Pettigrew 1999 Jason

Jason and the Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts 1963. Morningside/Columbia. D: Don Cooper really makes the most of the pic- Chaffey. Scr: Jan Read, Beverley Cross. Ph: turesque, rocky Italian locations, giving Wilkie Cooper. Art: Geoffrey Drake. Mus: a vivid freshness to the outdoor scenes. Bernard Herrmann. Associate Producer Bernard Herrmann's magnificent score and Creator of Special Visual Effects: Ray catches the right combination of the epic Harryhausen. Model Sculpture {uncred- ited): Arthur Hayward. and the grotesque. It is at its most mem- Cast: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, orable during the skeleton battle where Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith, Niall his ominous woodwind themes lead into MacGinnis, Michael Gwynn, Douglas high-speed staccato rhythms accompa- Wilmer, jack Gwillim, Honor Blackman, nying the fight itself. Patrick Troughton, Nigel Green, Andrew It is more than half an hour before Faulds. the first animation sequence but Chaffey Rating: Stop-Motion: insures that we do not get restless. These opening passages — Hermes' prophecy Jason is Harryhausen's best-known to Pelias, the storming of the temple, work and his own favorite among his Jason rescuing the drowning Pelias, films. Even the most cynical of audiences Jason's visit to the gods in Olympus and respond to the grandeur of the episode the selection of the Argonauts — still en- with Talos, the giant bronze statue that tertain after repeated viewing and have comes to life, and to the bizarre thrills of a liveliness and sense of grandeur miss- the battle with the seven sword-wield- ing from many much more lavish Holly- ing skeletons. wood epics. Don Chaffey's efficient direction of They include a number of minor the live-action passages makes it hard to Harryhausen effects, all carried off flaw- believe he is the same director who was lessly. Hera (Honor Blackman) appears later responsible for the lifeless One Mil- as a cloud of smoke beside the river, with lion Years B.C. (1966). The script by Jan what looks like a miniature shrub placed Read and Beverley Cross enthusiastically in front of her to merge the composite. conjures up a credible version of ancient Hermes grows to a great height in front Greece, with an essentially simple plot of Jason and disappears. Jason converses sparked by a variety of colorful charac- with the huge Olympians, merely a ters and good dialogue. The credit for pawn-sized figure on a chessboard (de- this must go more to Read than Cross. picted by means of excellent traveling Read co-wrote the excellent script for mattes). Olympus is a fine miniature, Harryhausen's next picture, First Men in matted around a central area in which the Moon, whereas Cross was later re- the actors perform in long shots. And sponsible for the unimaginative treat- the disc thrown by Hercules and Hylas ments for Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, are stop-motion models shot against a Clash of the Titans and the unfilmed rear projection —although just how Force of the Trojans. Cameraman Wilkie Harryhausen got the water to splash is a 367 Jason and the Argonauts In this publicity shot from Jason and the Argonauts (1963), parts of the feet of the giant Talos disappear beneath the matte line. No such flaw occurs in shots actually seen in the film. mystery. (It may be a superimposed Zeus announces from above, "We have third element.) not yet finished with Jason." It's a shame Chaffey, Read and Cross maintain that the scripting excellence was not sus- this level of enthusiasm throughout the tained to the end. Talos episode, but thereafter the film The encounter with Talos on the starts to degenerate into little more than Isle of Bronze is a magnificent concep- a series of effects set-pieces, and the tion and makes good use of its beach and film's sense of purpose is lost. In fact, the cliff locations. It is marred only by the end of the film is quite unsatisfactory inconsistent scale of the huge statue — (and unclassical) because the conflict too large when it picks the ship out of with King Pelias, whom Jason is proph- the water and too small when Jason esied to overthrow, is completely ig- struggles to loosen the plug in its heel. nored. The story ends abruptly after Otherwise this is a classic Harryhausen Jason has seized the Golden Fleece while episode consisting of a series of unfor- 368 Jason and the Argonauts gettable images and a novel conclusion. bly intricate matte which allows us to Talos, with his stiff, metallic movements see his legs through the hole. and black, soulless eyes, is one of the Varying the perspective to heighten screen's great bogey men. No man in a the drama, Harryhausen cuts from an costume could have evoked the same imposing low-angle shot looking up at presence. the statue to a shot looking over Talos' Hercules (Nigel Green) and Hylas shoulder at the Argonauts fleeing in their (John Cairney) stumble on the awesome boat. When Talos turns and walks away, Valley of Statues — the tiny actors walk there is a slight jiggle in the lower half of across the bottom of an extreme long the matte where the registration has not shot with four huge statues seamlessly been held steady. matted into the landscape. Inside the In a long sequence, Talos cuts off base of Tabs' statue they find a horde of the sailors' escape route, stepping over treasure. A long shot of the interior uses the exit from the harbor and destroying a matte painting dripping with jewels. their ship. He pivots stiffly, planting one Outside again, Hercules hears an omi- foot on the other side of the channel nous creak of metal and looks up to see (which may well have been put there by Talos' head turn towards him. This clas- matte photography if it is not an actual sic low-angle shot, with Hercules' head location). Several very good traveling inserted in the lower right hand corner mattes allow the camera to look up at by means of traveling matte, is a gen- Talos from the sailors' point of view as uinely haunting nightmare image. Bros- the boat nearly drifts through his legs. nan (in Movie Magic) calls it "one of the Medium shots of Talos looking down at great moments of cinema." the Argonauts are intercut with several Six cuts show the great statue clam- long shots of the tiny boat sailing below. bering off its pedestal and, in a deft He swaps his sword hand again, touch, leaning back stiffly as though ad- stoops and picks up the boat, with justing to its sudden consciousness. Harryhausen effectively cutting between Three static-matte long shots show Talos live-action shots of the actors being emerging from behind a cliff, the sailors thrown about, a prop of the boat shaken running about in the lower foreground. from side to side in the air, and stop- In one of these, Harryhausen has his cre- motion long shots of Talos holding a ation swap his sword from one hand to miniature of the boat, tiny animated the other, giving it an extra bit of vital- oars and the broken mast falling into the ity. In three more cuts, Talos stoops and sea — probably suspended on wires for a his huge hand appears through a hole in few frames. After dropping the boat, the rocks, trying to reach the scattering Talos turns and walks away. sailors. Harryhausen adds an important There is a pause in the action as the touch to this static-matte set-up by su- sailors swim to shore, then Talos reap- perimposing a cloud of dust, thrown pears. A dramatic camera move pans into the air when the statue drags his from Jason and his men to the sight of hand back again. When Talos gets up he Talos striding past some far-off rocks — walks past the hole in the cliff, a credi- it looks as though Harryhausen has 369 Jason and the Argonauts moved his animation camera in closer partial miniature floor is skillfully mat- and simply panned across the pre-shot ted into the beach setting in the shot background plate. After three cuts of where Talos hits the ground, allowing Talos behind these rocks, a fourth has the puppet to throw a shadow. The head him step around the same rocks, clev- and limbs are realistically animated as erly helping to disguise the composite: they break away. The satisfying narra- The matte which initially follows the top tive twist here is that Hylas is crushed of the rocks is replaced by a horizontal under the statue as he tries to retrieve one along the beach. the very spear which Hercules had stolen A number of non-matte medium from the treasure trove —the act which shots of the puppet (most dramatically a had incited Talos' revenge in the first shot which tilts up from his waist to his place. head, and an impressive full-view low- The conclusion to the Talos episode angle view) are intercut with long shots is one of many sequences in a Harry- of the Argonauts throwing rocks and hausen film that reveals the identity of spears. Talos swipes at them with his films that had a profound effect on him huge sword, which nearly fills the frame when he was young. In The Last Days of in one rear-screen shot as it swishes past Pompeii (1935), with special effects by the sailors. His enormous foot swings Willis O'Brien, the Colossus, a huge, past Jason, who is waiting for an oppor- helmeted, sword-bearing statue, cracks tunity to get at the statue's weak spot, its and collapses during the climactic vol- heel.

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