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Clash of the Titans
(1981)
The 80’s created a new genre of fantasy films from
Conan the Barbarian to
The Beast Master which generally
involved a beefcake hero, swords, sorcery and of course a token naked
female who was thrown into the mix. Unlike
Disney, it was fantasy for
adults that truly made a mark on pop culture and with the upcoming
release of Clash of the Titans
(2010), Warner have released the original 1981 move on glorious DVD. But
what made this movie so memorable, were the special effects, thanks to
Ray Harryhausen who used stop motion and blue-screen techniques to truly
recreate the world of mortals and gods in ancient Greece.
Story wise, Clash of the Titans
is a modern interpretation of the myths and tales from ancient Greece
which revolve around protagonist Perseus (Harry Hamlin - LA LAW) who happens to
be the mortal son of Zeus (Lawrence Olivier). Unfortunately with the
gods involved, Perseus’ life will be anything than easy and after Zeus
has an affair with King Acrisius’ beautiful wife, he exiles both his wife
and the bastard child of Zeus. Disgusted by
Acrisius,
Zeus gets the last laugh when he destroys his city for his diabolical act.
In exile, Perseus grows up into a handsome and powerful man who embarks
on a truly momentous life journey. Joined by Ammon (Burgess Meredith), a
mysterious Greek poet who is along the ride as a “guide”
and for some comedy relief, Perseus must fight for the hand of the
beautiful princess, Andromeda. Like a video game, this will be achieved by solving puzzles and
battling an unending number of mythological creatures from undead
skeletons to Cerberus and even deadly Medusa herself.
The story is clichéd, camp & cheesy and ironically there are some big
named actors involved in this production such as Lawrence Olivier as
Zeus or Ursula Andress as the beautiful Aphrodite.
Hamlin is also the perfect archetype hero as is his opposite, played by Neil
McCarthy who plays the nefarious devil like creature called Calibos,
cursed by the gods. Although the movie is quite over the top at times
and the special effects are a little embarrassing, more so if you belong
to generation Y, the film is actually quite entertaining and enjoyable
to watch.
But the star of the 1981 version of
Clash of the Titans is the
special effects, thanks to Ray Harryhausen and even though a majority is
stop-motion such as the serpent haired Medusa or the giant Kraken, he
really did up the ante of what was possible during this time. It will be
interesting to see how the remake will fair because beating this classic
will be a difficult task and hopefully won’t be too serious, like the
Godzilla remake.
The only letdown of this release is the video quality and even though it
supports widescreen, it’s rather quite poor from dirt, speckles and
grain. Unfortunately Clash of the
Titans hasn’t faired too well with age and the video should more
aptly be titled Crash of the Titans. In terms of audio, the movie features
Dolby Digital 2.0 which isn’t
spectacular but does manage to get the job done well, especially with
those epic battles that Perseus fights. For extras, this DVD release
comes with an interesting piece called "A Conversation with Ray Harryhausen"
which is a small featurette that goes into the making of this movie from
special effects to actors. Interesting but a little short.
Crunch time! Seeing this movie again brought back fond childhood
memories and even among my friends, this movie made quite an impact on
us. Almost 30-years on, that impact is still there and it really makes
you appreciate how special effects have advanced from stop motion to
amazing CGI films such as Avatar. The story may be clichéd and over the
top but it successfully recreates the stories of Greek mythology and
even though the movie comes from a simpler time, it is just as
enjoyable.
Highly Recommended! |
