Clash of the Titans, 1981.
Directed by Desmond Davis.
Starring Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Claire Bloom, Burgess Meredith, Vida Taylor, Ursula Andress, Maggie Smith, Judi Bowker, Pat Roach, Freda Jackson, Jack Gwillim, Donald Houston, and Neil McCarthy.
SYNOPSIS:
Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda.
If you are of a certain vintage then cast your minds back to the glorious days of the 1980s, when the summers were long and the movies were exciting. Remember that? Good, then you will probably have fond memories of 1981’s Clash of the Titans as it was a school holiday favourite for many, a two-hour fantasy epic where young boys could pretend they were a sword-wielding hero or young girls would play at being a powerful princess whilst defeating the stop-motion beasts that filled the screen. However, if you are not of that age then there is a good chance that watching this new 4K UHD edition from Arrow Video might not have the same effect as it did 45 years ago.
That is because Clash of the Titans is more than just a sword-and-sandals adventure movie; it represents the end of an era. Normally a movie is associated with the director or the lead actor, but in the case of this one it is special effects legend Ray Harryhausen’s name that is usually on the tip of everyone’s tongues, thanks to the memorable creatures he created and more often than not it is the Kraken and Medusa that are the best remembered rather than who was in it. After a career that spanned five decades, Clash of the Titans was Ray Harryhausen’s final movie and, if nothing else, he was going out in style when it came to his creations.
The plot is based on the Greek legend of Perseus, as the god Zeus (Laurence Olivier) orders Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) to unleash the giant sea-beast the Kraken to destroy the city of Argos in retribution for King Acrisius (Donald Houston) imprisoning his daughter Princess Danaë (Vida Taylor) and her and Zeus’ newborn son Perseus into the sea.
After washing up on the beach of Seriphos, Perseus (Harry Hamlin) grows into a strong warrior and must embark on a quest to return to Joppa and rescue Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker) from having to marry Calibos (Neil McCarthy), the son of treacherous sea goddess Thetis (Maggie Smith), who Zeus transformed into a hideous monster. All sounds easy but Perseus will be tested along the way, so he teams up with poet Ammon (Burgess Meredith), Bubo the mechanical owl and Zeus’ winged horse Pegasus to help him rescue the princess and slay the Kraken.
So yes, Clash of the Titans is a good old-fashioned fantasy adventure and when you put it in the company of Ray Harryhausen’s other classic effects work from the Sinbad movies, Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years B.C. and The Valley of Gwangi to name a few, it fits right in and transports you to those mythical worlds where the stop-motion creations take on a life of their own and fire the imagination, and if you saw this movie at the right age then there is no doubt it would have left an impression as the Kraken rises out of the ocean or Medusa’s green eyes turn soldiers to stone.
But even in 1981 that style of stop-motion animation was starting to look dated, and looking at it today on 4K UHD it has to be said that the upscale doesn’t do a lot of these creations justice. The monsters still look fantastic and stand as some of Ray Harryhausen’s finest work, but the way they are integrated into the live action is done no favours by the curse of UHD when it comes to the perspective and scale of the miniatures, blue screen matting, and the intercutting and superimposing of images onto backgrounds. The print is quite heavy on grain and although you can see the finer detail in a lot of the claymation action it contrasts quite awkwardly with the softer visuals of the Mount Olympus scenes, so don’t go expecting a super-clear image throughout as it is a bit inconsistent.
But that is mainly down to how it was originally shot rather than any modern digital restoration work as you can only work with what you’ve got, and despite the visual inconsistencies it is the stop-motion monsters that you come to Clash of the Titans for and they do still look great when isolated from what is going on around them. As for the rest of the movie, much like when you watch it as a child it is the talky bits that are less exciting and even though there is a wealth of acting talent in this movie, not a lot of it actually reaches the screen as the performances are a bit flat across the board, and when a model made of clay can put in a more convincing day’s work than your Shakespearian lead actor then your movie has issues. Add that to a convoluted plot that was clearly taking the legend of Perseus and putting it through a Star Wars filter, and Clash of the Titans doesn’t really hold up as the majestic fantasy epic it seemed back in 1981.
Coming backed with a couple of interviews and Q&A sessions with Ray Harryhausen, archival featurettes where Harryhausen discusses his creations and – best of all – a feature-length documentary about the special effects maestro and his legacy, you can see whose name is the real selling point despite Harryhausen not being the writer or director, and as a release for Ray Harryhausen collectors this edition will have some value, especially when it comes to the extras, but for anyone wishing to relive their childhood in glorious UHD then you may come away a little disappointed as Clash of the Titans in 4K is not as spellbinding as the movie you probably remember.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
