Review of The Valley of Gwangi (1969) by Tim S — 22 Jan 2013

The thing about The Valley of the Gwangi that I find so extraordinary is that it's more or less a remake of King Kong. It's not difficult to understand that once you know that Willis O'Brien tried to make this film for years before his death.

There were a lot of unintentional Kong clones (and some intentional), but I think the idea is sort of universal in nature. In this instance, it's not about feeling pity for the creature at all. It's cowboys against dinosaurs, with James Franciscus (who strikingly reminds me of Burt Lancaster) in the lead.

The story moves pretty slowly, setting up the characters before the real point of interest begins, which is the T. Rex. It really leads to nowhere, as the characters are all just screaming chaos and there's no real resolution to their story at the end.

Oh well, it doesn't matter much I guess. Harryhausen's stop-motion effects are fantastic and the idea is pretty neat, but the film doesn't hold up as a whole piece, in my opinion.