Review of Clash of the Titans (1981) by Robert D — 15 Jun 2012

The movie Ray Harryhausen is perhaps best known for is JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, so it should not be surprising that after a decade of working on Sinbad pictures, the master of stop-motion animation returned to the Greek mythology universe. Here, in what proved to be his final movie is the story of Perseus and Andromeda in an all-star cast extravaganza.

Of course, even though this movie has perhaps one of the most impressive cast list of any Harryhausen movie, the true star here is the special effects. And in a world that is now dominated with computer-generated effects, the stop-motion Kraken or Pegasus look a little dated now, but I think that that is part of their charm.

There's something almost TOO perfect about CGI effects (though there are exceptions like the truly terrible parasurfing scene in 2002's DIE ANOTHER DAY), and the rather obvious two-headed dog and the snake-haired Medusa in this picture have a certain charm to them that is lost in today's cinema.

Yet, it would be remiss not to mention the cast of this movie. A relative unknown at the time the movie was made who went on to fame in TV's L.A. LAW and is possibly best known to audiences today as the villainous Aaron Echolls on VERONICA MARS is Harry Hamlin.

Joining Hamlin is some inspired casting in the parts of the Greek Gods. Who better to play Zeus than theater and film great Laurence Olivier and is there anyone more suited to play the Goddess of Love Aphrodite than former Bond girl (and Hamlin's real-life partner at the time) Ursula Andress. Rounding out the Gods is the famed British actress Maggie Smith who plays the sea goddess Thetis.

The movie starts with the only daughter of Acrisius (Danae) and her son Perseus being set adrift to die for her having a baby out of wedlock. Of course the father is Zeus and so he has the coffin in which Danae and Perseus were placed guided safely to a far away shore.

Years later a grown-up Perseus goes to sleep on the shore and wakes to find himself far away in the center of an amphitheater. There he meets the friendly playwright Ammon (played by screen great Burgess Meredith) and (understandably) falls in love with the princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker).

Unfortunately for Perseus, the princess had been engaged to Thetis' son, before he was punished for his cruelty by Zeus by being disfigured and banished to the swamps. Soon Perseus Is on a series of quests to tame the flying horse Pegasus, defeat and capture the head of Medusa and solving a series of riddles, all with the help of Zeus and the opposition of Thetis.

Of course the plot, which is actually comprised of several myths woven together, is simply a backdrop on which to feature all the incredible effects of Harryhausen and his team. All are very impressive, even the rather obtrusive and silly mechanical owl (which I found annoying as a child, and still find annoying today).

At the time of the release Harryhausen granted an interview with the British magazine Starburst in which he addressed his interest in mythology at the expense of science fiction (which was all the rage at that time in the wake of 1977's STAR WARS). Simply put, Harryhausen posited that science fiction would only be impressive for a set amount of time, whereas fantasy is timeless. I subscribe to this view. Harryhausen also talked about the sometimes very tedious nature of stop-motion saying that there were some days when he just couldn't face working on a couple of seconds of Kraken footage.