Recently, as strange as it sounds, I've been thinking about the movie Conan the Barbarian and it's place in movie history. True, it could be easy to dismiss it as a disposable, violent hack 'em up that is only remembered for being an early role of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but upon re-watching the film, I found that the movie was a well done pulp adventure, full of goofy costumes, swords, axes and big hammers being slammed into blood packs, oiled up half-naked people, and James Earl Jones turning into a big snake. What's not to like about a film that tries that hard to entertain? But in addition to being a fun movie, Conan the Barbarian is also the most human role Arnold Schwarzenegger has played.

Schwarzenegger has had a strange history in movies. He managed to make a ridiculous amount of money starring in, for the most part, action movies. After his success in Conan, Schwarzenegger established himself as a screen icon for adolescent boys of all ages by starring in such movies as Raw Deal, Commando, and Running Man. Since Schwarzenegger seems larger than life it's only natural that he was often cast in movies that have an otherworld sense to them be they Predator, Total Recall, and, most notably, Terminator.

It was during this period Schwarzenegger set up his screen persona. He was so successful, in fact, that he often became more important than the movie he was in. When watching one of his films the audience often began to think of the movie in terms of Schwarzenegger playing a character rather than accepting him as the character he was playing. Does anyone actually remember the name of the character Schwarzenegger played in True Lies? Does it even matter to how the film plays out? This persona of Arnold Schwarzenegger that Schwarzenegger has created is so encompassing that viewers often refer to him simply by his first name or -as if they were close friends of his- "Arnie" or, in a parody of his eternally thick accent, "Ah-nuld." It was this sense of familiarity that allowed Schwarzenegger to star in comedies such as Twins and Kindergarten Cop. The audience isn't watching because of the movie itself, but rather for the humor found from seeing "Arnie" out of his normal element.

As of late, however, Schwarzenegger has moved into what I think of as his Charlton Heston phase. He's become almost a parody of his old self as he lumbers through horrible movies like End of Days. I'll leave it up to Schwarzenegger scholars to debate what it was that caused this King Lear level slide from greatness, but Schwarzenegger's box office luster is not what it used to be.

While Schwarzenegger got an amazing amount of mileage out of his schtick, it's his lack of screen persona at the start of his career that makes Conan the Barbarian such a successful movie. When Schwarzenegger is playing Conan the distance between him and his later roles isn't there; when playing Conan he is simply Conan. The immediacy of his acting carries the movie just as much as if he were hefting it on his big, greasy back.

Conan is one of the few movies where Schwarzenegger's character is allowed to develop. In most of his movies the scope of Schwarzenegger's character development is to meet his opponents at the beginning of his movie and finish beating them up by the end. In Conan, the life of the title barbarian is fully chronicalled from his early days chained to the wheel of pain to where he realizes he must destroy Thulsa Doom [James Earl Jones in a funny wig] for the good of the world. The epic scope of the film lets Schwarzenegger perform a larger range of emotions instead of simply shooting off machine guns and one liners.

Finally, Conan is the only early role where Schwarzenegger is allowed to express emotions other than macho bravado. While playing Conan Schwarzenegger is expected to shows emotions such as surprise, fear, love and other feelings you don't normally associate with an axe-swinging barbarian. The disparity between Conan and other Schwarzenegger roles is further reinforced when one watches the director's cut of Conan. One previously missing scene features Conan contemplating his place in the world and wondering aloud what it was that made him into the barbarian he was. It would be years before Schwarzenegger would touch upon these themes in a movie again and even then he wouldn't be as successful.

While the idea that part of Conan's success is it's ability to show a hulk like Conan as a human being, it's the one vital component that Schwarzenegger forgot when he was picking his later roles. Besides Conan, what is the only other name of a Scharzenegger character that can easily be remembered? The terminator - a character that looks human but is, in reality, synthetic.

Some day I'll have to relate the pain that was End of Days, but that's another story. Questions, comments, and answers for the riddle of steel can be directed to gleep9@hotmail.com. Now push the Wheel of Pain back to either the Second Movie or the Main page.