On behalf of the bad queen Taramis Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes on a dangerous mission: It is to conquer an jewel-occupied charm horn, which the Magier Toth Amon in its force has. Together with Jehnna, the beautiful niece of the queen, the Banditin Zula (Grace Jones), the Zauberer Akiro, the thief Malak and the giant Bombaata Conan makes itself on the way. but it does not suspect that it is to become the victim of an insidious betrayal... After his break-through with Conan the barbarian could prove Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan of the destroyers that the success of the first film was not coincidence and Schwarzenegger from now on belonged to the international world point.
I liked this movie alot. I thought Sarah did a great job with her supporting role as Queen Taramis. She controls the scenes when she is on the screen. Sarah plays another strong woman villain role. Most of her scenes are with Conan. She is in the movie for about 15 minutes in the beginning and about the last 15 minutes of the movie. You don't see much of her during the trip that Conan makes with Jehnna. Wilt plays Jehnna's bodyguard. He is only following orders from Queen Taramis. Taramis trusts Bombaata to protect her niece. This is the second time that Sarah would play a villain in a big movie like Conan. Her first movie as a villain was of course Superman: The Movie and Superman 2.
Universal decided to release Conan with a PG rating to bring in the kids. However that plan backfired and not many people went and saw it. Alot of Sarah's favorite scenes were cut for a PG rating, including a love scene with Arnold. Sarah has stated that she was able to keep her clothes on during the love scene. Somewhere is the uncut version of Conan The Destroyer never released in video, dvd, or theatre.
Sarah was also doing the tv series Falcon Crest when she made Conan. She would travel back and fourth from Conan in Mexico and Burbank, Ca for FC. She told me this in one of her e-mails. The producers of FC allowed Sarah to do both. She was on FC for 2 years starting with season 3. She was on the series from 1983-1985.
You can read the interview with Sarah Douglas from Starlog 1986. She talks about the cut scenes from Conan The Destroyer.
The dvd has been remastered for widescreen. I found the picture and sound so much better then the Region 1 version. I believe that the Region 1 is not enhanced for widescreen. MGM released this special edition dvd. When you open the dvd, you get the MGM logo. We then get a picture of Arnold as Conan. We then choose what language we want. They created a English 5.1 for this new dvd. The Region 1 version is only in mono. I am watching this dvd on the dvd-rom with the computer. I used Power dvd. You then get the main menu. It very interactive with the Conan theme playing. You can choose from play the movie, scene selection, language, and extra features. They have a few scenes of Arnold in action on the main menu. Once you choose what you want. The screen will crash, and you will still hear the Conan Theme when you are selecting the scene or the extra features section. The region 1 DVD didn't have any music during the menus.
I found the picture and sound on this dvd so much better then the region 1 version. There are still some scratches and some grain seen in the dvd. for the most part, never looked this good before. I think I notice the main titles more of a silver color then the region 1 version. The sound was much better. I am not playing it in 5.1 since I only have 2 speakers for the computer. It sounded just fine to me with the two speakers.
The dvd includes commentary by Olivia D'Abo, Tracey Walter, and Director Richard Fleischer. There are also two new documentaries. They have an interview with Basil Poledouris about the music score both Conan The Barbarian and Destroyer. They also have an interview with Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway about the comic book of Conan to writing the early drafts for Conan 2. They also include some behind the scenes photos from the film and the comic book of Conan. They also include the trailer for the movie. It's the same trailer as the Region 1 DVD! I have a separate section for the extras down below.
Director Richard Fleischer has directed many special effects movies including 2,000 League Under the Sea, The Viking, Tora, Tora, Tora, and of course Conan The Destroyer. I found Richard to be very easy to understand as he did a great commentary on the SE of Conan The Destroyer. He talked about asking Arnold to add more muscles for the sequel. No one ever asked him to do that before. He even told a few secrets that he did with Conan The Destroyer. He said that he would make the crew leave the set so he could work with the actors alone. They could work in private about the scenes.. to make it easier on the actors. I found this to be very interesting. He talked about the special effects in the famous mirror scene in Conan. He talked about casting Grace Jones in the movie. He talked about making Conan 2 a different movie. Making the Conan movie a much lighter and fun film, and not bloodily as the first movie. He didn't talk about any of the cut scenes or even about Sarah. I did find his commentary very enjoyable. Specially for young film makers.. I learned alot from that point of view.
Some actors are really good with doing commentary on the dvd. I must say that I was pleased with both Olivia and Tracey. They talked about how fun it was to make the Conan movie. They talked about working with Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Mako and of course Arnold. They don't mentioned Sarah that much. Olivia talked about the surprise birthday party for her that Arnold put on.. Where they went hiking up in the mountains in Mexico. Tracey talked about how he replaced another actor playing the part. He also talked about being a character actor through his many films. He had alot of nice things to say about making the film and working with the cast. They both remembered alot of stuff..
Roy Thomas was the comic book writer for Marvel Comics' Conan The Barbarian. He talked about creating stories and character for the second Conan movie. They even created Zulu from the comics and added the character to the second Conan movie. I found his interview to be very interesting. He wrote the first few drafts of the Conan The Destroyer movie. He and Gerry Conway got the story credit for Conan 2. They even talked about a few ideas that didn't make into the story.
I found this interview with Basil to be very interesting. He talked about working with Director John Milius on the first Conan movie. He talks about how he created the score for the first movie. He also talked about the relationship that a composer has with the director. I found his interview to be very interesting for young film makers and the relationship of the composer and the director.
Here are some of the behind the scenes photos from the Conan The Destroyer SE DVD from Germany. I picked the pictures that featured Sarah Douglas as Queen Taramis. There are a couple of pictures that I have never seen before.
Conan of the destroyers - DVD
FSK: 16
Run time: approx. 97 minutes
Display format: Widescreen 16:9, 2.35:1
Sound format: English 5,1, German, Spanish, French, Italian mono
Configuration: Documentations: " over the composer " and " Comic Book ", picture gallery: "
behind the window blinds " and " Comic Book ", cinema Trailer.
Rental business: no
Purchase: starting from 07.02.2002
Article number purchase: 2244008
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