Conan the Destroyer (Blu-ray) (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Action Adventure	Audio Commentary-director Richard Fleischer Audio Commentary-actors Tracey Walter and Olivia D'Abo Featurette-Basil Poledouris - Composing the Conan Sage Featurette-Conan - The Making of a Comic Book Legend Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	101:16
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Fleischer
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Grace Jones Wilt Chamberlain Mako Tracey Walter Sarah Douglas Olivia d'Abo Pat Roach
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$19.95	Music	Basil Poledouris

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono Hebrew Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish French Italian German Chinese Dutch Indonesian Korean Hebrew	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     As Conan the Destroyer commences, Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his side-kick Malak (Tracey Walter) are attacked by mysterious black riders led by Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlain). These riders are the soldiers of Queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) and she offers Conan a deal; she will revive Conan’s dead love Valeria if Conan will undertake a quest on her behalf. The quest is to escort the virgin Princess Jehnna (Olivia D’Abo) as she journeys to retrieve the horn of the god Dagoth, a horn that will bring the sleeping god back to life. The catch is that, unknown to Conan, when Jehnna obtains the horn Bombaata will kill Conan after which Jehnna will be sacrificed to the god. Nice. Conan, Malak, Bombaata and Jehnna embark upon their journey, on the way picking up Akiro, the wizard (Mako), and lithe fighting woman Zula (Grace Jones). After a series of adventures fighting different wizards and other undesirables, they succeed in retrieving the horn. But the fun and betrayals are only just starting.

     Co-written by Oliver Stone and director John Milius, Conan the Barbarian was an epic film full of rousing action, daring deeds, stirring music and a great villain in James Earl Jones’ Tulsa Doom. Most of these pluses have gone missing in Conan the Destroyer. New director Richard Fleischer and writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway (writers for Marvel Comics) have in Conan the Destroyer gone for a far less epic Conan and ramped up the humour, dialogue and fantasy elements. Instead of the archer Subotai, Conan has acquired Malak, a comic sidekick who is not comic. There is also far more talk, some of it excruciatingly poor such as when Malak tries to explain to Jehnna what a man and a woman do together. When Jehnna ministers to Conan’s wounds and says I suppose nothing hurts you, Conan replies only pain. There is nothing in this film that comes close to the memorable lines in Conan the Barbarian such as the "throne room a prison" speech by Max Von Sydow or the very moving "let others pass by in the night" monologue from Sandahl Bergman. And the climax of Conan the Destroyer, with Conan fighting a man in a gorilla suit with a big horn and webbed feet, is hardly going to match the death of Tulsa Doom.

     This is not to say the film is without interest. Composer Basil Poledouris recycles some of his wonderful themes from Conan the Barbarian and adds a few more while the film, shot in Mexico, looks great courtesy of legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff (The African Queen). Arnold is Conan and is fine as long as he does not have to talk. When fighting on horseback he is not the most graceful, but once on his feet it is another matter and the fight scenes are nicely staged. Indeed, the scene in the mirrored hall in the crystal castle is an excellent sequence and one of the highlights of the film.

     It is certainly unfair, but inevitable, to compare Conan the Destroyer to the earlier film. Conan the Destroyer does have its moments, but is let down by poor dialogue, indifferent acting and the attempt to inject humour into the franchise. The result was a poor film, and obviously not what the fans of Conan wanted, as Conan the Destroyer effectively killed off Conan’s film career for 25 years. It will be interesting to see which path his resurrection takes!

     Conan the Destroyer has previously been released on DVD in Region and our review can be accessed here. Is the Blu-ray an improvement? Read on.

Video

     Conan the Destroyer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, in 1080p. It is sharp and detailed enough but not one to show off your Blu-ray. Colours are natural, skin tones are good (and we see a lot of Arnold’s skin), blacks solid and shadow detail very good. The widescreen cinematography highlights stunning images of mountains and deserts, and brightness and contract are consistent. There were a couple of issues early in the film with flare from Princess Jehnna’s white robe (see for example 17:52) and some edge enhancement (20:17) but this settled down, although film grain was evident. However, compared to the DVD, this presentation is markedly superior, with none of the issues noted in the abovementioned review.

     There are numerous subtitles available including English for the hearing impaired plus 11 other European and Asian languages. The English subtitles in the portion I sampled reproduced basically every word plus cues such as “aah”.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The main audio is English DTS HD MA 5.1 although there are mono dubs available in another 6 languages.

     The Blu-ray is also vastly superior to the DVD. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand and while the audio is still front oriented and there are no obvious pans across the surrounds even in the battle sequences, the surround speakers do create an enveloping feel with ambient sound and the wonderful Basil Poledouris score. The sub woofer supports the music and adds a nice solid bass to the scenes of destruction.

    Lip Sync is good.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras on the Blu-ray were all on the previous DVD Special Edition, and are in SD. The photo galleries that were on the DVD are not included.

Audio Commentary – director Richard Fleischer

     Fleischer speaks about locations, technical matters and his way of working. He states he thought the first Conan too serious so worked in “appropriate” comedy (his word). He also made a decision to show off Arnold’s body at every opportunity. Some interesting observations, but lots of pauses and description of the obvious.

Audio Commentary – actors Tracey Walter and Olivia D’Abo

     The two actors are recorded separately and their comments spliced together. They mention lots of trivial things, and occasionally talk about the film. D’Abo contributes such gems as “Oh my god!” and “OK, this is really scary”. You can safely give it a miss.

Basil Poledouris: Composing The Saga (17:17)

     Poledouris on scoring the Conan movies. An interesting extra and worth a listen.

Conan: Making Of A Comic Book Legend (14:06)

     The movie's writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway discuss Thomas’ work at Marvel Comics and his ideas and style of adapting Robert E. Howard's stories to comic book form.

Theatrical Trailer (2:23)

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

     The US Blu-ray Region A / B release of the film comes with only a trailer. I cannot find a current release in Region B UK. Our release wins.

     Conan the Destroyer had a new director, a mostly new cast and, more importantly, new writers. What they produced has its proponents, but mostly Conan the Destroyer is a pale reflection of the original. This Blu-ray release looks and sounds fine and is a noticeable improvement over the DVD, but brings nothing new in the way of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall