The Universal collector's edition DVD of this 1981 cult classic by John Milius is one-stop shopping for all you need to know about the making of Conan. It contains an audio commentary by Milius and Arnold Schwarzenegger, deleted scenes, a short feature on special effects used in the movie, trailers, and "The Conan Archives" which has nice supplements relating to making the film.

The best part of all is CONAN UNCHAINED: The Making of Conan, a nice doc with interviews with director Milius, Arnold, Sandhal Bergman, Max von Sydow, Oliver Stone and James Earl Jones, among others who worked on it. Dino De Laurentiis , main financier for the film, also gives his thoughts on this cult classic and it's origins. They made a pretty damn good movie in my opinion. Some critical rockets can be fired at it I suppose- Arnold's "acting" is funny to me in a couple scenes, but he IS Conan- who else could they have gotten who would've been better?
No one in my opinion. The cast were given sword-fighting lessons, horse-riding lessons and everyone seems to be proud that they worked on this movie. And they should be. It still holds up. What Milius pulled off here is very admirable, given his resources and abilities. Getting Max von Sydow was a coup. They thought he would turn the role down outright. But he accepted immediately, asking when he should show up on set.
The temple set is impressive to me, and Milius maximized his use of that set to me. It's like a temple from a Kurosawa set, shot with great angles and imposing vision. We learn the script by Oliver Stone was the one that got the project moving. Another script was written, but it wasn't quite up to snuff. Oliver comes in and writes an amazing script, full of mutants and animals and creatures and mythology. Oliver saw it as an amazing franchise- 12 movies! One a year! How did it not carry on? Conan could've been Arnold's flagship character, the one he's remembered the most for. But no, it will be the Terminator.

I love Conan The Barbarian. One of my guilty pleasure flicks. It's got enough fantasy and mythology in it to satisfy me.
By Crom, watch it with a slab of meat and some firewater for full immersion. :)