Jason et les Argonautes

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.

The fascinating odyssey of Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. This is an adventure movie in the old style, with no pretensions, no pomposity... The genius and pioneer of the special effects Ray Harryhaussen gave us a handful of superhuman creatures who make things quite difficult for the brave Jason.

Some may think this special effects or the movie itself are obsolete. OK, now read this: the movie was made 43 years ago, Harryhaussen made them without computers or digital effects... so, show some respect!! In short: the movie is just fantastic.

*My rate: 8/10

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 .

As entertainment this movie is perfect. The movie is a fun adventurous one, with lots of spectacular moments and fights. From a technical point of view this movie is even a masterpiece. The stop-motion scene's created by special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen is simply brilliant and makes this movie one of the most influential and important one's, when it comes to special effects. But also the movie uses clever camera tricks and some well made miniatures. Yes, of course the effects all look out dated now but they still surprisingly, look convincing enough and at times they are even still simply breathtaking and spectacular to look at. Especially of course the legendary, fantastic end fight against the skeleton warriors.

The story is like good entertainment should be; Adventurous, exciting and simple to follow. The movie truly is none stop fun entertainment to watch with lots of spectacular moments with the legendary skeleton fight as the ultimate highlight. You don't have to be a fan of 'classic' movies in order to enjoy this movie, everyone should be able to appreciate this movie and be entertained by it, especially when you are a fan of ancient Greek tales.

Something that is not praised enough of this movie is the musical score by Bernard Herrmann.

The movie is not exactly filled with impressive and memorable actors. As many movies as I have seen in my life, I don't think I have ever seen any actors from this movie in any other movie, with the exception of course of Honor Blackman who will always be remembered for playing the Bond girl Pussy Galore in "Goldfinger". But this movie clearly isn't a character-adventure movie, it's a special effect adventure movie. The special effects are really the most important element of the movie. So for the fans of special effects this is especially most definitely a must see.

A movie that should be fun and enjoyable to everyone, of all ages.

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

What do I like about this movie...besides Harryhausin's special effects? Besides the frenetic battle with the skeletons and the seemingly hopeless fight against the statue of Talos? I like the way the people are presented, I suppose...

Heracles is presented, not as a young ripped body builder, but as one would expect a middle-aged strong man to be: Formidable, a little grey and a little swaggering. Argos, the ship builder, is tan and fat, as one would expect the veteran of many sea voyages to be. The crew looks like what one would expect a crew of ancient greeks to look like.

The acting is not spectacular, but sincere. No one looks embarrassed to be in this movie. It is tight with great special effects...wonderful for children...

And, I must mention Hera, normally portrayed as a matronly and vindictive woman, is here presented as a beautiful and helpful goddess by Honor Blackman, no less. Although many of you may be more familiar with her as Pussy Galore from Goldfinger...