cinema history class: the 7th voyage of sinbad (1958)

 The session: "Holiday-Premiered Fantasy Films—Get Your Ray Harryhausen On"

All four movies in this session are fantasy films that were released during the holiday season. In addition, the first three featured the stop-motion special effects of Ray Harryhausen.

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Week 1: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Directed by Nathan Juran

My Impressions Going In:

I remember seeing the trailer on TV when I was a kid, during one of its rereleases in the 1970s. I really wanted to see it, and my mom agreed to take me. Sadly, I don't think I ever saw it.

Plot:

En-route to Bagdad for their wedding, Sinbad and Princess Parisa encounter a series of deadly monsters.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Someone -- I don't remember who -- put it best when he said that Sinbad was the Indiana Jones of his day. The description isn't exactly right; unlike the Indiana Jones movies, this doesn't really involve some huge quest for a historical artifact. Sinbad just wants to get to Bagdad and get married. And there isn't any one arch villain. Instead there are several claymation monsters.

It's hard for me to assess how appropriate Sinbad7 was for children -- especially children of the 1950s. But it's clearly meant to be friendly to an audience including children. There was lots of violence -- even a person being roasted over a fire. But it was very tame in its portrayal. There was little blood, and the man being roasted didn't appear to suffer any burns. But the movie holds up really well for adults as a sort of fun romp.

The big thing about the movie is the claymation. I've seen lots some recent horror movies with lots of CGI. A Quiet Place Part II comes to mind. QPII had really good CGI monsters. Really scary and all. Yet somehow they didn't pack the visceral punch that they should have. The claymation monsters in Sinbad had a more obviously fake look, but they still seemed more real. I don't know the psychology or neurobiology of it, but CGI just can't match actual physical objects. At least not yet.

Regardless of the good and the bad in this film, I was left with one question in mind: "What does a cyclops need with gold?"

Ratings

Me: 8.5

Bob-O: 10

Christina: 10

Ethan: 8
Joe: 10