Conan the Destroyer (1984) poster
1984 · adventure · fantasy · action · supernatural

Conan the Destroyer

Directed by Richard Fleischer1h 43m1984
ElsewhereIMDb5.990kRT29%Metacritic53
  • sombre
  • kinetic
  • extreme
  • inventive
  • epic-stakes
Movie DNA

Sombre, breathless, extreme adventure / fantasy, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, epic, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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Conan is commissioned by the evil queen Taramis to safely escort a teen princess and her powerful bodyguard to a far away castle to retrieve the magic Horn of Dagoth. Unknown to Conan, the queen plans to sacrifice the princess when she returns and inherit her kingdom after the bodyguard kills Conan. The queen's plans fail to take into consideration Conan's strength and cunning and the abilities of his sidekicks: the eccentric wizard Akiro, the warrior woman Zula, and the inept Malak. Together the hero and his allies must defeat both mortal and supernatural foes in this voyage to sword-and-sorcery land.

Our read · Conan the Destroyer (1984) reads as a sombre, breathless, inventive adventure · fantasy · action entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Conan the Destroyer

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want eighties sword-and-sorcery camp with Arnold at peak charisma.

ends triumphantyou’ll be fine aftergrabs you earlygrips from the openattention 2/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou need coherent plotting or dislike cheesy fantasy violence.

If Conan the Destroyer is your film
Krull (1983)
Eighties fantasy quest with rubber monsters
(You want a charismatic lone warrior lead)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Pulp heroics and creature-filled adventure
(You want more humor and spectacle)
Red Sonja (1985)
Sword fantasy from the same era
(You need tighter storytelling)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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