exponentiation ezine: issue [7.0: culture]
Music
Artist: Magma
Album: Mekanik Destructiw Kommandoh
Label: Phantom Sound & Vision Year: 1973
Mekanik Destructiw Kommandoh (M.D.K.) is a bombastic, driving album from France's Magma. The main compositional force is Christian Vander, who utilizes themes present in this album in a later work, where they area retooled to a minimalistic ensemble. Instrumentation here is rather quirky, but not unbelievable for a progressive band from the 1970s. For instance, atop the standard rock instrumentation of drum kit (this one being diverse, and exceptionally well used), guitar, and bass (certain passages have smooth trills that suggest the bass player is using a fretless bass), a full chorus is employed, as well as a brass section. However, while standard rock instruments are used, the chorus, bass, and drum seem to be the main driving force in the compositions.
One of the album's main features is a forceful, forward moving repetition of thematic material in all instruments: motivic chunks may exist for only a measure or consist of full although short phrases, with subtle variations in melody, harmony, and dynamic to provide momentum and build up to the next idea. When guitar appears, it is in a lead capacity, usually overshadowed by the other elements of the music, but for that, adding tension to the repeated patterns, encouraging transitions.
Another thing that stands out is the immensity of syncopation and conflicting time signatures that in themselves provide a contrast temporally. The intense rhythmic power of each track betrays the composers professional training as a drummer. Even dynamics and motivic variations, which essentially serve to increase the force and activity of the music, are very mindful of their rhythmic orientation. A homophonic texture prevails throughout, with contrapuntal periods providing fierce syncopation and tension.
It should be noted that this impulse doesn't seem to have a strong connection to rock, where rhythm is generally just a container for harmonic movement. M.D.K.'s rhythmic sensibilities are somehow more primal and vital, yet for it's complexity, sophisticated. Time signatures vary, and conflicting signatures create a peculiar groove that usually resolves itself with transition to a new musical concept. Like the best music with complex signatures it all remains fluid and coherent; it is alive and violent, agitated.
The sound is also incredibly warlike and triumphant. The choral passages in their intensifying chants sound like harbingers of chaos with steady, ominous and sustained notes, or frantically chanted and flawlessly repeated vocal melodies that insist their madness to the listener. Though the lyrics are writing in a constructed language, one can understand the impression given by the shouting voice in NebÎhr Gudatt which seems to suggest impassioned oration, or the soprano screams, which seem tortuous, like an individual murder or the yelps of the mob as it is slaughtered piecemeal. The whole album, being conceptual, builds up to an extreme climax with full instrumentation and an explosive pace, where musical conflicts are only measures apart, the chorus is heated, and everything seems to dissolve at the end of MekanÔk Kommandˆh, leading the way to the melancholy and divergent Kre¸hn Kˆhrmahn Iss De H¸ndÔn, the album's final track, which seems to contemplate ruin and aftermath--hard earned success. A finely crafted and unique piece of energetic music. The conclusion is ultimately menacing, and coupled with a final, bittering drone of feedback, suggests something defeated but not entirely gone.
Where rhythms contrast and independent themes battle back and forth in temporal nearness, the underlying feeling becomes apparent: the conflict between man and man; the difficulty of sustaining peace where different ideas regarding the fundamental nature of things cause deep and impassible chasms between communities, which set out to assert themselves, or simply to defend themselves. - Risc
Artist: Sombrous
Album: Transcending the Umbra
Label: Forever Plagued Records Year: 2004
Sombrous composes droning ambient music in the vein of Biosphere; a cosmic, minimalist aesthetic is gradually built up by tiny, emotive details in the texture of the music, giving voice to a cosmic meta-layer that seems to be one of the primary attractions of listening to this. It's very well executed in the sense that the few tonal changes that dictate the most simple of melodies, smoothly are cycled in epic-long conjectures, during which the listener feels as if melodic development and synth collage melt into one musical brush.
The nature of this music is what draws millions of people to this genre; it escapes the formality of popular music and aims instead for an esoteric patterning, much like classical music, where the focus moves from the rhythmic basis and the chorus to the details in the harmonic essence. In the music of Sombrous there are no choruses, only a main theme that diverges into new territory, through detailed instrumental changes that force the listener to pay attention to the music while falling into some kind of meditative trance. The impact is seductive and absorbing, unlike most modern ambient today that often falls short.
The repetitive methodology sometimes loses direction, which is often the case with ambient music of this sort, but the medium itself enables us to create while interpreting, which means that every textural change is a potential back door to a new feeling or sensation. The music speaks to our creativity and emotive understanding but Sombrous is doing something far off from the trails of Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream. The last epic on this album is called "Stoicism," which I believe is telling for the music itself; not a withdrawal from emotions but a bold, deconstructive perception of life as a continuous transformation of colliding and dissolving forces. Dreamy, suggestive and fantasy rich, "Transcending the Umbra" reveals through musical cryptology our consciousness as both an organic part of the universe, as well as an independent energy to cause havoc, beauty and change. - Alexis
Artist: Tangerine Dream
Album: Stratosfear
Label: Virgin Records Year: 1976
In the album Stratosfear, Tangerine Dream presents a vigorous and dreamy neo-symphonic work taking advantage of atypical instruments and musical technologies available at the time. Synthesizers do the work of representing classical instruments such as flute and piano, as well as being used to provide their own unique tone colours.
Classical devices litter this work and show both technical proficiency and creative vitality. A symphonic structure is evident: a division into four movements with structure and tempo varied in the tradition of the greatest classical symphonies. Electric counterpoint is prominent throughout the recording, with rhythmic lines serving as a ground for harmony and also thematic development while arpeggios weave in and out of one another in a musical dance of abstract thought. Melodic lines are echoey and self-referential. In the opening movement, patterns mutate recursively and thematic lines evolve; sections return in completeness as a striking analogue to the structural and aesthetic wisdom of the great composers of the past.
The titles of the tracks reflect the bizarre, dreamy soundscapes Tangerine Dream builds in each movement. A great deal of reverb and instruments with droning, brooding energy are present; airy dissonance builds up tension underneath classically influenced phrases. Unusual shifts created by the unexpected introduction of electric tones, abrupt 12-string guitar chords, and noise, much the way the dreams of humans tend to shift illogically, almost magically. In the final movement, an abrupt chord paves the way for a wandering solo overtop jostled permutations of rhythmic elements in the introductory section of the movement before revealing thematic reference to the beginning of the album, providing conceptual unity to the entire digital symphony.
These devices are used to introduce and conclude the entire work; rising tones pave way to the initial rhythmic energy that draws in the listener; a melancholy piano coda, thematically unrelated to the rest of the album, concludes the final movement with an airy piano melody cadenced stark and tense chord that sharpens the listeners awareness and expectations in the manner of waking from a dream and being ushered back into reality.
In the end, one is left with the feeling of imaginative, subconscious beauty taking hold of the spirit and ever lifting the listener upward into a reflective, abstract realm of symbols and an ethereal force that is both melancholic and driving. A great accomplishment of electronic art music. - Alexis
Books
Title: Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Washington Square Press (July 1, 2003)
Hamlet could be one of the most compelling characters in Western literature. Widely read and even more widely discussed, William Shakespeare's masterpiece continues to baffle its readers with ever-new truths revealed. Perhaps mostly famous for its existential rhetoric quote - "To be or not to be, that is the question" - "Hamlet" is a tragic-comic tale about the murder of the royal Danish king by Claudius, who marries the queen Gertrude and becomes the new political leader of Denmark.
Prince Hamlet receives information from the spirit of his father, about the murder and the corrupt motives of the new king. He calls for revenge. Hamlet burns with hate and spends his time planning an assassination of Claudius, thus free his mother through human dignity. He decides to play insane to confuse the king and queen about his true motives. The story becomes complicated when Ophelia, the daughter to the royal servant Polonius, falls in love with Hamlet, and is forced to manipulate Hamlet into revealing his secrets. Hamlet recognizes this and disconnects the relationship to Ophelia, which drives her to commit suicide. Further, the son of Polonius, Laertes, becomes involved with the intrigue when Hamlet accidentally kills his father.
Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is a story with many dimensions. First and foremost, it deals with the conflict between public and private perception of reality. Although we in modern society tend to see everything around us as "real," the truth is that most of what we experience can be manipulated by social opinion. Hamlet is the individual who realizes this and tries to use the knowledge to his advantage, in order to create a "common space" for reality at large. He penetrates illusion by playing with it.
But "Hamlet" is also a study of the human psyche and the basic conditions for love and compassion. For Ophelia and Hamlet, love is a both a socially and politically impossibility, due to the surrounding factors restraining and preventing them from being together. This drives Ophelia over the edge, knowing her love will never be answered in her lifetime. Likewise, Laertes finally understands that hate is only an emotional reaction, which might be manipulated by anyone sharing the same motives for revenge. On top of this, Shakespeare penetrates the Christian dogma of his time, questioning fundamental principles such as "pray," "truth," "peace," and the existence of God.
As expected, Shakespeare was a product of his time, and the Renaissance humanism means the focus remains on the individual and his approach to life itself. What makes Shakespeare unique in this regard is that he doesn't describe an isolated experience, but portray the fundamental conditions for human existence at large, leaving individual experience as a means of communicating a larger truth. Because even if this drama will continue to compel new readers for centuries, it no less succeeds - with an unmatched ability to create humor through the play with rhetoric argumentation and a sharp depiction of human emotions in contrast to rationality -in capturing some of the most intense moments in European culture, and humankind at large. - Alexis
Title: Welcome to the Machine: Science, Surveilence, and the Culture of Control
Author: Derrick Jensen and George Draffan
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company (September 15, 2004)
"Welcome to the machine: Science, Surveillance and the Culture of Control" is a compelling book by anti-modernist writer Derrick Jensen, author of the evocative, "A Language Older than Words." Jensen here is teamed with George Draffan, a fellow social critic whose amount of contributions to this text are undetermined. In this text Jensen takes on the culture of the machine and does so often with a biting and satirical tongue.
While perhaps a bit too hippieish and even culturally paranoid on its surface, "Welcome to the Machine" is a text full of insightful commentary regarding modern commercialism, surveillance and technological obsession. In this regard the text draws some parallels with Ted Kacynski's "Industrial Civilization and Its Future" as it attempts to unflinchingly critique and attack many of modern societies neuroses and technological delusions. The text delves into the subsequent cultural effects that technology has on cultures and individuals and it effectively shows the interconnected nature of the major industries of our society, particularly between the media/commercial industry and the military industrial complex.
The book, thankfully, is not a scholarly monograph or some other such piece of writing devoid of boldness and emotion. The book is both well researched and opinionated and does not fail to wear its heart on its sleeve, which is both to its benefit and disadvantage; to its advantage in that it boldly faces reality and expresses opinions and ideas even if they are not politically correct, but to its disadvantage when it launches into the same realm of uncontrolled sentiment that ruined the credibility of many counter-cultural movements. The text also has a tendency to adopt some safe and conventional "radical" views, but it nonetheless launches an attack on many of the sacred cows of modern society, including philosophic liberalism and its economic and political offshoots. In one regard the text is more humanitarian than most humanists in that, in its heart, it cares about life and the entire organization and systems that support life; as such it is not willing to morn the loss of individuals in the battle against environmental and social degradation.
The philosophy of this book can trace its roots back to counter-cultural environmental and anti-authoritarian philosophy, however it is upgraded in this text and given a more hardened and mature edge. The book is not so much a call to arms, but a polemic against surveillance and technological manipulation in our culture. It is simultaneously intelligent and paranoid, making for interesting reading even if it leaves one recoiling over its oversensitivity's like one recoils from a street preacher. The fruits are aplenty here though, especially in regards to the effects of technology on culture, particularly in the form of marketing and mass manipulation. Look for some interesting insights and information on RFID tags, national id cards, schooling's relationship to prisons as well as the use of military tools in advertising and more.
The book embraces a sense of realism as it addresses the hard and ugly and attempts to set its opinions and ideals in a foundation intent on doing what's best for the world at large, even if that means putting various politically correct social ideologies on the back burner if they do not serve the more pressing cause of preserving our environment and making our cultures richer, healthier and happier. On the other hand the text also succumbs to some of the squabbling and under-thought solutions to current problems that stuck a knife in the counter-culture of the late 60's. In the case of this text it's wise to follow the path and view the many trees, but don't necessarily accept all the insights and solutions given, although some of them are fruitful and worth thinking about.
What's nice about this book as opposed to other texts that come from the same counter-cultural background, is that it does not adopt Tim Leary's counter-culture slogan of "tune in and drop out." The authors fully recognize the impossibility of ever "dropping out" and instead advocate action. The philosophy of these authors appears developed enough to the point that they recognize they are still products of their environment and they can never run and escape that as the back to land movement attempted, however they also recognize the need for radical change and attempt to address that change via modern communication means.
Those curious about psychological warfare, marketing control and gimmickry will find something interesting to read in this text.
Title: Irmins˚l
Author: Varg Vikernes
Publisher: Cymophane Publishing (2002)
Reading the thoughts and ideas by Varg Vikernes is always, in one way or another, a challenge. The young teenager declaring himself to be an inhuman Satanist, has today grown up to become a pan-Germanic nationalist, advocating eugenics and Aryan mythological ideology. Like always when reading something by this man, one has to take his ideas with a pinch of salt. While it is beyond doubt that Vikernes is a highly intelligent man, he also tends to migrate into very radical rhetoric, too far out for most people. This somewhat limits his reading base to the Burzum-fans and the dissident nationalists in Europe, interested in what this man has to say.
In his book "Irmins˚l", Vikernes talks about the god-pillar that in ancient times was worshipped by Germanic tribes. He historically binds the knowledge of the statue and takes it to a mythological perspective, where he claims that it represents Thor. Thor, he says, symbolizes the physical force of gravity. He connects Thor with the Roman god Jupiter, to explain how the planet Jupiter prevents physical matter to crash down on planet Earth, and thus bind Thor to this same power in the universe. The god-pillar, consisting out of two "arms", symbolizes the gravity-force of Thor and the explosion-force of Woden. This means, Vikernes agues, that Woden is behind the scientific phenomenon called "Big Bang", where space matter expanded and eventually formed that which we today refer to as "the universe", while Thor is behind the gravity force which tries to implode all matter and delay the expansion of the universe.
The main idea behind this discussion is the central force, sitting on the throne of the god-pillar, called Frey, which traditionally is understood as the god of fertility among Nordic pagan cults from pre-Christian times. Vikernes explains that Frey represents a balance between the expansion and the gravity of the universe, to achieve a state of harmony with life. He then talks about how humanity is able to create technology to achieve that balance, and this is where we start to see the good old Varg behind all of this: the Aryan race is the only race able to create this advanced technology, and can only reach this state through eugenics and racial separation. Who could guess?
The interesting about this book is that it manages to cover so many fields of understanding: science, mythology, philosophy, history, etymology, politics - you name it. What's even more interesting is that the discussion seem to be very well grounded and contain very few holes. One has to understand this is Vikernes, when we read about how an alien race might have recreated itself through the Aryan race on Earth to immortalize its spirit. Still, it's impossible to discard that this man is very intelligent and paints a surprisingly intriguing perspective, justifying nationalism, eugenics, and a spiritual lifestyle close to nature. It's arguable whether one agrees with him on all points, and some debates may come off as completely absurd, yet we're not able to neglect this book as something irrelevant. No other scientist, if one may call Vikernes a scientist, has come up with the kind of quasi-mythological, quasi-philosophic debate around the creation and maintenance of the universe, like this man has. It's obvious that he takes his ideas seriously and that a lot of studying has gone into the creation of this short but intense material. Through an amazing allegoric depiction of Indo-european thought and culture, we experience a radical but nonetheless fascinating insight, into the mind of one of the most peculiar and far-out thinkers of our modern time. - Alexis
Cinema
Film: Videodrome
Director: David Cronenberg
Release: 1983
"The Television screen is the retina of the minds eye"- Videodrome
Videodrome is an acid trip of a film that reflects parts of the philosophy of Canadian media ecologist Marshall McLuhan as well as French post-modernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard. The film stars James Woods as tv executive Max Renn, who specializes in showing dirty and smutty underground films on obscure late night television channels. The film is directed by the ever pervasive and perverse David Cronenberg, who also directed William S. Burrough's "Naked Lunch" as well as an array of sci-fi/horror films like "The Fly," and "Scanners."
Videodrome follows the story of Max Renn as he seeks out new and shocking entertainment to show on his late night television station. Renn is an amoralist who thrives on personal gain, no matter what the expense. Renn, however, doesn't believe what he is showing on tv is real, it's all just entertainment. But things get strange for Renn as he discover's a new shocking program, Videodrome. Videodrome is a shocking late night feature shot with a candid camera and featuring lewd acts of bondage, S&M and murder. Renn becomes so obsessed with Videodrome that he demands to find its source and creator. However Renn soon discover's Videodrome is real and it begins effecting his life. Over time the media enterprise Renn thinks he is controlling slowly starts to leak into his world to control him. Videodrome becomes reality and begins infecting his life, so much so that he begins having hallucinations that he is becoming an extension of his television and vcr set.
The film takes up some ideas from Marshall McLuahan, the Canadian philosopher who dubbed the term "the medium is the message" to describe the all pervasive influence of a media technology upon its environment. In the modern era the media has become our environment and we live partly in a simulation of information transformation and dub it "reality" (i.e. "reality" tv). The medium itself has the power to shape the way we think and act. Those of us living in media cultures are so indoctrinated with media sources that we don't even question or challenge their authenticity. We have lost the ability to trust our eyes because "it's all just entertainment" or "it's not really real." But in essence the medium works to effect and shape us, making it very real. In Videodrome we find a film that blurs the line between "reality" of the physical world and the "reality" of the media world. The two become so intertwined that after a while, like the character of Max Renn, we can't tell the difference. This is where the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard comes in, with his idea of hyper-reality and simulacrum. Videodrome represents a hyper reality, in that what it presents to us becomes more real than real.
Max Renn's character lives in the world of technology so much so that it takes over his consciousness. We are unsure if the hallucinations he starts to have after viewing Videodrome are pure fantasy, or if they are in fact things that are occurring. In his search for the source of Videodrome, Renn discovers the tapes of Dr. Brian O'Bliveon, a media ecologist who has died in body but who has transferred himself into an infinite series of videos, of which Max Renn discovers and plays. Many of the tapes are addressed exclusively to Renn and are philosophic explorations of the power of the new technological mediums and their ability to control our living space so much so that we live more in them than we do in the physical world around us. O'Bliveon reveals to Renn a secret about Videodrome, that it is in fact a weapon designed to take over mass consciousness by enveloping the brain with a tumor that creates hallucinations. This is a rather Cronenbergian twist as many of his films blend the line between biology and technology and show how the two effect and interact with each other.
By the time Renn learns of Videodrome's secrets it is too late. Renn, over time, is taken over by Videodrome and begins to change into a technological unit fit to fulfill Videodrome's desire to become the new reality. A secret cabal of Videodrome's creators contact Renn and attempt to load him with a videotape in order to program him to fulfill their needs. Renn resists but eventually is overcome and is essentially downloaded with data. His body eventually becomes melded with a gun hand that shoots ectoplasm that dissolves the body of its victim. This motif is a common one in Cronenberg's films as he often likes to deal with biology and the body. What more perfect territory to explore than the body and its relationship to our disembodying technologies such as the television and the computer? An interesting twist occurs in the film however as the Videodrome program subverted Renn's downloading process and actually reprogrammed him to kill its creators. By the end of the film we are left only with Videodrome and its material offshoot, Max Renn, just before he kills himself to enter Videodrome. The film ends with the iconic line "long live the new flesh."
The film's use of the term "new flesh" hauntingly predicted the internet boom of the 90's and its slew of online gamers giving over their bodily existence to "the game". With the internet and television more and more people are now spending large portions of their time in a disembodied intellectual medium. The medium itself has the power, like Videodrome, to overtake us and shape us in its image. Television has become the basis of reality for many in our culture. Show a teenager a picture of gore from a film vs real gore and they might tell you the real gore looks fake. In fact such psychological tests have been done and the startling results are that those who have become indoctrinated by media are less likely to tell the difference. Media technologies shape the way we view the world and essentially make up "the new flesh." Videodrome uses both the film medium and the sci-fi/horror genre to encapsulate philosophically complex ideas relevant to our modern technological age and its obsession with disembodiment. By using horror and sci-fi elements Videodrome effectively works as a shocking film that leaves images in your head that contain philosophic weight. Cronenberg is an interesting director who leaves a love hate relationship in many viewers, this one included. But the challenge is worth it as there are ripe rewards to be found in the problems and issues Cronenberg's film raises.
Long live the new flesh! - Gestalt
Film: A Clockwork Orange
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Release: 1972
A Clockwork Orange, an adaptation of the highly acclaimed novel written by Anthony Burgess, is one of the best and surely the most controversial movie made by Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest film directors of the 20th century. The movie deals with themes of morality, role of the individual in the society, his free will and choice between good and evil and whether his humanity is lost when the society deprives him of that choice. Banned in many countries for its realistic scenes of violence and disturbing message, A Clockwork Orange tackles the heaviest problems of society with sardonic wit and satire which leaves nobody indifferent. A Clockwork Orange is a story about a vicious young man named Alex who, together with his gang, sets out into the nights of London beating, raping and robbing people without the slightest remorse because he is drawn and fascinated with "ultraviolence". Under Alex's ruthless and decisive leadership, the gang becomes notorious for their crimes. During one of their nocturnal rampages, Alex kills an old woman and is then betrayed by his gang, which leaves him to the clutches of the police. Sentenced to 14 years in prison, Alex finds himself in a situation from which he desperately tries to escape. After serving a few years in prison, Alex hears about the experimental Ludovico Treatment Technique, which is designed to suppress the desire for criminal behavior of the individual by injecting him with a serum, that causes him excruciating pain whenever he tries to act violently. Now being "reformed," Alex returns to society with uncertain future and many obstacles in front of him... With the brilliant Malcolm McDowell in the lead role, the actors are successfully portraying characters who fell lost and disillusioned in the declining society. Using innovative filming techniques, the director Stanley Kubrick made the movie as a dreamy journey by effectively using wide fisheye lenses and slow and fast motion in certain scenes which further break the illusion of reality; the story is seen through Alex's perspective and it is set in futuristic England. Almost all of the scenes were real locations, successfully showing the bleakness of a dysfunctional society. The slang language used in the movie is called "Nadsat" and it consists of Slavic words (for example "droog" and "britva" translate as "friend" and "razor") and it greatly contributes to the movie's uniqueness, so does the revolutionary soundtrack of Wendy Carlos, comprised mostly of reworkings of classical music with the Moog synthesizer which add a futuristic as well as familiar and archaic flavor. The critique in the movie is multilayered, satirical and sharp. Its primary targets are the society and the natural state of man, which is, according to Kubrick, brutal and violent and any society based on the false picture of that nature is probably doomed to failure. That is why the society is going berserk and oppressive, which artificial and mechanical methods try to "produce" the goodness in the individual by forcing him to act that way, so he also becomes artificial and mechanical, like the title of the movie suggests. He showed the two extremes of man's natural state and society's "civilizing" methods. The society tries to quickly and easily resolve its deepest problems, but concentrates only on the effect, not the cause. Its exceedingly bureaucratic nature is masterfully and humorously shown with long scenes of characters involved in protocol, signing multiple copies of forms, which further illustrate its incompetence. The movie, made in 1972, also criticizes behavioral psychology (which was popular at that time) which dehumanizes the individual and treats him like a robot whose faults can be fixed with the "stick and a carrot" approach. The satirical criticism of complex and deep issues of the society, as well as its innovative language, filming techniques and musical score continues to amaze, and upset critics and audience to this day, which serves as the best recommendation for seeing this movie. - Draugdur
Film: Conan the Barbarian
Director: John Milius
Release: 1982
The Sword and Sorcery genre is filled with all kinds of ludicrous garbage, that commonly ends up being a bad excuse for nudity and cheap ketchup effects. But as with movies in general, there are still a few gems out there of worth to seek out. "Conan the Barbarian" is one of them. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Conan, the innocent child that sees his family being slaughtered by a vicious warrior cult. Enslaved and used for hard labor, Conan grows up to become a strong and powerful man, eventually turned into a battle figure for his lord. One night when set free, Conan begins exploring the world around him and prepare to fulfill his destiny: to take revenge upon the warrior cult leader that killed his family and wiped out his tribe.
"Conan the Barbarian" is an edgy mix of war, passion and religion. Its narrative is loosely based upon Nordic mythology and seems to defend those values as a contrast against the mystic "snake cult" that is responsible for the death of Conan's tribe. This cult develops into a "worship of the flesh," which together with its submissive and materialistic character, becomes a symbol of Christianity and its inverted spiritual understanding of the world. Conan and his god Crom defend the pagan belief in "steel," that is, the power of war, strength and courage.
While the movie clearly wants to portray the conflict between these two religious worlds, it never holds water as a philosophical or artistic creation. Most effects are horrible, the dialogues are many times laughable and there's little of any sympathy for the characters involved. As an existential drama it is dodgy and confusing. A lot of scenes sweep the narrative over with bland scenes of sword fights and poorly simulated sex scenes. On the other hand, this is also where this film seems to provoke a sense of immersive experience. It's bold and fierce without becoming too pretentious. It has something to say but often uses clumsy ways of saying it.
While it's impossible to deny the B-grade factor of "Conan the Barbarian," the lucid but creative and beautiful passages of positive human desire and its equivalence in uncontrollable destruction, turn this violent, robust piece of cinema into a cheap but powerful epic that displays and confronts us with a belief in individual destiny and heroic sacrifice. - Alexis
