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| Warner (Australia). Region 2,4,5 PAL. 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 1.0, German DD 1.0, French DD 1.0. English, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Icelandic, Swedish, Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkish, Arabic, English (FHI), German (FHI) Subtitles. 92 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Jim O'Connolly
Starring: James Franciscus,
Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith,
Freda Jackson, Gustavo Rojo
Screenplay: William
Bast
Music: Jerome Moross
Country: USA |
Dinosaurs and cowboys. No two words so distinctly
different have come together so well since peanut
butter and jam. I'm sure many of you are thinking
"Outrageous!", as you probably would
have when first presented with peanut butter and
jam on toast or a sandwich (lest you were brought
up on 70's or 80's Sesame Street). But
as silly or preposterous as it may sound, once you
take that first bite, you realise how truly fantastic
such a combination is… Oh! The Dinosaurs and
cowboys things works pretty good too… Especially
when Ray Harryhausen is thrown into the mix!
Some of you may have seen it on some random,
idle Sunday as a midday movie, some may have been
lucky enough to find it at the video store, but
for those who haven't seen or heard of The
Valley of Gwangi, there's no better
time than now. The Valley of Gwangi was made in 1969, though was originally supposed
to be made over thirty years earlier as a follow-up
to King Kong. There are glaring
similarities between the two titles, where Kong
saw explorers going to a remote island, encountering
prehistoric monsters and bringing one back to
civilisation resulting in giant ape rampage, Gwangi
(pronounced Gwarn-ji) has cowboys inadvertently
stumbling on a valley hidden in somewhere Mexico,
encountering prehistoric beasts and bringing one
back to civilisation resulting in dinosaur rampage.
While the stories are similar on paper, characters
and events in each film are, for the most part,
very different.
Taking elements from the grand adventure movies
of the 60's, such as Jason and the
Argonauts and Mysterious Island,
and fusing them with the tamer Westerns of the
time, the film follows Tuck Kirby, cowboy and
all round great guy as he accompanies Professor
Horace Bromley on a paleontological outing into
what locals call The Valley of Gwangi. Early on
in the piece we learn that Gwangi is a Kong like
being whose valley is forbidden to humans, incurring
the creature's wrath should they ever enter.
It's not hard to see where it goes.
The film is truly a matinee spectacular. The
over the top, sometimes camp performances are
a true sign of the times, as are the special effects
and overall look of the film. Back then, these
films were the Jurassic Park 3's
of their time. Great special effects, light story,
good guys, bad guys, dinosaurs and not too much
to do but sit back and be entertained. If you
watch any of these sorts of films and invest any
more into them than that then you're going
to come away thinking you've wasted your
time (but then again if you're going to
try and intellectualise cowboys versus dinosaurs,
you probably don't deserve the brain you're
forcing to work harder than it needs to).
The special effects are clearly the highlight
of anything with Harryhausen's name attached
to it, and Gwangi contains some of his best work.
The titular Allosaurus is a fantastically brought
to life creation, and while visually similar to
what has come before, is superbly animated and
integrated into the rest of the film. It could
be argued that Gwangi is Harryhausen at his best.
Some technically amazing sequences include the
lassoing of a Styracosaurus, and the even more
impressive lassoing of Gwangi himself, along with
Gwangi's transportation wagon and rampage
through the Mexican town. It's just a pity
that this film isn't as dinosaur laden as
say One Million Years B.C. Just
a few more probably would've made this film
the superior Harryhausen dinosaur romp. You get
a Pteranodon (which are always done to perfection),
a Styracosaurus (who, besides the aforementioned
cowboy encounter, also fights Gwangi), a slightly
less than impressive Ornithomimus (whose screen
time is considerably short but leads to the reveal
of bigger and better things), and an Eohippus
(a miniature prehistoric horse) along with Gwangi
himself, and if you're counting all the
stop motion effects then you get an elephant that
gets slaughtered by Gwangi in an arena sequence. |
| Video |
| A decent transfer that isn't exactly going
to win any awards. The DVD makes the special effects
look great, and the dinosaurs have never looked
crisper, but for nitpickers this could cause problems.
Just as when they cleaned up the original versions
of the Star Wars trilogy and you
could see all the separate plates in the space battles
(we're talking pre-CGI enhancements here folks,
the versions people cling to with such needless
desperation), the remastered visuals make certain
effects shots more telling as to how they were achieved.
Note though that this only happens once or twice,
and doesn't detract at all from the viewing
experience (unless you're really uptight about
effects and suspension of disbelief). There are
moments here and there where the special effects
plates prove to be detrimental to whole image (in
terms of dirt and scratches), but they too aren't
anything to really worry about. For sticklers the
film is in it's 1.85:1 ratio and a 16:9 transfer. |
| Audio |
| Again, not going to win any awards, English Mono
with a French and German language option. The sound
is clear though, sometimes too clear, showing off
what's been relooped and added in post. |
| Extra Features |
| Gwangi comes with only a few
extras, but for the price tag and the age of the
film you can't really expect too much. There're
trailers for other Harryhausen monster flicks,
such as Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms, Clash of the Titans and the Black
Scorpion. There's also the film's
own theatrical trailer and a brief retrospective
entitled "Return to the Valley", where
various special effects artists and animators
from the big effects houses today give their thoughts
on the film and Harryhausen himself (who is also
interviewed for the feature). |
| The Verdict |
It's hard not to like this film. In spite
of its faults, it really is a lot of fun and once
the dinosaurs come into play they don't really
let up. Gwangi will invariably
be compared to Kong and One
Million Years B.C., and although it doesn't
quite reach the same heights of grandeur either
of those titles, The Valley of Gwangi
is still a classic in it's own right. For
those who aren't massive dinosaur fans (like
myself), think of it as Swiss cheese. Sure, there're
a few holes, but it tastes great nonetheless! If
you're after just a bit of fun without having
to think too hard, Gwangi is pure,
unadulterated escapist cinema, but if you're
a dinosaur enthusiast, I say grab it! 3 stars for
the average watcher, 4 for the dinosaur lovers.
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
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