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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 499619" data-attributes="member: 363">Note that I'm a big fan of RE Howard and his version of Conan. Try not to get offended if anything I say seems strongly worded. I just want to be clear in saying what I think.I was a fan of Robert E. Howard quite a while before Arnold's Conan hit the screens, and I remember being disappointed and more than a bit disgusted with the film. As Mark points out, the slapstick doesn't work for a film about Conan - Conan passing out drunk face-first into a bowl of gruel? Please. Conan a slave that long? Come on. Howard would spin in his grave. Arnold makes a great action hero, but really does not fit Howard's description of Conan to a "T." Howard's Conan would stand several inches taller, would be black haired, and would have a more brooding quality. He would also be a lot more limber and agile, with a cat-like grace of movement, something that Arnold just doesn't have. The Buscema/Chan Conan of the Marvel comic is a good pictorial  depiction; Frazetta's Conan is the best. Would it be possible to find somebody, anybody who could fit the bill to play Conan? I really don't know. Bear in mind I'm a huge fan of Arnold, and I realize that few people on Earth would come close to what Conan was described as looking and moving like. If the film had been called "Bill the Barbarian," my reaction would have been much kinder way back when.In recent years, I have viewed the film in a different way. I put aside the echoes of Howard's work, and view the film Conan as a different character. It is a much better film for me that way. Personally, if such a thing was possible, I'd love to see an animated version of Conan done for the big screen, using Frazetta's paintings as a guideline for how Conan looks. A lush, brooding film, the film that Heavy Metal should have been, with better artwork and animation. Frazetta paintings that move is what I have in mind. But, that's just me. I'm a big Howard fan from way back.And y'know what? The Scorpion King was a fun movie. Unpretentious, lots of action, a nice pulpy story, and a really beautiful sorceress. The same kind of stuff I love when I want to read a good swords 'n' sorecery story with a pulp flavor. The Rock really is a good action movie hero - and consider that I'm not a wrestling fan. The guy irritated me until this film.I have to say that the news at IGN doesn't bode well, though. After the debacle of King Kull, I have little hope for a film based on Howard's work that stays true to the feel of his work.</blockquote>

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