Conan the Destroyer appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As was the case with the prior film, Destroyer offered a satisfying image.
Once again, sharpness largely worked fine. Some wider shots exhibited a bit of softness, a factor exacerbated by a few photographic choices, but the majority of the movie provided appealing delineation.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. The film came with a good layer of grain and lacked print flaws.
Colors depended on settings, so this meant a mix of sandy ambers, watery blues and forest greens mainly. These seemed well-rendered and appropriate.
Blacks came across as deep and tight, while shadows appeared smooth and concise. I felt pleased with this fine presentation.
Remixed from the original monaural – which also appeared on the disc – the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added some involvement to the proceedings. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the soundscape focused heavily on the front speakers.
Indeed, I found myself hard-pressed to identify any obvious usage of the rear channels. At times the surrounds brought out light reinforcement of the front imaging, but to my ears, the forward domain became the dominant auditory area.
At least the track used those speakers prety well, as music showed nice stereo presence. Effects also popped up at the sides and meshed reasonably well, though these elements didn’t stray massively past their mono origins.
Audio quality mostly held up fine over the last 40 years. Speech could seem a bit reedy but the lines remained intelligible and lacked much edginess.
Music showed fairly nice range, while effects appeared generally accurate and clear, with only minor distortion. Nothing here dazzled, but this seemed like a more than adequate remix for a 40-year-old movie.
As noted, the disc also included the original LPCM monaural audio. It provided audio quality similar to what I heard with the Atmos track, so expect the two to sound essentially identical and only differ in terms of their soundscapes.
As we move to extras, we find a whopping four separate audio commentaries. The first comes from director Richard Fleischer as he provides a running, screen-specific discussion of his approach to the property and his methods on the set, cast and crew, sets and locations, photography and effects, and related domains.
Expect a decent but unmemorable discussion. While Fleischer touches on some useful topics, he doesn’t provide a ton of real insight.
Fleischer also goes MIA a little too often. This turns into a moderately informative chat but not an especially good one.
For the second commentary, we hear from actors Olivia d’Abo and Tracey Walter. Both sit separately for their own running, screen-specific tracks edited together into a view of their roles and performances as well as their experiences during the shoot.
Like Fleischer’s chat, this one seems spotty and comes with too much dead air. While the actors make it pleasant enough and offer a few decent observations, I find it hard to pinpoint much that stands out as memorable.
Commentary Three involves actor Sarah Douglas and film historians Kim Newman and Stephen Jones. All three sit together for this running, semi-screen-specific piece.
I provide that last modifier because although the participants occasionally remark on the action as it occurs, they go “off book” a lot more often. And I won’t complain about that, for we get an entertaining and freewheeling chat.
Despite their positions as film historians, Jones and Newman mainly act as moderators here. They don’t quite interview Douglas, but they work with her to cover various topics.
Douglas offers thoughts about the Destroyer shoot as well as her other work. Indeed, the broader scope of Douglas’s career becomes the dominant domain.
In some hands, this lack of great focus on the film at hand might annoy, but Douglas proves far too interesting for me to gripe. Smart, witty and insightful, she turns this into a persistently strong track.
Finally, we get a commentary from film historian Paul M. Sammon. Newly recorded for this Arrow release, Sammon examines production elements from his first-person view as a journalist on the set.
While I thought Sammon’s pleasant experiences during the shoot of Barbarian made him view that film in too sunny a light, I think the opposite happens here. Sammon relates that his time on the Destroyer locations wasn’t pleasant, and he views the movie itself in a more negative light.
Of course, Sammon wouldn’t be the first or only person to much prefer Barbarian to Destroyer. Still, I got the impression his personal POV influenced some of these sentiments.
In any case, Sammon offers another informative chat. He gets into the movie’s nuts and bolts as well as plenty of good anecdotes.
The movie also comes with an Isolated Score. This allows fans to hear Basil Poledouris’s work in all its LPCM stereo glory.
From there we go to some featurettes, and these start with Casting the Destroyer. It spans five minutes, 12 seconds and brings remarks from casting director Johanna Ray.
She discusses her work on this film. This becomes a brief summary but Ray delivers some good thoughts.
Cut From a Different Cloth involves costume designer John Bloomfield. It runs nine minutes, 10 seconds.
As expected, Bloomfield looks at his efforts on Destroyer. He provides another engaging chat.
Next comes Dune and the Destroyer, a 15-minute, 23-second reel. Here we get info from art director Kevin Phipps.
This one goes over Phipps’ work on the back-to-back productions of Destroyer and 1984’s Dune as well as other aspects of his career. We find an informative reel.
Swords, Sorcery & Stunts provides info from stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong. This discussion occupies 13 minutes, 17 seconds.
Armstrong relates his work and experiences on Destroyer. Like the prior featurettes, this one delivers some solid insights.
For the final new program, we go to Behind the Destroyer. In this 10-minute segment, we hear from film historian John Walsh.
“Behind” gives us a general synopsis of the film’s history and production. Inevitably some of this repeats from all the other materials, but Walsh nonetheless offers an efficient summary.
Two components show up under Archival Featurettes. From 2001, “The Making of a Comic Book Legend” fills 14 minutes, six seconds and brings notes from Marvel writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway.
“Legend” examines their work on the comics as well as the films. They give us a compelling view of their efforts.
Also from 2001, “Composing the Conan Saga” lasts 17 minutes, 17 seconds. As expected, this one provides statements from composer Basil Poledouris.
He tells us about his work on the two Conan films. Poledouris brings us an informative chat.
In addition to two trailers, we finish with an Image Gallery with 105 stills that mix shots from the set, publicity photos and ads. It becomes a solid compilation.
After the graphic and violent Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer offers a kid-friendly and cartoony take on the character. Given how much I dislike Barbarian, I can’t claim Destroyer really fares worse, but its goofiness and clumsy comedy means it also doesn’t work better than its predecessor. The Blu-ray delivers very good picture, reasonably positive audio and an extensive collection of supplements. The movie leaves me cold but this Arrow release brings it home well.
Note that Conan the Destroyer can be purchased either on its own or as part of a two-film “Conan Chronicles” package. The latter also includes 1982’s Conan the Barbarian.
As far as I can tell, “Chronicles” doesn’t gives purchasers anything not found in the two individual releases. However, it shaves substantial money off the total cost, so if you want both movies, “Chronicles” will save you a decent chunk of change.
