A blacksmith forges a sword and shows it to his young son, Conan, as he tells him of the "Riddle of Steel", an aphorism on the importance of steel to their people, the Cimmerians. … 展开

Background
From the 1970s, licensing problems had stood in the way of producing film versions of the Conan stories. Lancer Books, which had acquired the rights in … 展开

Milius recruited his friend, Basil Poledouris, to produce the score for Conan; they had had a successful collaboration on Big Wednesday. The film industry's usual practice was to contract a composer to start work after the main scenes had been filmed, but Milius hired … 展开

Riddle of Steel
The central theme in Conan the Barbarian is the Riddle of Steel. At the start of the film, Conan's father tells … 展开

The character, Conan, and the world of the Hyborian Age were based on the creations of pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard from the 1930s. Published in Weird Tales, … 展开

In 1980, the producers began advertising to publicize the film. Teaser posters were put up in theaters across the United States. The posters reused Frazetta's artwork that was … 展开

Whereas most comic book and pulp adaptations were box office failures in the 1980s, Conan the Barbarian was one of the few that made a profit. According to Sammon, it became the standard against which sword-and-sorcery films were measured until the debut of 展开