Hot Picks
|
|
|
Conan - The Heart of the Elephant
episode 1.1, 1.2
USA / Germany 1997
produced by Peter Chesney, Brian Yuzna, Max A. Keller (executive), Jacques Konckier (executive), Micheline H. Keller (executive) for Balenciega Productions, Keller Entertainment Group, Western International Syndication, ZDF
directed by Gérard Hameline
starring Ralf Moeller, Danny Woodburn, Kimberly Kelley, Jeremy Kemp, Steven Mattila, Andrew Craig, Robert McRay, Andrew Divoff, Aly Dunne, Edward Albert, Mickey Rooney, Veron Wells, Inaki Carrion, Rossana Cesarman, Rusino Echegoyen, Juan Pablo Garciadiego, Eddie Garcia, Cindy Margolis
written by Dennis Richards (= Steve Hayes), Charles Henry Fabien, based on characters created by Robert E. Howard, music by Charles Fox
TV-series Conan, Conan (Ralf Moeller), Conan on TV
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Conan the Barbarian (Ralf Moeller) has just met and fallen in love with
Tamira (Kimberly Kelley) when her tribe is attacked by the soldiers of
Hissah Zul (Jeremy Kemp), and she is dragged off to captivity. Conan tries
to interfere, instead though he is made a prisoner as well. And while
Tamira's beauty soon enough attracts the attention of Hissah Zul, who soon
enough makes her his consort (against her will, naturally), Conan is made
a gladiator. But at his first show at the arena, he (along with a few
other gladiators) rebels, and even tries to get his hands on Hissah Zul
and/or free Tamira, but Hissah Zul has some powerful magic to guard him,
so all Conan gets is his freedom and a captive, Otley (Danny Woodburn),
the sidekick of Yara (Steven Mattila), as a captive - but since Otley
never liked any of his master, he and Conan soon become staunch allies and
friends.
Thanks to Otley, Conan soon makes it to Yara's lair, where Tamira is
presently held, but Yara has put Tamira in a trance and forces the
Barbarian to bring him the Heart of the Elephant, a big and most
powerful diamond, in exchange for his lover. Conan makes it through all
kinds of perilous adventures and fights all kinds of creatures to get his
hands on the stone - when he faces the guardian of the Heart himself, an
elephant-like (duh !) creature, who rather than defend the stone with his
life curses the heart of the elephant, which is quite in Conan's interest
actually.
Conan brings the diamond to Yara, and Yara, full of joy, immediately
activates it to become all powerful or something ... but instead the curse
on the stone makes him vanish for good.
Conan finds Tamira, but she has been murdered by General Goroth (Andrew
Divoff), Yara's arch-enemy (when Yara was still alive).
Heartbroken, Conan and Otley join a tribe on the run from Hissah Zul
and his men, a tribe which is then attacked by Hissah Zul's men all the
same - which sets the course for further adventures.
Now don't get me wrong, Robert E.Howard's original Conan stories
were not high fantasy or anything, they were pulp, and not of the most
original kind at that. But having said that, the character would still
have deserved a more epic treatment than he is getting in this episode:
Seeing Conan make his way through underbudgeted sets and wholly
unimaginative landscapes (they seriously look like someone's backlot) is
almost pathetic, and the by and large third-rate creatures he has to fight
don't make things much better. Plus, Ralf Moeller is a poor substitute for
Arnold Schwarzenegger - and Arnold wasn't all that good during his run as Conan.
Complete waste of time.
|