JODY SAMSON & THE RIDDLE OF STEELA talk with the "Conan the Barbarian" Blademaster! Reported By: Akim "Goose" Bischoff Monday, March 19, 2001 The reputation of Jody Samson, the California born master blade & armor craftsman, is as strong as steel in Hollywood. Known for his work and designs featured in films like "The Mask of Zorro," "Blade," "First Knight," "Hook" and "Batman & Robin" and television projects like "Babylon 5" and "MacGyver," this gifted craftsman has sculpted himself quite a legendary career and has earned his place as one of the world's top sword makers in the Entertainment world. Although his work in the above mentioned projects are incredibly impressive in their own right, no film or television series has given Jody Samson more notoriety than his work in the 1982 fantasy epic "Conan the Barbarian" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The swords he created for the John Milius directed film, has been consistently celebrated by weapon and film enthusiasts across the world as the best weapons ever fashioned for a fantasy genre film. Now, for the first time ever, reproductions of these swords have been made available at Albion Armorers. Taking time out of his very busy schedule, Jody Samson took some time out to speak with The ARNOLD FAN, and mostly reflect on a very "barbarous" period of his career.
JODY: I think [director] John Milius came in with [production designer] Ron Cobb originally. They hired me and then I worked with Tim after that. 
TAF: During the pre-production of "Conan the Barbarian" I heard that John Milius' office walls and doors suffered quite a butchering where John would test out the weaponry and passionately act out the script's scenes. Where you involved with that at all?JODY: (Laughs) No, I've never been to his office. I did have a 50 gallon steel barrel in the back of the shop and I stuck the sword in it a couple of times to make sure it wouldn't break. This was obviously before I was finished so I could eliminate any scratches or anything, but I do that with a lot of my swords. TAF: How difficult was it to transfer Ron Cobb's sword designs into three dimensional prototypes? 
JODY: Ron's drawings were very good. They were like blue prints. That part was easy, especially the blade. The blades were much easier than doing the carvings for the first time. I did the carving for the [Conan's] father's sword. The skull. I had it flat like a medallion. Tim showed it to him [Ron] and he wanted it more 3-dimensional.TAF: Did you have any creative freedom at all where you can say.. "Ron, it doesn't work exactly this way. Can I tweak it a little?" JODY: No. I just did it the way the drawing was. I had no problem with that. I am sure there was some unconscious interpretation on my part when you are looking at a 2-dimensional drawing and you have to make it 3-dimensional. You have to make decisions. TAF: Is that the normal process in weapon making for film? Production Designers would design the swords themselves and you would have to make it to specification? Or are you given more freedom in other films compared to "Conan the Barbarian?" 
JODY: It depends on the film. When I did "Beastmaster 3 - The Eye of Braxus" they had a rough drawing of what they wanted and I had to interpret that a great deal. And then there's other movies like Conan where they want it "just like this."TAF: It was reported that electricity was used to engrave Cobb's stylized script onto your prototype blade [for Conan.] Can you explain the process? JODY: It was sent out to have that done. It's kind of a salt water bath and they put reisiston on the blade so under electricity it will eat where you want the letters to be [cut] deeper. TAF: The swords in Conan did not look light. JODY: Oh yeah. Any time you do a hero's sword, because it is so outrageous and large [and] you want it to come across as a giant thing on the screen, the balance is all wrong for fighting. There's no way to make it light. TAF: I believe [Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sandahl Bergman] were training almost a year before the film went into production with balanced sabers. Do you know if the transition between balanced weapons and non-balanced weapons caused any difficulty for the actors? JODY: I don't believe there was. I spoke with Arnold when he was working on "Batman & Robin" and he mentioned that in the movie when he chopped the snake's head off, he used one of the good swords.. the steel one.. and he said even though it was heavy, it was balanced good. TAF: What did you think of "Excalibur" which was filmed during the same time. 
JODY: It was super pretty. It was filmed just like a [Frank] Frazetta painting and I know Terry English, they guy who did the armor for that film.TAF: You worked with Terry on "Batman & Robin" right? JODY: Yeah! "Excalibur" had a hard edge. It was a little more realistic [than Conan] in one way, superfantasy in the other if you read history books. It's just like "Braveheart" when they're dueling with those big long swords to kill the horse the guy's attacking them on, then kill the guy. But they necessarily didn't run into a crowded battlefield with a six foot long sword and expect to get any work done. TAF: But it does look terrific on camera. JODY: Yeah, they're two different things.. movies and real life. [In] movies they have to exaggerate. TAF: I would imagine that the massive swords in "Conan the Barbarian" were blade heavy. 
JODY: Actually, they were handle heavy [because of] the bronze for the castings. [Conan's] father's sword with the skull was about 6 & 1/2 pounds. The Atlantean sword was a little over eight. It was 60% heavier than it should have been. A broadsword should be 3 to 3 & 1/2 pounds.The Roman army, when they were fighting wars [they] would change their troops. The front line would rotate about every 10 or 15 minutes to keep the strong people up front. Nobody fights with a sword for twenty minutes. Even boxers fight 3 minutes then take a break, and they're just wearing gloves. TAF: Actress Sandahl Bergman almost lost her finger in a swordplay accident during filming [of "Conan the Barbarian"] because Valeria's aluminum saber (reported to be faithfully based on a Chinese design) had no guard. Do you always implement mandatory guards in your designs to prevent these types of accidents? JODY: No. But once again, if it's for the movies, one assumes that the people know what they are doing. The dangerous part comes when somebody doesn't know how to use a sword, [only] gets a few weeks training and then is in a movie. TAF: Do you go to the theater often? JODY: No, I rarely go to movies. The last two movies I saw... I saw "Cuttthroat Island" and the movie before that was "Dances with Wolves" and I rarely rent things. TAF: Really! That's interesting because you do so much work in film. JODY: I haven't even seen "Batman & Robin." 
TAF: Speaking of "Batman & Robin," you worked with Terry English and helped him design Mr. Freeze's armor. What was that experience like?JODY: I didn't help design [it, but] I did help polish the armor, put it together, assembly work and stuff like that. And then I was on first unit during filming for repairs. TAF: I heard it was very time consuming to apply the whole make-up application on Arnold. How long did it take roughly for him to be completely suited up in armor? JODY: Oh, maybe 15 or 20 minutes. TAF: There was a lot of intricate lighting involved right? JODY: Yeah. There was a light-a-ray that fit inside the helmet to light up [Arnold's] face and then there was a lot of pads that would light up. It was pretty involved. TAF: I heard there was a lot of security on that film. JODY: There was! TAF: Was it more than you have ever been involved with regarding security on a film? JODY: Oh yeah. When I did the Conan swords I was working in my own shop and they were just there. People would walk in and say "what are you doing?" and I would say I am working on something for a movie, because you generally don't mention the movie. But with Mr. Freeze, the costume trailer had a security guard outside of it. Warner Bros, the part of the lot that was doing the filming, had security all over! TAF: You did the swords for the Universal Studios 80's "Conan Stage Show" right? JODY: I did a bunch of swords for that, just for a while until they got a guy who could cast them. I always use aircraft aluminum. They hold up good, they look good, they ring very nice. Usually with movies, mostly Conan, Beastmaster, Blind Fury, stuff I have done - they'll have steel blades. Then they'll have aluminum blades and they might even have rubber blades. TAF: Richard Fliesher, director of the timid sequel "Conan the Destroyer," said that John Milius was wrong for not taking proper advantage of showing of Arnold Schwarzenegger's physique in the first Conan film. JODY: That's the same syndrome for other shows [in the fantasy genre] and movies like that. Show body! Show body! It wasn't necessarily that way [back then.] They did dress in the winter, warm! (Laughs) They didn't run around with little thongs on, nor would they do that in the desert sun! TAF: Now almost twenty years later, what do you think of the finished film? JODY: Considering what had been made in that type of film preceding that, ["Conan the Barbarian"] was to fantasy films as "Star Wars" was to spaceship movies. It was a big leap for this movie to do this, and the budget at the time I think was 40 Million, which was huge. [Of course] it would be a small budget today. That was a different day. I think it was a breakthrough film for when it came out. A major film for Arnold and the genre. I'd like to see them do another one, just because of the technology that we have today. You know, you take a film like "Gladiator," and they did tremendous things, which at the time of Conan they could not have done. 
TAF: Speaking of "another one," there has been rumors circulating that there will be another sequel to Conan, a "Conan 3." Have you heard any news that you can offer?JODY: I have been hearing rumors. About every 3 to 4 years I hear they are talking about a new Conan, but they're just rumors. They set it up for the third movie where Arnold would be King and in the books. [Arnold] would be 50-55. So who knows? TAF: Would you want to be involved if it becomes a reality? JODY: Oh, I'd love to! Yeah, it would be a big privilege to make the swords for another movie like that!
---------- |