Review of Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'

This strong and engrossing retrospective documentary on the making of "Conan the Barbarian" covers the film from its genesis to its theatrical release, with a lot of especially interesting information about the rigorous shooting of the picture in Spain. Among the people interviewed are intelligent and articulate co-writer/director John Milius, charismatic star Arnold Schwarzenegger, lovely and athletic female lead Sandahl Bergman, the ever-affable James Earl Jones, champion surfer Gerry Lopez, Max von Sydow (who agreed to do the role of King Osric because it gave him a chance to have fun and ham it up!), genial production designer Ron Cobb, outspoken co-writer Oliver Stone, producer Dino de Laurentiis and his daughter Raffaella, stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, executive producer Edward R. Pressman, and ace composer Basil Poledouris (whose amazing score is smartly retained for the doc). Among the anecdotes related are the casting of Arnold as Conan, the extensive training the leads had to do prior to making the film, the giant animatronic snake, Bergman almost having her index finger cut off during a sword fight scene, Milius striving to make the violence as brutal and realistic as possible (the movie actually had to be resubmitted to the MPAA three times before it got an "R" rating!), the tremendous box office success of the film, and how the picture was supposed to be the first in an ongoing series of movies. This fine and illuminating documentary is absolutely essential viewing for fans of the film.