Jason and the Argonauts 1963 Review

Jason and the Argonauts 1963  — 

The finest marriage of myth and fantasy, legend and horror and stop motion (non computer- non dgital) effects  are to be found in this absobing entertaining and still thrilling modestly budget epic.

Ray Harryhausen who was responsible for the special effects learned his craft from one of the pioneers of stop motion special effects;  Willis Obrien.   O'brien created the original King Kong and Harryhausen worked iwth O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young in the 1940s.

Harryhausen also worked with George Pal and his Puppetoons as well.

In the 50s he created The Beast from 50,000 Fathoms, and 7th Voyage of Sinbad (and many others).  

His crowning achievement remains, Jason and the Argonauts. 

The God's have a wager regarding Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece.  Jason has a crew of strong and dedicated men, including Hercules.   The encounter one of the most memorable creations Harryhausen ever made, the bronze giant Talos.  The combination of sound effects, character animation (stop motion) and Bernard Herrman's rich powerful score make the Talos sequence one of the best and most memorable in the history of the movies.

We also get harpies, the many headed Hydra that guards the Golden Fleece, the crashing rocks, Neptune the merman and then the incredible army of living sword fighting skeletons that are born from the Hyrda's teeth.

Harryhausen worked between 12 to 20 hours a day for four months straight to create the amazing four minute sequence with the skeletons that you see in the film.  

Todd Armstron is Jason,  Nigel Green is Hercules,  Honor Blackman, Nancy Kovack and others also star.

It is one of my all time favorite fantasy monster movies.   It would be number 51 on my list of Greatest films.

It also is a perfect for family film viewing.

Jason and the Argonauts   1963  Directed by Don Chaffey