But how is electronic music anymore anachronistic than 20th century symphonic music? That didn’t exist in the medieval period, either.
Two different things here. Knights Tale the music entered into the movie itself. The crowd did the clap clap stomp. A background score isn’t that so it really can’t be anachronistic. Some music gets dated quickly. Some has a more timeless feel more suited for scoring. I watched Absence of Malice a while ago. It had a heavy synth score. It was just as jarring as it is in Ladyhawke and detracts from the movie.
Because symphonic music has been around since before we were born, so it sounds old. Synthesizers had been invented a decade or two before Ladyhawke was made, so it sounds new. Nowadays, they don’t sound “new” anymore, but they feel dated to a very particular time - the 1970s/80s, when a lot of syth music was popular - so it still feels anachronistic.
A century from now, if anyone’s still watching Ladyhawke, the soundtrack will probably not stand out so much.
To tell the truth, the syntho-op score for Ladyhawke never bothered me. I was more bothered by Rutger Hauer’s Pro-football knight’s helmet, which doesn’t at all resemble any period helm I’ve seen.
As for the music, this reminds me of the people who like Giorgiou Moroder’s restoration of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis from 1985 (just a couple of years before Ladyhawke), and insisted on showing it without the sound, substituting an orchestral score or something. I liked the modern score, dammit! I like the original orchestral score, now that it’s been resurrected and recorded, but there’s something good to be said for that modern soundtrack.
What feels “timeless” based on modern taste is just as anachronistic for a medieval themed movie.
Hmm… an interesting solution to the “this action requires a closed face shield, but if we’re paying for this star we need to see his face” conundrum.
It’s not any more anarchonistic, it’s jarring because the snyth music is associated with a particular era for many of us, the 1980s, and it’s just weird hearing it these days. I didn’t see Ladyhawke until some time between 2001-2006, and the soundtrack was just jarring in a way it might not have been in 1985.
Going back to the original subject…
really…
But yeah, as may be imagined the Conan of the stories is variously seen going about on boats, rafts, horseback, chariots, camels, palenquins, etc. depending on what suits best the situation.
Look, be glad they did not just skip and hop while clapping coconut shells.
Of course they didn’t. Coconut’s a tropical fruit. They lived in a temperate zone!
Perhaps a swallow brought one over, while migrating from Stygia or Kush?
It could grip it by the husk!
I don’t even know which movie it’s in, but if I’m channel-surfing and hit on the place where Grace Jones is kicking her tormentors’ ass after her chain is severed, I’ll always stop and watch. She was a natural to dress up as an Amazon warrior - believable and scary.
That’s the sequel, Conan the Destroyer. Which was a massive missed opportunity. It actually had in outline, a pretty solid Conan story - evil ruler, dark gods masquerading as benevolent, an attractive female that Conan lusts for more than any reward (more on this in a second), and a betrayal of the honorable barbarian by a civilized ruler at the end, to be followed by a final confrontation.
The last being one of the key points in the Howardian stories: the barbarian, though violent, scoffs at our laws and behaviors, but is innately honorable in most situations. Civilized persons claim to be beings of honor, but will cheat, lie, and otherwise abandon those civilized and honorable rules to gain an advantage.
The Execution of the story though is terrible. Conan stories don’t work well with a large party of supporters - in Howard’s works, they’ll be there, and almost always run away / die / betray well before the midpoint. Conan has supporters, not allies in almost all cases. The whole inter-party buddy comedy elements were terrible (IMHO), the wizard / mirror battle was horrible and a mis-appropriation of a different character, and Arnold’s efforts to actually act (as he has improved over time, but at this point he wasn’t really skilled IMHO) were a jarring mish-mash of elements that never came close to being a cohesive whole.
Back to the whole “Conan lusts for the woman, not the reward.” Conan is not, and should not be considered a hero. Protagonist, sure, but not a hero. He’s ultimately a mercenary, if arguably an honorable one by the standards of his world (see the above). And his attitudes towards women is utterly selfish, especially by modern sensibilities. The only ‘good’ thing about it is that he generally wants the women in his life sexually (thus having the ‘good’ in scare quotes) rather than for their money, position, or power. So he’s honest scum. 
Thankfully they have Conan rebuff the advances of the virginal princess, declaring his dedication to his lost love from the first film. Thankfully, because Olivia d’Abo was all of fourteen years old when filming began 
.
Agreed, better for all. But that’s part of what makes it a bad movie as a Conan movie. Still, now we’re getting into the weeds about canonical or ‘book’ versions vs movie versions, and far afield from what the original has to offer.
You just had to be there when it came out, man.
In hindsight, assigning Wilt Chamberlain to protect the Princess’s virginity was an all-time terrible idea.
ETA: I was totally squicked out when you said she was only 14 because I remember falling deeply in lust with her when I saw the movie. But I just checked and I’m actually only 17 months older than her, so I think it was acceptable.
Grace Jones was the highlight of of Conan the Destroyer for me. I was only 9-10 when it came out but I sure wouldn’t have minded “Death by Snu Snu”, courtesy of Zula 
Crush your enemies!
See them driven before you!
And hear the lamentation of the women!
Now go and contemplate this on the Tree of Woe…
Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of.