Conan The Destroyer Film Response

Conan the Destroyer Film Response

Conan the Destroyer—the remediation of the classic short stories written by Robert E. Howard, follows Conan the Barbarian in yet another quest where he imprudently agrees to helping a woman obtain a precious ancient treasure and must ultimately risk his life to save the girl and kill the monster. Conan encounters various races of individuals/creatures throughout the film as he journeys through the different Hyborian lands. Similar to Howard’s detailed portrayal of characters in the original stories, the film too depicts the different races quite clearly by having actors of different ethnicities play each character. I find that the film portrays the characters as pretty much how I would have imagined them while reading the

There are few racial stereotypes of the characters still present, but I find the portrayal essential in order to stay true to Howard’s genre and the given nature of his stories; emphasizing to be a clash of the very different races.

For example, Howard targets the black baboon-like people in several of his stories as these primitive and vulgar humans, which make readers speculate whether he is targeting a particular race in society. I like that the film improves some of the more discriminatory interpretations of the races by portraying them as monsters rather than people; such as Thoth-Amon’s guard (assumed Baal-Pteor) being half Gorilla half man, the cannibals being white haired Yetis, or the god Pagoth being Godzilla with a unicorn horn. However, for characters such as Akiro the wizard or Zula the warrior, I find that the film still portrays them stereotypically.