Columbia Tri-Star Home Video
Region : 2
Certificate : U
Length : 100 minutes
Sound : Mono - English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles : 20 inc English, French, Czech, Hindi, Arabic, Icelandic and
Hebrew
Extras : Trailer, 'Ray Harryhausen Chronicles' documentary
Todd Armstrong....Jason
Nancy Kovack....Medea
Gary Raymond....Acastus
Laurence Naismith....Argos
Niall MacGinnis....Zeus
Michael Gwynn....Hermes
Douglas Wilmer....Pelias
Jack Gwillim....King Aeetes
Honor Blackman....Hera
John Cairney....Hylas
Patrick Troughton....Phineas
Andrew Faulds....Phalerus
Nigel Green....Hercules
rest of cast listed alphabetically
John Crawford....Polydeuces (uncredited)
Aldo Cristiani....Lynceus (uncredited)
Ferdinando Poggi....Castor (uncredited)
Douglas Robinson....Eupaemus (uncredited)
Davina Taylor....Briseis (uncredited)
Directed by…Don Chaffey
Writing credits…Beverley Cross Jan Read
Apollonious Rhodios…(poem The Argonautica) (uncredited)
Ray Harryhausen…(associate producer)
Charles H. Schneer…(producer)
Original music by…Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography by…Wilkie Cooper
Film Editing by…Maurice Rootes
Production Design by…Geoffrey Drake
Art Direction by…Jack Maxsted Antonio
Sarzi-Braga (as Tony Sarzi Braga)
Herbert Smith
Production Management
Jimmy Komisarjevsky....unit manager
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dennis Bertera....assistant director
Sound Department
Cyril Collick....sound
Alfred Cox....sound editor
Red Law....sound
Visual Effects by
Ray Harryhausen....special visual effects creator
Arthur Hayward....sculptor: model (uncredited)
Phyllis Crocker....continuity
John Dark....production executive
Ralph Faulkner....fight choreographer
Harry Gillam....camera operator
Bernard Herrmann.....musical director
Leon Lenoir....unit manager
Paul Maslansky....unit manager
Mario Nascimbene....musical director
Ferdinando Poggi....swordfight arranger (uncredited)
James Wines....title designer
Jason
and the Argonauts is regarded by Ray Harryhausen as one of his favourite films.
A lot of people have seen the film, probably as a result of the many
television showings the film has enjoyed, and a lot of film makers queue up to
say how much they enjoyed it, and how it influenced their work.
This is very strange when you realise that ‘Jason’ was a hit film in
1963 in Britain and the rest of Europe, but a failure in the US.
On checking some of the facts of the production I noticed that the US
reviews are almost all negative while the UK reviews were nearly all positive
– Me; I am British, I saw the film on its release – in a cinema – and I
love it.
Based on the poem The Argonautica by Apollonious Rhodios the adventure tells of
Pelias (Douglas Wilmer) waging war against Thessaly, however a prophecy says
that his son will never be king. In
the course of the battle he desecrates the temple of Hera (Honor Blackman) and
is told that a man with one sandal will bring the downfall of his new kingdom.
Forward 20 years, and Pelias is rescued from a river by Jason (Todd
Armstrong) – who has lost a sandal in the river during the rescue.
Jason does not know he is a guest of Pelias and accepts the advice to
build a ship and find the Golden Fleece before attempting to win his kingdom.
So starts the epic journey to Colchis – with the battle against Talos,
a giant bronze statue – capturing the Harpies who have been tormenting Phineas
(Patrick Troughton) (who gives them the directions) and the meeting with the
Hydra and the Skeleton’s (the sons of the Hydra’s teeth).
Although Jason and the Argonauts has many and varied special effects –
including some very clever opticals – all anyone wants to hear about are Ray
Harryhausen’s stop motion sequences. The
first of these, the battle with the giant bronze statue Talos sets the standard
for the rest of the film (and for quite a lot of other films). The critics who
complain about The Harpies – the unrealistic look of their leathery wings when
they are flying and the fact that they do not have much detail in their faces
– will have to let me know where I can see a real one (just so that I can
compare you understand). Since the
rest of the gods are just like people – only a lot bigger – what on earth
(or Mount Olympus) is wrong with King Neptune being a huge man, with a fish tail
instead of legs? The most famous
sequence is the sword fight between 3 men and 7 skeletons.
The sequence lasts just 4 minutes but took over 4 ½ months to animate
– let alone the time it took to choreograph and stage for the live actors –
and it looks as fresh and exciting today as it did in 1963.
(Its enough to make me wish they had spend 4 ½ minutes on choreographing
the ‘tribute’ version in ‘The Mummy’ – the bit where Brendan Fraser
fights the guards in the tomb – if you have both discs then just watch the
sequences back to back and marvel how, 40 years ago, Ray Harryhausen did it so
much better than modern CGI).
The cast are uniformly very good. Although
Todd Armstrong as Jason and Nancy Kovack as
Medea both got their first star
billing in ‘Jason’, Nancy Kovack does not appear until the final third of
the film. The rest of the time
various stalwart British actors - Gary Raymond is a wonderful baddie, Laurence
Naismith, Niall MacGinnis,
Michael Gwynn, Douglas Wilmer, Honor Blackman, Patrick Troughton Andrew Faulds
and Nigel Green all combine to make this more of an ensemble gathering than a
star vehicle.
The DVD is one of the first I bought when I got my first player, and has the
heavy clear plastic case that Columbia used 4 or 5 years ago.
I did not have a widescreen television at the time and I thought then
that the picture quality was excellent – however, watching the film now, even
though it is enhanced for 16x9, a few faults show up.
The opening, and in fact all the live action, is beautifully clear, with
vibrant colours and solid blacks. The night time and the day for night scenes
have a contrast and depth that made me think there had been 
Technicolor
consultant on the film (as film stock changed and cinematographers got used to
colour the job died out), but it is the model work that shows the limitation of
the 1963 film stock. The worst bit
is the sequence with Talos and other models, where the grain of the film shows
up markedly – it was a bit jarring for me, as up to then, even the optical
effects had been very good. However,
the day for night scene with The Harpies attacking Phineas, is very clear, which
makes me wonder about the film stock.
The sound is straight ahead Mono (although some sites claim the film was
recorded in Stereo – the original LaserDisc is marked with a Digital Stereo
soundtrack), with the dialogue; the sound effect and Bernard Herrmann’s score
all coming through clearly
The extras include 5 language tracks and 20 language subtitles along with
filmographies, and American Trailer and ‘Ray Harryhausen Chronicles’ the
documentary that Columbia have put on all the other Ray Harryhausen DVD’s.
The documentary is well worth watching – but not again and again.
As I said at the beginning I thoroughly enjoyed this film when I first saw it
and I see no reason to change my view today.
You never know; Columbia could always have the film colour graded – find the
stereo track and then put it out as one of their ‘Superbit’ collection,
I’m daft enough to buy it.
review 25 January 2003 - pics by ag 27 Jan