Ray Harryhausen and Clash Of The Titans

[Ghostboy]

Time for some reminiscing. I was about ten when I first saw Clash Of The Titans on TV, and it sparked a huge love of a.) Greek Mythology and b.) the special effects of Ray Harryhausen. I think I watched just about every movie he did, Jason And The Argonauts being the best, I think, and the only one I own. Nothing can top that skeleton fight (and the Bernard Hermann score is top notch).

Anyway, I picked up Clash Of The Titans today -- I haven't seen it since 92 or 93. I couldn't believe how badly it was written/directed -- it's almost MST3K worthy. Seeing all these great actors like Olivier spout the dialogue was alternately embarassing and hilarious. I'm surprised it was produced as late as 1981. Harryhausen spearheaded the productions, but you can tell his expertise was in special effects and the characters of his creatures, and not in the overall scope of the films.

But I still loved it, nonetheless. The special effects really were amazing -- the craftsmanship of the animation, and the incredible composite shots too, are sometimes mind blowing.

On a side note: the movie's got some pretty decent nudity for a PG rated film (I remember the Sinbad movies baring the flesh of their ingenues as well) -- no wonder I loved it so much when I was hitting puberty. It's mostly nonsexual, of course, and its nice to know that, at least at some recent point in history, people weren't 100% afraid of the human body. The most recent PG-rated movie I can think of that clearly showed a woman's breast was Baron Munchausen. Those crazy censors and their double standards.

But back to the special effects of Harryhausen...I love 'em. And Willis O'Brien too. Peter Jackson has the original King Kong armature O'Brien made. Can you imagine getting to see that up close and personal?

[El Duderino]

first time i saw it, i think i was 7 or 8, and medusa gave me so many nightmares. clash of the titans is way cool.

[RegularKarate]

Interesting you bring this up today... I was just looking at this at Border's yesterday:

[Mesh]

Anyway, I picked up Clash Of The Titans today -- I haven't seen it since 92 or 93. I couldn't believe how badly it was written/directed -- it's almost MST3K worthy. Seeing all these great actors like Olivier spout the dialogue was alternately embarassing and hilarious.

The way I remember it, Burgess Meredith made pretty much all of his lines work, no?