The Riddle of Steel
January 6th, 2008
While searching for an explanation of why, god, why did they put that deleted scene of Subotai talking like the surfer dude he is into the DVD release of Conan, I found some interesting stuff. First is that "Subutai" was the lead strategist of Ghengis Khan. He was a smart fellow who was able to coordinate armies 500 kilometers apart from each other without the Internet. This is also interesting because the "crush your enemies" quote is similar to something that Ghengis Khan said. While roles played by the Conan/Subotai pair and Ghenigs Khan/Subutai are completely different, perhaps some source material for the movie characters was drawn from the later.
The second bit I found on wikipedia. You can find it here.
What caught my eye was the "riddle of steel" section. Even considering that I've seen this movie far too many times, I've never really "figured out" the riddle of steel. The closest I got was that steel isn't really strong and isn't a source of power. I suppose I could have told you that without watching the movie. After reading the wikipedia page, it occurred to me that that neither 'steel' nor 'flesh' is something you can equate to power. It's more about the meaning projected on either due to one's beliefs. The wikipedia page suggests that the final battle scene at the burial site is a change in Conan's mentality from a brute force approach to craftier battle tactics. It then goes to suggest that once he sees his father's sword break, it occurs to him that neither steel nor flesh have power, and that power lies in your beliefs. And supposedly, this is how he defeats Thulsa Doom in the end - he is forced to subdue his belief that Thulsa Doom has power over him. Then he lops off his head and shows the cult followers that hey, Thulsa Doom was really just a guy after all, not a God.
He was a guy who could turn into a snake and shoot life-seeking snake arrows, though. So who knows.
In any case, this is interesting to me because finding meaning and creating meaning is related to the "that which does not kill you makes you stronger" quote. That which does not kill you imposes upon you a purpose or meaning, and you are challenged to overcome it. I think Nietzsche was an active nihilist, which would be in line with this.
While the second movie is definitely a 'pulp' sword-and-sorcery movie (and is also crap), I maintain that the first is more interesting than merely a bodybuilder's fantasy movie.