cinema history class: the land that time forgot (1974)

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 4: The Land that Time Forgot (1974)
Directed by Kevin Connor

My Impressions Going In:

I don't think I'd heard of this one.

Plot:

During World War I two groups of sailors, one German and one British, find themselves in a lost world of dinosaurs, cavemen and other prehistoric surprises. They must put aside their differences if they hope to survive.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

In some ways, this felt like two movies in one. There's a half-hour prologue played out mostly aboard a German submarine. It's a well-done, tense, drama in and of itself, as control of the sub repeatedly shifts between the Brits and the Germans. As this is playing out, the respective Captains develop a grudging respect for each other. It's a dynamic I enjoyed watching.* After that, we get to the titular forgotten land where the feature begins.

And once that feature begins, it's relentless. There's excitement, pathos and suspense. The animatronics that served to create the effects were a huge advance compared to the stop motion that Ray Haryhausen had developed for the other movies that we saw in this series. Having said that, I can acknowledge that -- for some -- the stop-motion may be more enjoyable. Like different styles of art, this is a Coke/Pepsi type of thing.

I was initially bothered by the fact that it took so damn long to get to the main part of the story. I was expecting a land of dinosaurs and prehistoric men -- not a war drama. But on reflection, I changed my mind. The extended prologue was necessary in order to establish the relationship between the captains that is such a driver of their life in the second part of the movie. The German Captain is shown to be a thoughtful, fully developed character. And that makes the movie work better than it would have if he were a simplistically-presented villain.

And that is an example of how this movie succeeded where Mysterious Island (which we saw two weeks earlier) didn't. MI included the same basic concept of enemy combatants getting stranded in a lost world and having to put aside the enmity that had been driven by their war. But instead of creating good drama, it seemed hokey. Of course, credit where credit is due: I noticed that tLtTF did borrow some gags from MI, which had been made a dozen or so years earlier. Notably, the scene (in tLtTF) in which the sailors feast on a dinosaur they had killed was reminiscent of the scene in MI in which the soldiers ate the giant lobster that had accidentally boiled itself.

I didn't much care for the ending, as it seemed too deliberately designed for a sequel. But in the scheme of things, it wasn't a bad ending.

Ratings

Me: 9.5

Bob-O: 9.5

Christina: 8.3

Dave: 9.5

Ethan: 9

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* It reminded me of one of my favorite moments in Star Trek (TOS):  In "Balance of Terror, the Romulan Captain's final words, spoken to Captain Kirk, are, "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality I could have called you 'friend.'"

happy tunesday! the titanic song (chet atkins)

 I hadn't thought about this recording in a while, but it started playing while I was working today.

I am fascinated by songs that sound really cheery while covering really sad or unpleasant topics. And this is a perfect example. Listen to the happy vocals and harmonies, all in service or retelling the story of the Titanic. I particularly like the understatement of the line, "it was sad when that great ship went down."

Enjoy!

cinema history class: jason and the argonauts (1963)

 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 3: Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Directed by Don Chaffey

My Impressions Going In:

I was vaguely aware of this movie, and had seen some clips from it, but had little real knowledge.

Plot:

Jason and his crew go in search of the golden fleece while the gods toy with him.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

I liked the whole concept of the gods playing with the mere mortals, turning them into pawns on the chessboard of life (as Bob-O put it). But that wasn't really the main focus of the movie. The scenes with the gods were mostly there to kind of transition the movie from episode to episode, which gets at the film's biggest weakness -- that it was too disjointed and episodic (a criticism I made of the previous film, Mysterious Island). That said, Hera's presence was kind of an interesting twist.

As with the prior two films, the effects were very good, and made the movie more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. That's especially true of the scene with the giant bronze Talos statue chasing down Jason's crew (thanks a lot, Hercules).

Ratings

Me: 8

Bob-O: 10

Christina: 10

Dave: 9.9

Ethan: 8
Joe: 10

cinema history class: mysterious island (1961)

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 2: Mysterious Island (1961)
Directed by Cy Endfield

My Impressions Going In:

I had never heard of this

Plot:

Civil War soldiers escape their POW camp in a hot air balloon, and land on a remote island populated by giant animals.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Back in the 1970s there was a crappy TV show called Dusty's Trail. DT was a thinly disguised ripoff of Gilligan's Island. My only encounter with the show was years ago when I bought a street DVD by that title. It was packaged to look like a wacky movie about pioneers, and looked like it might be worth the fifty cents or so that the vendor was asking. I got it home and watched it. Or at least some of it. It seemed oddly episodic.  A situation would arise, then get resolved. Then another situation. Then another. Instead of a movie, it felt like several episodes of a TV show stitched together. Which is exactly what it was, although I didn't know that at first. I bring that up because Mysterious Island reminded me of that. It felt too much like a series of separate events centered around one small group of people.

Having said that, I need to backtrack. A little. This movie did feel too episodic -- maybe disjointed is a better word -- and did make me think of Dusty's Trail, it wasn't as disjointed as all that. But I did find that the whole shift of focus (from prehistoric creatures to Captain Nemo) made for a bit of an annoying mashup.

The stop-motion effects and models were entertaining to watch and made for a fun time, even if the plot was kind of lacking. It was Ray Harryhausen's effects that saved the whole thing.

Ratings

Me: 6

Bob-O: 9.7

Dave: 9.8

Ethan: 8
Joe: 10

tunesday! (give me a sign)

 

Eytan Mirsky's father passed away in December.

Soon after, Eytan wrote this heartfelt tribute.

RIP, Shmiel Gross.