JASON AND THE
ARGONAUTS (1963)
In this one, this dude
Pelias and his soldiers take the throne of Thessaly by killing King Aristo. Then
Pelias ends up killing one of Aristo's daughters after she prayed to Hera to
protect her. Zeus is a massive jerk in this thing, so he basically is playing a
game of Greek god chess against Hera pitting Jason (played by Todd Amstrong) against
the elements and perils of stop motion effects. Pelias, who allowed Jason to
grow up because a prophecy said he would definitely get killed if he killed
Jason apparently doesn’t age at all. Twenty years after the opening scene
(where Jason was a baby) Jason saves Pelias from drowning but doesn’t know that
Pelias killed his father.
Apparently people in
Thessaly are all about Golden Fleece’s so Jason is on a quest to find it.
Pelias basically encourages him hoping Jason will die on the journey because
Pelias and Zeus probably went to the same “How To Kill People Without Doing It”
class. Jason is pretty freakin tough in this, but he decides to take a
bunch of mostly old men with no shirts on with him on his journey. These dudes
are called the Argonauts because if a football game breaks out you always want
your team to have a cool name.
One of the elements makes this movie rad
is the stop motion effects for its time, (literally ground breaking in 1963)
along with the fact that most of the acting in this is pretty solid in spite of some unusual casting choices. I have nothing against casting older men in
rolls, but it’s almost like some of these guys where picked as Argonauts
because the studio owed them money or something. Hercules in particular was
cast as a much older man than in just about any other film, and is only in this
thing for a short time before they dump him off on some island. It's basically the anti-300.
On the journey Jason and his Argonauts run into harpies, a giant bronze Talos, a hydra, and a skeleton army as well as other issues. At some point in the movie I was thinking this movie is epic and all, but Jason, are you going to get to this Golden Fleece or Argonaut? If you haven’t seen this movie I highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy films from the time, or liked any of the Sinbad live action movies that didn’t come out in the past 20 years. Jason And The Argonauts does have its slower moments, but once the story and the journey gets rolling there is one reward after another. It also paved the way for movies like Clash Of The Titans, that came years after its release. Aside from some over acting and a few dated lines in the script, this is a real treat from Don Chaffey and effects legend Ray Harryhausen.
On the journey Jason and his Argonauts run into harpies, a giant bronze Talos, a hydra, and a skeleton army as well as other issues. At some point in the movie I was thinking this movie is epic and all, but Jason, are you going to get to this Golden Fleece or Argonaut? If you haven’t seen this movie I highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy films from the time, or liked any of the Sinbad live action movies that didn’t come out in the past 20 years. Jason And The Argonauts does have its slower moments, but once the story and the journey gets rolling there is one reward after another. It also paved the way for movies like Clash Of The Titans, that came years after its release. Aside from some over acting and a few dated lines in the script, this is a real treat from Don Chaffey and effects legend Ray Harryhausen.
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