Retro Review: Clash of the Titans (1981)

Apr 012010

clash The Clash of the Titans is one of those movies that makes you think, “This is why we invented movies.” We open on a Greek beach with Acrisius, the king of the island of Argos sentencing his only daughter Danae to death along with her illegitimate son in a very James Bond bad-guy fashion- with an execution in a coffin to be tossed into the sea. But, as we can all tell by the victory music that starts up, they’ll be fine. Turns out the boy is Perseus, the son of Zeus, who came to Danae in the form of a shower of gold.

Quick Backstory – (not included in the movie) King Acrisius, who had only his daughter and no sons, consulted the famed oracle at Delphi for help and instead learns that the son of his only daughter would end up killing him. So, instead of killing her, he responds, in that same incredible Blofeldian way, by locking his daughter in the dungeon… forever! While imprisoned, Zeus, disguised as a shower of gold from the sky, does the do with her, and she gives birth. Acrisius of course, hears the baby crying, fears his own death, and decides to drown them both. Also not in the movie is the fact that eventually (after the events that¬†are in the movie) Perseus, having learned of his father’s encounter with the oracle, voluntarily exiles himself to the island of Thessaly. When he arrives, funerary games are being held for the former king. Perseus enters into the discus throw, where he throws the discus so far, it goes outside the playing field and cracks a spectator on the head who, as we can all predict, turns out to be his father! Back to the review!) Zeus, in retribution for the attempted murder of his own son, punishes Argos with destruction at the hands of the Kracken, a giant, merciless, deadly sea monster.

A Kraken

A Quick Note about the Kracken:
Being a big mythology buff, I was embarrassed to find out that the Kraken is not actually in Greek mythology. Who knew? Even more embarrassing is that despite my fifty-seven million books of mythology from all over the world, I learned this about the Kraken from the Blu-ray special features. The Kraken is actually Norse in origin, taking its name from the Scandanavian word Krake, meaning “something twisted.” Appearing more in oral legend than as a poetic character, it was said that the Kraken could grab the largest warships and take them to the bottom of the ocean. And as though that weren’t enough, even if the Kraken completely ignored your vessel, the whirlpool created when it quickly dived back underwater was enough to destroy any ship. It is most likely that the legends of the Kraken are based on actual sightings of Giant Squid, but it’s impossible to know every species that lives in the ocean.

So Perseus and Danae¬†are escorted by the¬†power of gods to the Isle of Seriphos, where the two live a happy, naked life together. Also not included in the film is the bit where the ruler of Seriphos comes to Danae on the beach, and demands she be his wife. Perseus is angered by the ruler’s attitude, and demands they not wed. He vows he will bring back the head of Medusa to keep them apart, and, being a Greek hero, does. This illustrates one of the beauties of mythology – the stories continue to change, so that questions like, “Why does Perseus go to kill Medusa?” become unanswerable. Alongside questions like, “Where did Batman’s Joker come from?” Stories constantly change to fit the storytellers. It’s convenient to say that Perseus is defending his mother’s honor one century, and the next it’s more convenient to say that he acts out of romantic love. Or a century or two earlier, out of heroic honor.

Mythology scholar Joseph Campbell

The rest of the story continues in true Greek form as gods become jealous of each other and take their vengeance. Ultimately, Perseus is faced with a quest fitting of a true Greek hero. He goes to speak to three blind man-eating fortune tellers, kill the evil gorgon sister Medusa, fight a … herd(?) of giant scorpions and face the disfigured Prince Calibos, not necessarily in that order. To do so he is granted a shield which is guaranteed to guard his life, a helmet which renders him invisible and a sword which is undoubtedly made of adamantium. All this in order to win the right to marry, and the affections of the Princess Andromeda.

As a movie, the story works perfectly. It follows to a T the hero cycle put forth by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It’s the story of a hero and his difficulties brought to life by director Desmond Davis and writer Beverley Cross. But this movie isn’t famous because of them. It’s famous because of the genius Ray Harryhausen. Ray Harryhausen is the most celebrated stop animation master in film history. His credits include the immortal movies, Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, … I could go on, but you know who he is already.

Bubo: Goofball

The Goofball Strikes Back:
However, the man isn’t flawless. Bubo is a mechanical owl sent to help Perseus in his quest, and it quickly becomes the Jar-Jar of the movie. Its completely unnecessary mechanical bumbling only serves as cute fumblings to the under 9 y.o. crowd, and its only narrative responsibility is freeing the flying horse Pegasus (which I believe Perseus could have done if forced to) once it has been captured by the evil Calibos. I‚Äôve heard the character explained as the Harryhausen answer to R2D2, but through the course of the movie, is obviously closer to C3PO. Of course, Harryhausen claims the character was designed before 1977′s Star Wars debuted. Either way, it fails because it‚Äôs the goofball character. However, I can accept it knowing that it was Harryhausen‚Äôs assistant¬†Steve Archer who was responsible for most animation of the Bubo scenes. …still…¬†

Harry Hamlin as Perseus

The Actors:
Harry Hamlin is the lead, playing Perseus -¬†a career actor appearing in everything from television shows like “Batman the Animated Series” to reprising his role as Perseus in the video game “God of War II.” Princess Andromeda is played by television veteran Judi Bowker, and the rest of the cast rounds out with some of the greatest actors in the history of film:
Star of the greatest Twilight Zone ever, Burgess Meredith as Ammon
British Stage Superstar Claire Bloom as Hera
Original Bond Girl Ursula Andress as Aphrodite
Harry Potter’s Professor McGonagall as Thetis
And the man you think of when you hear the word “Shakespeare” out loud: Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus.

This is one of only two movies I own as a VHS tape, a DVD and a Blu-ray. The other is The Princess Bride. Maybe I just like fantasy. But I think it’s that I like a story that isn’t limited by the way it’s presented. I love a story that is as good today as it was a thousand years ago, and will be a thousand years from now (by the way, William Goldman’s novel, The Princess Bride was written in 1973). Clash of the Titans was made in 1981 – 2 years after Alien and 4 years after Star Wars. By comparison, it looks like Clash was made in 1961. It’s the double-edged sword of Harryhausen animation. We watch his movies for the special effects while constantly noticing how unconvincing they are. And we love them because of it. It doesn’t matter than Calibos’ tail isn’t CG’ed onto the actor’s ass. Who wants that? This is the reason we love his movies. Because they remind us of watching movies and thinking that we could make this movie in our backyard if we really wanted to. It’s that do it yourself ingenuity that makes us want to see movies like his. And Tim Burton’s.

As of right now, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland has grossed over 656 million dollars worldwide, and a Nintendo DS game is on the way. But the movie is still catching flack from Burton fans¬†and Alice fans. I say it’s because those fans don’t care whether or not the movie was good. The movie¬†was good. But that’s not the only reason¬†why we go to see his movies. We go to see Tim Burton movies to see the actors shout “Oh no!” as they’re reaching out towards the oncoming animatronic evil trees. We want to see the jumpy clay Beetlejuice-snake come off the staircase and the great miniatures he and his creative team imagine. I’ve always believed that going into any movie, that if you don’t want to be convinced, you won’t be convinced. If you want to be cool and walk out of¬†Blair Witch saying you weren’t scared, you won’t be. If you don’t think Cary Elwes and Robin Wright aren’t good enough actors to sell you on a love story, they won’t be. And if you go into a Ray Harryhausen movie expecting his jumpy claymation to do all the work for you, you’ll be disappointed. This is a movie with the power to amaze, but you have to¬†want to be amazed. If you need the actors to do all the work for you, you probably don’t like movies to begin with. But if you want to feel entertained, go with it. Watch this movie again, and remember what it was like to be amazed.