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Epic poster for Richard Fleischer's Conan the Destroyer
QUICK REVIEW:
This is the sequel to John Milius' successful Conan the Barbarian (1982), which most critics prefer. Destroyer is more humorous, less looong, less violent and is also a less showy production. But this 80's kitsch classic has other things to boast about. Today the film is laughable, - but that might not be so terrible, - because it is down-right hysterical. Although as an action-adventure movie, it is also awfully predictable. Conan's comic sidekick Malak, played by Tracey Walter, doesn't seem to have any reason to be in the film, but other things counter-weigh Conan the Destroyer's problems: The overstated characters, especially Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)) and Grace Jones (A View to a Kill (1985)) are in spectacular shape and play memorably. - The ape monster, the incredible costumes and the repeated times that Schwarzenegger hits animals in the heads or pushes stone doors open also contribute to the fun. And then there's Wilt Chamberlain (The Grizzly Six (2000) writer), the 7'1'' NBA-player-legend and, in an uncredited role as the monster, André the Giant. For anyone with a penchant for 80's movies, Conan the Destroyer has its very own kind of classic status radiating from it.
Click to enlarge this still that has in it (from the left): Tracey Walter, Grace Jones, Schwarzenegger, Olivia D'Abo and Wilt Chamberlain
It is directed by Richard Fleisher, who won an Oscar very early in his career for the documentary Design for Death (1947) and later in life directed such huge films as Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Soylent Green (1973) and Red Sonja (1985).
Agent 007 stands assured by a glamorous blonde high up on San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge on this wonderfully drawn and painted poster for John Glen's A View to a Kill
A dope-using race horse court owner has himself been manipulated by some ugly Nazi
doctors and really plans to flood California's Silicon Valley and
monopolize the microchip market. Obviously this is a case for Great
Britain's #1 spy, agent 007, James Bond!
A View to a Kill is written by Richard Maibaum (Goldfinger (1964)) and Michael G. Wilson (For Your Eyes Only (1981)) and directed by great British filmmaker John Glen (For Your Eyes Only (1981)), whose 3rd Bond film it is. Overall it is the 14th in the Bond franchise, with a title drawn from Ian Fleming's (Thrilling Cities (1963)) short story From a View to a Kill (1960), but the script is entirely original. Scores of critics - seemingly including the late Roger Moore (Ivanhoe (1958-59)) himself - think that the film is a tacky, awful Bond film with a dinosaur lead, but personally, I think it's a terrifically entertaining film, possibly one of the best Bond films ever, and certainly Moore's best. It is his 7th and last as the agent, which he has portrayed more times than any of the long-running franchise's other 5 starring actors. Christopher Walken (Domino (2005)) and Grace Jones (Conan the Destroyer (1984)) are a villain couple from heaven; sexy and wild; and Duran Duran's title song is eminent and is used extensively in the film's beautiful score by Bond-regular John Barry (Chaplin (1992)). The action scenes and locations are spectacular and fun, and the film is especially be a treat for anyone with a penchant for the 1980s on screen. Lois Maxwell (Age of Innocence (1977)) plays Miss Moneypenny for the last time in the film, and Dolph Lundgren (War Pigs (2015)), then boyfriend of Jones, has a tiny part, his first credit. Forget the badmouthing this film has received and still does: A View to a Kill was a world smash and is still a colorful, fun, exciting and excellent action-adventure movie! Related posts:
Cost: 30 mil. $ Box office: 152.4 mil. $ = Big hit (returned 5.08 times its cost)
[A View to a Kill premiered 22 May (San Francisco, USA) and runs 131 minutes. David Bowie and Sting were approached to play the Max Zorin part eventually played by Walken. Shooting took place from June 1984 - January 1985 in Switzerland, England, France, including Paris and in California, including San Francisco. A stuntman was fired in Paris, when he parachuted from the Eiffel Tower without authorization from city authorities, because he was disappointed another stuntman was used for the film's Eiffel Tower jump scene. Glen has said that the film went two weeks over schedule but was made 5 mil. $ under budget. Duran Duran were hired to write the theme song, after the group's bassist John Taylor had teased producer Albert Broccoli at a party; "When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?" It was the first Bond theme song to reach #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Rambo: First Blood Part II, to a 10.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another 4 weeks (#2-#3-#4-#5) and grossed 50.3 mil. $ (33 % of the total gross) from 14.1 mil. admissions. The international gross numbers are regrettably not released. Many critics lashed out at Moore's age, 57 at the time, including the first Bond, Sean Connery, and eventually Moore agreed: In 2007 he remarked; "I was only about four hundred years too old for the part." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe. Glen returned with The Living Daylights (1987), the next Bond movie; he would end his Bond turn after one more; License to Kill (1989). Moore returned with a voice performance in The Magic Snowman (1987) and theatrically in Fire, Ice & Dynamite (1990). A View to a Kill is rotten at 38 % with a 4.96/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
