Review of Jason and the Argonauts (1963) by Mark D — 17 May 2010

Best in Show: Ray Harryhausen.

One for the future: n/a.

Stand-out scene: Skeleton soldier fight.

Brainer or no-brainer: No brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Repeated.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

TV.

Apparently a British Christmas TV staple but this was the first time I saw this fantasy adventure movie all the way through. Having enjoyed The Cure of the Were-Rabbit these holidays and hearing Ray Harryhausen's name mentioned amid the extras (he popped by to the Aardman Animation HQ, as you do) I decided to seek this out. Once you've got used to the fairly stilted delivery style adopted by the cast in bringing the Greek myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece to the big screen it's a fun movie. Harryhausen refers to this movie as his masterpiece and with good reason; the climactic 'skeleton soldier' scene alone took him 4 months to produce (and the cuts made to the footage must have been agonising for him). Of course, you can see the joins and the 'special' effects aren't so special but as a fan of stop motion its easy to see why the artform endures to this day as this film continues to inspire generation after generation of aspiring filmmakers. The Virgin movie guide warned me that the actor who plays Jason is particularly wooden and it turns out that his voice was re-dubbed by a British actor. Other thesps amongst the cast includes Honor Blackman, a pre Doctor Who Patrick Troughton and Nancy Kovack. Any movie with a character called Argos will raise a titter in modern-day Britain and if you see this movie in the right spirit then it doesn't outstay its one hour 44 minute running time. Reading up on a beginners' guide to Greek legends this is a bit of a mythmangler to say the least and the abrupt ending suggests that this was originally conceived as a multi-episodic adventure. With charm by the bucketload this is ideal fare for viewing as a family and its worth seeing for Ray Harryhausen's painstaking work alone.