Wednesday, June 29, 2011

And Happy Birthday, Ray Harryhausen!

Mark Bourne of Open The Pod Bay Doors, Hal has just informed me that today is also Ray Harryhausen's birthday.

Let's celebrate the greatest special effects artist of all time with this excerpt from Jason and the Argonauts, the greatest special effects sequence in movie history ...

4 comments:

Mark Bourne said...

Oooh, excellent choice. I just added that clip to my entry as well. Thanks for the reminder. Was this the scene that made me first love movies as a kid? It might have been, yep.

Yvette said...

I just saw your post, M.M. I'm going to go right quick and post the news of Harryhausen's birthday on my blog too!

I LOVE this skeleton sequence.

He was the best!

Greg Wilcox said...

Amazing how many kids these days don't appreciate film soundtracks OR classic special effects.

That skeleton sequence is indeed stellar (and I think even Harryhausen himself said it was one of the hardest things he'd done).

My personal favorite part of Jason was the Talos sequence because of the scary as hell music Herrmann composed for the scene. I remember listening to the soundtrack cassette with headphones on and wanting to run and hide under something while that music played...

Ray Harryhausen's work always awakens my own sense of wonder, particularly as it's true hand made craftsmanship and pure talent based on his love for fantasy and the need to share his spectacular skills with the world as best he could.

Mythical Monkey said...

I think even Harryhausen himself said it was one of the hardest things he'd done

I think it took him something like two years to put it all together. It's just an amazing sequence to me, and Bernard Herrmann's score is perfect.