Jason and the Argonauts

Remember that sense of wonder that used to accompany watching movies as a child? That feeling when you’d pop in a show and the narrator voice would say “and now…your feature presentation” and you’d settle in for tales of life and death, love and hate, despair and glory? Jason and the Argonauts will bring all those moments back to you! The film is cheesy and delightful. Moreover, Ray Harrhausen’s special effects will make you believe in the story, despite its script’s melodramatic faults. There were times when I was genuinely concerned about the fate of the argonauts, whether they were fighting the cyclops, skeletons, a hydra, or a near-fatal pass through a cliff. That is the magic of this film: the effects are so charming in their construction that they become perfect examples of pure imagination. They will you into suspending your disbelief, throwing your world-weary cynicism aside, and going along for the ride – and what a wondrous journey it is.

Jason and the Argonauts goes on the list of films that I would have liked to have seen a sequel for, right up there with Sword of Doom.