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SOURCES: David C. Smith, max Von Sydow.
AUDIO COMMENTARY: No.
NOVELIZATION: Yes.
COMIC BOOK: No.
FILMED?: Yes.
EXTRAS LAST UPDATE: --- |
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It seems the meeting with king Osric was reduced in the final cut [1], as explained by David C. Smith:
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Lines trimmed from the thieves’ appearance before King Osric portray a political situation more complex and unstable than that indicated in the final cut of the movie: "Everywhere these evil towers," Osric tells the trio. "They take our youth and turn them into reptiles, vipers. My own soldiers dare not stand in their path. My fiercest warriors turn from duty... Anyone who stands against them has been murdered." "Why do you not fear a dagger in your back?" Conan asks him. The question is prophetic. Doom means to be rid of King Osric, as indicated by a later, deleted scene.
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In the second draft of the Milius script (quoted by Smith), Osric is indeed assassinated by his own guards, on the order of the high priest Yaro, who came to ask the king the hand of his daughter in the name of Thulsa Doom.
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THE GREAT HALL
YARO
My Lord, Thulsa Doom, the true prophet of Set, wishes that your daughter Yasmina may become his wife.
OSRIC
Monstrous--you come in here and ask me that! Monstrous!
YARO
As you wish, sire. It is the Grand Master’s wish that by an alliance of the marriage, Zamora would become the kingdom of Set.
OSRIC
I am still king, and while I live I shall never sanction this monstrous union, this hellish corruption. Guards!
The guards step out, looking cold and efficient. Yaro looks them over...
YARO
If I were to ask you, would you slay this infidel for my master?
Without a change in expression, they draw their swords and advance on the king... They slay him hideously. Yaro walks away. The guards follow him, sheathing their weapons.
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In the movie, the Yaro character has disappeared, finally replaced by Rexor and Thorgrim (for example, it is Yaro who, in the script, officiated in the Tower of the Serpent at the time of the ritual sacrifice of the young virgin).
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The Osric murder scene is present in the novelization, but not in the comic book adaptation. It was however filmed, since it appears as an extra on the Collector's Edition DVD. In the "making of" documentary, Max Von Sydow explains why, according to him, this scene was never integrated into the film:
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Von Sydow : "All I remember really is from a scene which is not in the film. It was cut out and... that was after the scene when the three thieves are presented to King Osric. King Osric is killed, by his bodyguards I think, who has gone secretely with the snake worshippers. And Milius, who is very found of swords, and decapitations, and things... he actually figured out that I was not going to be decapitated but he wanted a man to hit me with his sword, right over my stomach I believe, and almost cut me in a half. So, I was rigged up with big blood bags all over, underneath his costume. And this guy came up to me and tried to kill me, and hit me with his sword, then I tried to die as realistically as I could. But he missed, so no blood was drawn. And Milius was really upset! So, another time, retake, we did it again, and the same was out, it was not as spectacular as he wanted. So, again, they put up these blood bags... And, finally, he hit the right spot, and there was a fountain of blood! And we all fell into paroxystic laughter, because it was so extraordinary that it was, I mean, blatantly not usable!" |
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Unlike the Milius cameo appearance, the death of the king scene is reproduced on the DVD in an unfinished form. All we get simply are four unedited takes, presented in the rough (one still can see the movie clapboards at the beginning of each take!). The first take has no audio; the second and the third ones are, in fact, the same take seen/shot from two different angles (the scene was simultaneously filmed by two cameras, possibly even more): take #1 of the shot #254. An edited/assembled version of all these takes (and of some others) however seems to exist, since one can see short clips of it inserted in the "making of" documentary, during the Max Von Sydow interview. But maybe these takes were in fact put together, and some sound effects added [2] by the filmmakers who did the documentary? It is extremely possible. It is however regrettable that this scene was not included in a more complete form in the supplements of the Collector's Edition DVD.
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