John Huston got all the publicity, but Richard Fleischer kept turning them out; Conan the Destroyer was his 44th film since 1946. There’s nothing very special about it, apart from the sense of relaxed and happy professionalism it exudes. For Fleischer, it’s simply a question of getting the job done with as little fuss or pretension as possible, and—with a little humor, a little violence, a little sex, and (requirement of the 80s) a few low-key special effects—he does. With Arnold Schwarzenegger as the eponymous barbarian; Wilt Chamberlain and disco queen Grace Jones costar.
