Disc Reviews
Clash of the Titans 4K Review
Harryhausen and Harry Hamlin team up for what must have been a farewell to the stop-motion cinema of the 60s and 70s. But what an adventure to cast that dye, and what a heck of a supporting cast to get for the gods! You don’t get more ready for that role than Laurence Olivier as Zeus!
Greek mythology never looked so glorious in this tale of heroism, tragic figures, cursed villains and exotic animals. And it’s all largely the fault of the meddling gods, like they know what it’s like trying to survive the dandy lands as a human down below.
Our hero, Perseus, has grown up in this land, and once a man becomes the hero of the people – sent on a quest to fetch the head of the Gorgon in order to stop Poseidon’s pet, the Kraken! There is a beautiful woman to save, and a real ugly one to fight. There are plenty of fun supporting characters on Earth, and some that look not of it, brought to life with stop-motion animation. The film is replete with standout scenes. Calibos remains a fearsome villain for Perseus to clash swords with. But the Medusa confrontation in particular has lost none of its tension over the years. Dark, moody, and built with slow steady shots where characters have to remain as hidden and as silent as they can be for fear of being turned to stone by the snake-headed Gorgon. It’s about as tense and horrific as any PG-rated movie of the time would dare to be, and the Medusa design is still terrifying and hard to beat. The 2009 remake didn’t even try; they made her look beautiful instead!
Fans who saw the film back in their childhood have much to revisit with this one, so it should be an instant glory-days buy. Newer fans might want to take a look at what a decent stop-motion movie looked like back then.
If you are looking for extra material, then disc two holds it all. A new Harryhausen retrospective featuring many a familiar face from the industry and a slew of archival extras. The first disc does feature a couple of audio interviews, but no commentary track, which seems very odd. You’d think Arrow would have imposed a scholar chat track at the very least. This is still a prestige buy for the upcoming holiday season, so it would not be an insult to pop it in someone’s stocking for Christmas.
Steven Hurst
SPECIAL FEATURES:
2 DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative by Arrow Films
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richey Beckett
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richey Beckett
- Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet containing new writing by critics Charlie Brigden, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, David Moses, Martyn Pedler and Icy Sedgwick plus select archival material
DISC 1 – FEATURE & EXTRAS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Restored original lossless stereo and new Dolby Atmos audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Ray Harryhausen at the BFI, an archival audio interview conducted after a screening of Clash of the Titans in 1981
- Ray Harryhausen & Charles Schneer at the BFI, an archival audio interview with Harryhausen and his long-time producer Charles Schneer
DISC 2 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
- Courage & Imagination: Ray Harryhausen’s Mythic Adventure, a brand new feature-length documentary by David Cairns and Fiona Watson celebrating Clash of the Titans and the work of Ray Harryhausen, with contributions from Joe Dante, John Landis, Randall William Cook and Vanessa Harryhausen
- A Conversation with Ray Harryhausen, an archival featurette in which Harryhausen discusses the film
- Myths and Monsters, a series of archival featurettes in which Harryhausen discusses the main creatures of Clash of the Titans: Calibos, Pegasus, Bubo, the Scorpions, Medusa, the Kraken and Dioskilos
- Theatrical trailers
- Image galleries
Clash of the Titans is released on 16th November