ALL SCI-FI

Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:23 pm Post subject: Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

It all started with a bus ride across town to meet the friend-of-a-friend and go to a Saturday matinee of the newest movie from Ray Harryhausen.

The year was 1963, the month was June, and all three of us were just fifteen years old.

My friend Jimmy Harmon had somehow become acquainted with Don Krarr, despite the fact that Jimmy and I lived on the south side of Atlanta, and Don lived on the north side. The three of us remained friends for several decades thereafter.

Our friendship was certainly launched with a spectacular beginning. We went to a theater Don had picked for us, bought our tickets, and enjoyed a life-changing experience. In fact, we enjoyed it twice. We sat through two complete showings, and we exchanged excited comments between the first one and the second.

All three of us were well acquainted with Harryhausen's work, having seen his earlier features at theaters and drive-ins with our families, and on local late shows in Atlanta.

Both Jimmy and I had even made 8mm stop motion movies. Click on the link below if you'd like to see one of mine. (Be sure to turn the sound off to avoid the loud projector noise!)

So, this Saturday adventure was a dream come true, a feast for hungry young eyes which couldn't get enough of the spectacular animation in Jason and the Argonauts. The first moment Talos came to life had us mesmerized!

The music was something we were keenly aware of, from the opening titles to the closing credits. We were just as familiar with Bernard Herrmann as we were with Harryhausen, and the Talos music played in my head for weeks after seeing the movie.

The same was true for the harpy music and the rest of that magnificent score. But the beauty of the music and the thrill of Ray's magnificent stop motion were not the only things that excited me and my teenage buddies. When Miss Nancy Kovack made her dramatic entrance, we forgot about monsters . . . for a little while. Very Happy

However, when Medea frees Jason and he takes on the hydra, we weren't thinking about the the lady anymore.

In the middle 1960s, my friends and I were fortunate enough to find a place called "The Poster Exchange" in Atlanta that supplied promotional material to theaters across the country, and they didn't mind selling stills and posters to a group of young guys who stumbled in from time to time and paid the whooping price of 25¢ for color stills like the one below. Black-and-white stills were 17¢. Very Happy

But Harryhausen had saved the best for last, and the amazing climax of Jason and the Argonauts left three wide-eyed young guys speechless and dazzled.

Behold.

The movie ended with the perfect set-up for a sequel — but we never got it. If only Hollywood had known the power of a built-in audience when a great movie has captured the imagination of the movie-going public.

Ah well. ( * sigh . . . )
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Pow · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:53 am Post subject:

Hands down J&TA is considered by critics & fans as the finest of the Harryhausen-Schneer films ever produced.

And rightfully so.

Everything works beautifully & comes together in this classic movie. The scripting, acting, directing, location filming,& the stop-motion segments remain astounding to this day.

The scene with Talos coming to life still is chilling & filled with tension.

One of my favorite of Ray's creatures is the frightening Hydra.

The skeleton army battle scene is astounding. It is often used by documentaries as a highlight of Ray's superb animation.

This was Ray's masterpiece & we are the grateful for it.

I also think that The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad & Mysterious Island are 2 more of his finest films where all the elements come together & create a terrific film.

The gorgeous Nancy Kovak would also appear in Tarzan & the Valley of Gold with Mike Henry as the Lord of the Jungle.

As one book said "Henry looked the part of Tarzan like no other actor before or after him has." I agree.

Nancy also guest starred in the episode "A Private Little War" on the classic Star Trek TV show.

It told the story of the Federation interfering with a planet's development by arming them so that they could withstand their enemies who were in turn being armed by the Federation's sworn enemy the Klingon Empire.

It was an allegory to the Vietnam War which was going on at that time. It was courageous for ST to tackle such a controversial issue.

I cannot list this episode as one of the finest ones ever done in the show's 3-year run. But it demonstrated the series wanting to tackle tough subjects & having a depth to the show.

Something you'd never ever find on the Irwin Allen TV shows.

Brent Gair · Mission Specialist Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 467

Terrific job on that stop-motion animation. I did a couple of crappy stop-motion shorts when I was much younger. Standard practice (as you no doubt know) was to use an 8mm or Super8 movie camera and a cable release to click off frames one at a time.

A couple of years ago, I did some stop-motion testing with a digital camera. It was very succesfull...though short and simple. It proved the effectiveness of using a digital still camera for this purpose. I think my tests may be on an external hard-drive so I'll have to search for them.

It's something I'd like to try again if I every get the energy and creative inspiration.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 4:32 pm Post subject:

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I had the complete comic book all ready to post last night, but then I found jpegs that looked much better, so I started all over again with the new set, and I spent a few hours cleaning up the white areas and using Paint.net's "noise reduction" feature to remove the spotted areas caused by age.

The last page at the bottom is my enhanced version, with the original right below it, before I adjusted the size and cleaned it up.

Notice how faithful this Dell promotional edition is to the movie, compared to the one for Mysterious Island. Not only do some of the drawn characters closely resemble the actors , but in many cases the dialog is taken right from the film.

However, there are still some interesting differences in many places.

Enjoy! Very Happy

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Here's the original of that last picture above, before I enlarged it, sharpened it, and cleaned it up. Quite a difference, eh?

Gee, I done real good, didn't I? Cool

And if the comic book doesn't have you just itchin' to watch this great movie again, here's two versions of the trailer.
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___ Jason & The Argonauts (1963) Trailer (1080p)

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The narrator of this second trailer sounds a lot like Marvin Miller — the voice of Robby!
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______ Jason And The Argonauts (1963) - Trailer

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Pow · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:25 pm Post subject:

Thanks so much for posting the comic book adaptation of the movie, Bud.

I'm a big fan & collector of Dell & Gold Key Comics. So this was a real treat.

Interesting that the comic book Hercules looks more like Steve Reeves than the actor from this film.

Gord Green · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 11:00 pm Post subject:

The art looks very much like it's done by John Boscema (of Marvel fame) who also did other Dells like HELEN OF TROY.

I rewatched JASON a couple of weeks ago, and it still holds up over the cgi stuff currently used so much today.

Skullislander · Solar Explorer Joined: 13 Jul 2016 Posts: 74

The climatic skeleton fight is STILL Harryhausens' biggest achievement ever, in my view.

At least four months to film the sequence that only lasts minutes: but boy, what a result!

Bud Brewster · Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 8:16 pm Post subject:

Skullislander · Solar Explorer Joined: 13 Jul 2016 Posts: 74

Fair points, Bud,

However a main difference between stopmo and CGI is that Harryhausen did practically everything himself: sculpted the models, animation, even most of the concept sketches.

Most FX feature movies today seem to employ up to 1000 technicians in some cases and there is no way every one of these employees can be regarded as skillful as Ray or O'Brien, perhaps those at the very top are but there must be a helluva lot of 'mindless rendering' by lower-echelon digital artists in a lot of modern effects shots.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:32 am Post subject:

Pow · Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 8:22 am Post subject:

Bud, you summed up the worlds of stopmo & CGI in a well thought out & beautifully written manner.

Your analogies are perfect.

I love watching special & visual effects in film & television.

I have a number of books on the subject that covers the history of the craft.

Some fans are at war with one another over effects.

There are those who scorn any cgi visuals & claim they look fake & horrible.

We've all seen poor effects in every arena. Poor stopmo, poor matte paintings, poor model work, poor cgi.

Sometimes it is due to the skill of the effects craftsman, other times the budget & time issues are both limited.

I enjoy seeing the advances in the field of all FX.

Skullislander · Solar Explorer Joined: 13 Jul 2016 Posts: 74

I actually like the new Kong Skull Island film, although some stop-mo purists have derided it.

Really bad, overdone CGI like in POMPEII is pretty off-putting though.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 3:20 pm Post subject:

Bud Brewster · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 3:34 pm Post subject:

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Section #5 of the Harryhausen Chronicles, which is available on Youtube in six sections (and the complete documentary as well) starts right off with a discussion of Jason and the Argonauts. It makes a nice "making of . . . " featurette.

Enjoy!

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____________ The Harryhausen Chronicles 5/6

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And as a bonus feature, here's fantasy artist's Bryan Bustard's tribute to Jason and the Argonauts from All Sci-Fi's Fan Art Gallery 4, The Art of Bryan Bustard

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Gord Green · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 12:56 am Post subject:

I think you have to differentiate Ray's work from CGI as the difference between ART and workmenship.

CGI certainly produces the peak of reality while Ray's stopmotion reproduces art in all its expression.

Both have value in telling the story to be told....BUT Ray's work remains memorable while the CGI just flashes by.
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.