Not for the first or last time in his career, Tarkovsky crafts an introspective journey, layered beneath a ‘quest.’ His very distinct approach to visual storytelling and wilfully slow pacing also makes you feel the passing seconds. An amalgamation of some of the characters also seem to deeply reflect his own personality (the ‘Writer’ in particular). The movie is stolen however by Sandahl Bergman who is stunning, whilst James Earl Jones is a great villain.Īndrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi masterpiece is laden with pondering philosophy and reflection. It’s just head and shoulders above everything else in its sub-genre and Arnold is perfectly cast. It looks glorious, the weight of Conan’s quest and journey which transcends beyond the mortal realm, and sees him fall in love in the process too, is truly epic. This is a bonafide masterwork allowing its imperious musical score to tell the story in a film sparse on dialogue.

John Milius’ sorely underrated and grandiose operatic fantasy is quite unlike the very many sword and sorceries that rode on its loincloth-tails in the 80’s.

God of war 3 labyrinth