Jason und die Argonauten

Possibly. His first "Sinbad" film in 1958 had one moving skeleton for the hero to fight; this one has a whole platoon of them, each part painstakingly moved one tiny distance at a time personally by Harryhausen through stop-motion techniques. The seven-headed Hydra is another technical marvel. There are some other nifty creatures for Jason and his crew to battle, but for me, the most impressive of them all turns up first: the gigantic Talos, the Man of Bronze.

I was a kid when this came out, and I don't think I'll ever forget that moment when the huge, crouched statue came to life, turned his head towards the two men below him (his bronze head screeching with the tear of metal), climbed off of his pedestal, and proceeded to chase Jason and his men. Talos was giant like Godzilla, but as single-minded as the Terminator: all he wants to do is track Jason's crew down until he kills them all. This gave me nightmares. Bernard Herrmann's score is one of his best, making music to match Harryhausen's images. (Herrmann was coming off of other Harryhausen's, plus Hitchcock's "Vertigo," "North by Northwest" and "Psycho," and knew how to thrill you.)

Tom Hanks, who was also a kid when this came out, has said: "Everybody thinks that 'Citizen Kane' was the greatest movie ever made. But if you were young in 1963, you know the real answer is: 'Jason and the Argonauts.'"

Hero Jason leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece which has amazing healing powers. Jason sails on the Argo-ship to the land of Colchis seeking for the golden fleece in this mythological romp . This is one of the best sword and sandals film from the history , retelling the legend of Jason in search of the famous fleece for uncharted sea . The film deals with the myth Jason (Todd Armstrong), son of king of Thesaly , the young prince has had his heritage usurped by his nasty uncle Pelias (Douglas Wilmer) who has taken the throne . He travels in search for the fabled Golden fleece located in the Colchis where is guarded by seven-headed hydra . It's based on a poem of Greek poet named Apolonio of Rodas titled ¨The Argonautika¨ (250 B.C) . In order to achieve his throne, Jason must retrieve the magical calf housed from distant land of Colchis and bring it toward city of Iolco . Jason assembles a motley , brave crew formed by a valiant band as Hercules (Nigel Green) , Polydeuces (Crawford) , the traitor Acastus (Gary Raymond) ,Castor and others ; meanwhile , evil Pelias has usurped the kingdom and taken his throne . Jason successfully leads his crew of would-be heroes throughout a series of outstanding adventures . The Argo crew are under the protection of Hera (Honor Blackman) , queen of the gods . They're confronted by a heinous giant bronze named Talos at an island and many other dangers . Jason saves Medea (Nancy Kovack) , priestess of Hecate (who later to be revenged Jason , killing their sons) from waters and both of them go to Colchis . They sail unharmed along sea storm , suffering thirsty , famine and incredible adventures , encountering giant monsters , multitudes of mythological monsters and weird creatures .

This exciting picture contains lots of action, magic , fast-moving , thrills , impressive fights against monsters and lots of fun . It is an exciting fantasy-adventure full of special effects created by means of stop-motion technique by the magician Ray Harryhausen , the Dynamation man . The previous Ray Harryhausen films were generally shown as part of a double feature in "B" theatres , Columbia and the producer Charles H Schneer were able to book this film as a single feature in many "A" theatres in the United States. This time the large list of monsters result to be the following : a huge moving sculpture of Talos , as they battle against harpies , a venomous creature as hydra, and an animated terrifying skeleton army, all brought to life by the special effects masterfully created by the maestro wizardry Ray Harryhausen who regards this as his best film. In the ¨7th voyage of Sinbad¨ , Ray designed a sword-battling skeleton , here we see a whole army of them for Jason and his crew to fight at the ending of the film . It took Ray Harryhausen four months to produce the skeleton scene, a massive amount of time for a scene which lasts, at the most, three minutes . The runtime is adequate with various incidents and sub-plots . Harryhausen works his animation magic around a passable-developed screenplay and engaging acting by the entire performers . The cast is enjoyable with effective but unknown main actors , though important secondary Brit actors as Laurence Naismith (Argo), Niall McGinnis (Zeus) , Honor Blackman (Hera) , Michael Gwinn (Hermes) , Jack Gwillin (Aetes) . As usual in Sword and Sandal films here appears the choreographic girls dancing and lots of action with several adventures including spectacular fights , storms , witchery, and some good effects .

This elaborate recounting was well directed by Don Chaffey although with little relation with the poem by Apolonio of Rodas . The film contains an evocative and powerful musical score by Bernard Herrmann conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra . Colorful and spectacular cinematography by the great Wilkie Cooper . Fun for the whole family though it tends toward the ponderous at times but for the most part , it's a marvelous and entertaining movie . Other adaptations about this classic story are the following : ¨Giant of Tessaly¨ by Riccardo Freda with Ronald Carey and Massimo Giroti , ¨Hercules¨ by Pietro Francisci with Steve Reeves , Sylva Koscina and for TV ¨Jason and the Argonauts¨(2000) by Nick Willing with Jason London , Frank Langella and Olivia Williams .

This was one of those films I always remember seeing as a child and I never forgot those skeletons which I think is Ray Harryhausen's best work.

Greek hero Jason takes a party by ship to search for the Golden Fleece, but have to encounter several dangers on the way. This starts when they drop off at an island with bronze statues to collect food and water. But one of them goes into the tomb of one of these, Talos and steals a gold sword. Talos then comes to life and attacks the crew and during their escape, the ship is destroyed. Talos is destroyed eventually. While on the island, they come across a blind man, who gets attacked by two cheeky Harpies who keep eating his food. They are captured. They continue their journey and encounter Neptune and arrive on the island where the Golden Fleece is. Before getting the Golden Fleece, Jason must fight and kill the Hydra, which he does. The best part of the movie is of course those skeletons near the end. Jason manages to defeat them when they fall off a cliff into the sea.

This has to be one of, if not the best of Harryhausen's movies. Bernard Herrmann was responsible for the excellent music.

Jason is played well by Todd Armstrong and Nancy Kovack plays Medea. These are joined by Bond girl Honor Blackman (Goldfinger), Laurence Naismith (The Valley Of Gwangi), Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton who plays the blind man, Niall MacGinnis (Night of the Demon) and Nigel Green as Hercules.

This is probably my favourite of Ray Harryhausen's fantasy movies.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

Jason and The Argonauts is a great film to watch and escape reality. This is one of those movies that you know is not real but you just enjoy it and have fun watching it. I think this film is underrated because it was not given one Oscar nomination. I think this film should have been nominated for Best Art Direction and Set Decoration, Cinematography, Bernard Herrmann's Original Score and Film Editing. When I first saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies one night, I was only excited to see the Skeleton Fight at the end which took Ray Harryhausen and special effects crew three months to create that entire sequence. This is a Great movie and I encourage all of "The Lord of The Rings" fans to watch this and see a great masterpiece of classic fantasy and old fashioned special effects. **** out of ****!

I decided to contribute my comments when I read another commentator who mentioned that the leads were dubbed... this fact dealt a crushing blow to "Todd Armstrong" from which he sort of never really recovered.

As I was told, he showed up at the gala premiere and nobody had told him he had been dubbed over. What a horrible shock, in public, on one's 'night of glory'!

He had a highish voice, but one that was extremely expressive - a fine instrument. The dubbed voice is very low and flat. I can't tell you how I'd love to see the film with his voice restored!

Making movies, like any creativity, is full of compromises, some of them beyond one's control. "Todd" still loved the movie - it was filmed in southern Italy - he had a great time doing it. He was always a very, very handsome and strong man, and his physical presence shines through still.

It is really a memorable, powerful film! After seeing it I dreamt my favorite kitten had been slaughtered by the other kittens in the litter, who had become sword-wielding skeleton kittens!

I hope you all enjoy it and don't get too worked up about inaccuracies with the original story (as someone here has).

Because its overall professionalism and the magnificent special effects, this movie will live on despite being technologically outdated.

Can anybody speak to the possibility of finding the original actor's voice track? What's to be done? Thanks!