fairly clean movie with a little bit of skin shown, i enjoyed watching these films again.

Harken back to Arnald's days playing the powerful warrior Conan. The muscles, a sense of brotherhood, the corny humor, and a D&D like script. In Barbarian , thrill as our heros seek revenge against Thulsa Doom and his evil minions. In the Destroyer watch Conan put together a rag tag team to pull off a magical Macguffin heist.

So I added screenshots for only Conan The Destroyer as I’ve already recently seen the first one but quality applies to both. I was quite confused honestly because I don’t remember there being two movies in this series although I remember scenes from both which led me to buy the two pack. I own the first already but the two movie pack is like $1 or so more, just get the two pack. The movie has been remastered in widescreen and looks great considering its age. There’s some film grain and softness to expect but be aware the remastering also helps bring out the technology flaws of that era like stop motion, green screen etc. If you were a kid watching this on tv then it doesn’t hold up the same as an adult but the nostalgia is there and you can see the movie in a different light. The original movie is rated R while The Destroyer is PG so keep that in mind. Still quite a bit of blood. My kiddo would likely get a laugh out of it tbh. I still say for $12 it’s worth it even if you watch it one time. Don’t forget the late Great Wilt Chamberlain is in it as well. Screenshots unaltered.

Oggi ho ricevuto il mii dvd ma ho chiesto la restituzione perché no ha audio italiano.Ho contattato il mittente e ho avuto subito autorizzazione al reso.Amazon è stato veloce ed efficiente.

Excelente

I grew up with these Arnold movies & I love 'em just as much today! Excellent picture & sound quality. Good extras on the Barbarian disc, not so much on the Destroyer disc though. Woukd have liked some artwork effort on the discs themselves - but this is a minor flaw. If you're an 80's Arnold fan, you'll love this edition.

We all know this is a great film, but this is also quite a good edition for the price. Two films with a surprisingly good amount of bonus features.

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