Milius bounced back from the poor box office performance of Big Wednesday with this entertaining epic. His ability to write in different styles (provided those styles were masculine adventure tales) is well demonstrated here with hims easily and skilfully switching into “sword and sandal” mode. This is a lot of fun, with plenty of action, flowery prose and enjoyably over-the-top-yet-just-right dialogue; it's a pity he never made any more films along this line.
It deals with some recognisable Milius themes: a hero who becomes a legend, his lover is from a different race and she dies, there are colourful characters along the quest, weapons are awesome, bravery and honour is cool. There is also a king who complains about this new cult, and how the younger generation are all on drugs and in his day people wanted to be heroes.
Full of striking visual images: Conan biting the neck of the vulture while tied to the tree, the snake that turns into an arrow, the transition of time on the wheel of pain, the witch who changes shapes. The story is simple and effective - but it is a bit repetitive: four times Conan charges the enemy fortress (to steal some jewels, then to kill Doom, then to rescue the princess, then to kill Doom again), and there’s a lot of decapitations.
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