When I did the review and podcast for Clash of the Titans, one thing that stood out was Ray Harryhausen’s special effects. Harryhausen’s stop motion effects are, for good reason, often associated with a certain type of movie, and a friend even told me when I mentioned what I was doing with Clash that the greatest such Harryhausen scene was the skeletons coming to life in Jason and the Argonauts.
Well, I had some time and some curiosity, so here we are.
In the opening scene, Pelias conquers the kingdom of Jason’s father, slaughtering most of the royal family in the process. Only protection by the gods saves the infant Jason, but it does mean the goddess Hera takes a special interest in the boy, and unusual turn of events as Zeus points out her focus is usually on women and not men, his domain. However, the two cut a deal and Hera can assist Jason a very specific number of times. And, once he grows up, Jason wants his father’s kingdom back, and the way to do that is to show proper devotion to the gods’ power and bring the Golden Fleece back. Assembling a crew of heroes, he sets off on a series of adventures to find and return the Fleece.
Now, it’s worth noting most of the characters in this movie aren’t really distinct people so much as they are archetypes of either heroic or villainous. Why does Jason do what he does? Because that’s what heroes do. That’s all there is to it. About the only members of the cast to show any real personality are Hercules and Hylas. The former is a jovial muscleman, strong but not superhumanly so, that seems to just enjoy a good time and doesn’t think too far ahead. The latter is clever and smart, and the two share a bond when both figure out a way to hit a distant rock with a discuss in the middle of the ocean. However, neither character finishes the journey, so that about did it for characters with more than two potential dimensions.
As for the rest of the movie, the real stars are Harryhausen’s creations. I mean, the only name in the cast I recognized was former Bond girl Honor Blackman, so the real star power were the still-impressive stop motion effects, most notably the giant living statue Talos and a handful of skeleton warriors for the movie’s climactic battle. Talos is stiff in his motions, covered in age spots, slow, and still a deadly antagonist. The skeletons are just fantastically rendered, every bit as good as their reputation.
That said, the skeleton battle is actually the end of the movie. We see Jason retrieve the Golden Fleece and escape to the Argo with his love interest Medea, and aside from Zeus saying he isn’t done with the young hero, that’s the end of the movie. There is no triumphant return to dethrone Pelias, possibly because the filmmakers didn’t want to depict Jason’s ultimate treatment of Medea, but all things being equal, it’s still a fun movie, perhaps the best of the old adaptations of Greek myth that Harryhausen found himself involved in, even if it does have something of an abrupt ending.
Grade: B+
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