Two Ray Harryhausen Films

It does feel bizarre to be questioning the first project I've been given in my new position. On the other hand, I wouldn't have done so if I didn't have genuine concerns. And it's not like it's going to be hideous or anything like that. A month from now I may have forgotten all about it!

I'm still enjoying working on Mac OS X.

I've spent the last two nights at Borrone. Wednesday I didn't feel like gaming, I wanted to read this week's comic book haul, so I went and did that. Both Lucy and John was said that they might drop by, but neither one did. Oh, well! I had a good time reading anyway.

Thursday I went again mainly because John seemed to want to go (not, like, that I'm ever opposed to going!). I met him and his roommate Kim there. I'd met Kim before, but not since last year, and she's changed her hair style since then, so I managed to embarrass myself by running into her outside and responding to her greeting by saying, "Er, do I know you?" Sheesh!

And tonight was movie night. Subrata and I went to see a couple of Ray Harryhausen films, he being the special effects wizard of some 1950s and 60s fantasy movies, being quite cutting-edge at the time.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) involves the famous sailor from Bagdad [sic] picking up a wizard from the island of Colossi while he and his fiancee, Princess Parisa, are hading back to be married. The wizard enchants Parisa making her five inches tall, and he forces Sinbad to return him to Colossi to face Cyclops and Rocs so that the wizard can gain a magic lamp and its genie, and then brew a potion to return Parisa to normal size.

Jason and the Argonauts involves the mythical Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, which he will bring back to unseat the usurper king who killed his father and seized the throne of Thessaly. Along the way Jason and his crew face a giant statue, harpies, a deadly channel between two cliffs, and animated skeletons. Astonishingly, the story never gets back to Thessaly once the Fleece has been gained.

The feel of these films is overall very much like an episode of the original Star Trek TV show: Exotic sets, revealing costumes, dramatic music, and cheesy dance numbers (heck, the whole "dancing girl in green body paint" bit from "The Cage" was clearly lifted from the similar scene in Jason!). It's pretty entertaining, actually. And the special effects - mostly stop-motion animation mixed in using split screens - holds up fairly well 40 years later (hey, I've seen worse; Dr. Strangelove, for instance!).

Both films are short on plot: Sinbad is especially egregious, as the wizard is never satisfied with taking his winnings and declaring victory; he always has to behave just a little more evilly to keep things moving along. Geez! Jason's problem is mainly in the weak payoff. The scripts often border on the cheesy, and many scenes or lines got unintentional laughter from the audience.

Between them, there were only two actors in either movie that I recognized, both in Jason: Honor Blackman (The Avengers, Goldfinger) played Hera, and Patrick Troughton (the second Doctor Who) played the blind seer Phineas.

Both films are also babe-fests. As I commented afterwards, Princess Parisa was easily the most impressive special effect in Sinbad!

Ray Harryhausen is fairly famous even these days for his work on many films. Apparently he's still alive, though it seems the last film he worked on was 1981's Clash of the Titans. These two are fairly entertaining light fare, but don't knock yourself out to go see them.