hen the infuriated king of Argos condemns his daughter and her infant son to drift alone on the open sea, he incurs the wrath of the child's father—the mighty god Zeus (Olivier). The Olympian patriarch in turn destroys the king's city and spirits the princess and her son safely away to a remote island, where the boy grows into a fine young man named Perseus (Hamlin).
But another Olympian's child, Calibos, son of the goddess Thetis (Smith), possesses a fate not nearly as favorable. Accused of abusing his advantages and station in life, Zeus turns Calibos into a monster, driving him out of the Phoenician city of Joppa and away from his betrothed, the princess
Andromeda (Bowker).
Envenomed by Zeus' "justice," Thetis plucks Perseus from his safe and happy home and strands him in Joppa, a place now cursed by the specter of Calibos and the anger of Thetis, a place where suitors to the lovely Andromeda face death if and when they fail to solve the riddles that are the key to her hand in marriage.
But on the back of the winged horse Pegasus, and armed with gifts from the gods (including a helmet that renders him invisible and a faithful mechanical owl named Bubo), Perseus subdues Calibos and wins the hand of Andromeda. An entreaty from Calibos to his mother, however, exacerbated by the Phoenician queen's claim that the princess is even more beautiful than Thetis herself, drives the vengeful goddess to a deadly decree that destroys the newlyweds' happiness by the ocean, "unknown to man," as a sacrifice for the Kraken, titan of the sea.
And so Perseus must find a way kill the Kraken and save his princess, which sets him on an odyssey most strange and deadly, where even his gifts and favors from the gods may not be enough for him to succeed.
Still just wild about Harryhausen
Though its special effects don't exactly hold up to today's standards, and it is somewhat liberal in its take on certain Greco-Roman myths (after all, the Kraken is of Scandinavian origin, Calibos is more like Shakespeare's Caliban than anything else, and the plucky, clicking and whirring Bubo is unmistakably an R2-D2 type), Clash of the Titans stands out as one of cinema's most dramatic and entertaining representations of the world of mythology.
Actors like Lawrence Olivier and Maggie Smith bring great presence to their roles as powerful and temperamental Olympian gods. Amongst the mortals, Burgess Meredith (who plays Ammon, an old poet and playwright who becomes Perseus' friend and advisor in Joppa) simply exudes good-natured wisdom, while a then-unknown Harry Hamlin meets the challenge of playing the hero with a certain, appealing style.
Even in an age of movies with mind-blowing CGI, it's still fairly easy to be drawn into the magical charm of a film like this one. This is due largely to special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen, who not only was responsible for the movie's visual effects but also co-produced the fantasy epic, which turned out to be his swan song in the world of moviemaking. And though it may drag a bit here and there, overall the story is a fairly engrossing and smart one, complemented by a rousing and memorable score and some rather majestic settings.
Fans of Harryhausen will be pleased to learn that he provides all of the DVD's behind-the-scenes commentary (in two separate features), but viewers who crave loads of extras may find Clash of the Titans' offerings a bit disappointing—a missed opportunity, perhaps, for a film whose design
wonders and nostalgia factor (to say nothing of its camp appeal) are some of its strongest assets.
