I remember 1st seeing this amazing special effect when I was a kid 30 years ago, and just absolutely being mezmorized by the realism and haunting creaking sound of the grinding metal. To this day still the coolest special effect ever seen on film! The master Harryhausen, with all the computer technology 40 years later, they cant even come close to his genius!!!
shareSean,
I totally agree with you dude! The angles of Talos kneeling, prior to his moving...were just so ominous. The flight and fight across the beach....
Also the look of ANGUISH as he starts to crumble after his ankle valve is opened is still etched in my mind.
Harryhausen really enriched my life and broadened my imagination!
there is a life size replicar or talos in universal studios in florida i saw it there about 7 years ago it took my breath away,its crouched on its pedastal and it looks amazing.
shareThis dude was truly scary when I was younger - very cleverly done.
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Harryhausen really enriched my life and broadened my imagination!
When Hercules & Hylas are looking at him....an he just turns his head...
That's one of the scariest moments in movies!
Sam Tomaino
I just wish he would have done more than swung his sword and make a feeble attempt to stomp on the men. Anyway, he was cool. Did you see the way he was leaning on his base after climbing down? That was cool and gave him more depth as a character. Also, they underused Hercules in this movie. They only show him using his strength a couple of times. He should have at least thrown a boulder at Talos, making him stumble or something.
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It would have been nice to see the Herc do more. I was hoping for that too. Maybe Nigel Green (Hercules)had to report to Rorke's Drift to start filming Zulu!
share***When Hercules & Hylas are looking at him....an he just turns his head...
That's one of the scariest moments in movies!***
When I saw that scene as a child (more years ago than I like to think), it scared the snot out of me. It's still a chilling moment in the film.
I agree. That head turning sequence scared the hell out of me when I first saw this movie.
That whole Talos part of the film still absolutely fascinates me 50yrs later.
I completely agree. The sound effects they chose for Talos were perfect. That, along with the stiffened movements of his body (contrast him with the fluid motions of the Hydra later in the movie) communicated the fact that the being was powerful, and yet somehow limited in his ability to move around.
I think that alone explains why he was unable to stop Jason's crew.
And yes, the moment where Talos slowly turns his head -- truly frightening. The sound effects and the Bernard Hermann score really do a lot to ratchet up the tension so that moment has even more payoff.
When he first turns his head to look at Hercules and the other guy, I still about freak out. SCARY! Talos is the coolest!
shareOne of the best things about Ray Harryhausen's film techniques, in my opinion, is the way he can take a mythological creature and make it SOOOOOO much more interesting from a design standpoint.
As you might know, Ray always wanted to bring the Colossus of Rhodes statue to life using his special effects techniques but never, obviously, could come up with a story point that he could work into a feature script.
This was facilitated with Talos.
In the original greek myth, Talos was only about as tall as a very tall man, maybe, say, six foot four inches or so, and he would kill the argonauts that he captured by getting them in a bear hug and then roasting them by heating his bronze body.
Eeeeeeeewwwwwww, as the kids say today.
But Ray thought, wouldn't it be cool (or words to that effect) to have the bronze giant be a REALLY bronze giant...say about 200ft. high. That made the Talos sequence more interesting and gave Harryhausen an excuse to bring a giant statue of a Greek warrior to life all at the same time.
No wonder he likes this movie the best out of all of his films.
http://www.woodywelch.com
I wonder if they will ever try a movie again using the claymation or special techniques Harryhausen used. I mean, CGI special effects are just OK. I think the best CGI Ive seen so far was in the spiderman movies, but wouldnt be cool if someone could come close to the art form Ray used in all his great classics. Someone out there must be capable of doing it???
shareThough not as prevalent today as it was in the past, stop-motion will always be around (guys like Tim Burton certainly employ that art form from time to time).
As you might know, Ray always wanted to bring the Colossus of Rhodes statue to life using his special effects techniques but never, obviously, could come up with a story point that he could work into a feature script.
This was facilitated with Talos.
As a kid watching THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES with Rory Calhoun, I was vastly disappointed it didn't movie. Thank goodness, Ray made up for that!
The Bronze Giant scene was ripped off in Starcrash(1978).
sharenever saw that, prob stunk
shareIt did! Big time!
http://www.woodywelch.com
The Talos scenes are wonderful...as other have said, the initial scenes when he comes to life are just enthralling and scary!
One thing though, and I don't know it if anyone has mentioned it, there seems to be a differnce in the scale of Talos, from the scenes when he first chased the Argonauts to when he blocks their escape at the narrow sea channel. At the sea channel he is much much bigger than when he climbed of the pedestal...if you look at the scene when he strides the two pieces of land, the Argo is in the foreground, compare that with the size of the chamber he sits on when we first see him and you will see what I mean.
Great film though and doesn't detract from the overall visual effect.
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I am 46 and it STILL freaks me out when Talos turns his head to see Hercules
The Long Walk stops every year, just once.
^ I was going to say something similar! Talos still scares me as much as he did when I was a nipper...
'Right, the shop is closed, everybody get out! Back on the streets, you time-wasting bastards!'
Guys:
That 'screeeech' of metal when he turns his head was really hair raising; and of course that brass/percussion score fit in marvelously.
nickm
yes I noticed that straight away too, the size-change.
shareMaybe Ghostbusters with the Statue of Liberty
share"I wonder if they will ever try a movie again using the claymation or special techniques Harryhausen used. I mean, CGI special effects are just OK. I think the best CGI Ive seen so far was in the spiderman movies, but wouldnt be cool if someone could come close to the art form Ray used in all his great classics. Someone out there must be capable of doing it???"
...and of course there is also Coraline (2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057197/board/reply/161522941
Talos is so cool his are some of my favorites scenes in movie history after all these years. And the skeletons!!!
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Agreed I'm 47 years old, seen many movies since Jason in the mid 60's, and the TALOS monster still brings forth one of the coolest special effects I have ever seen. Harryhausen was one of the few geniuses in life that found his calling. We all benefited from it.
shareTalos was fantastic. It says a lot that it took one of the greatest special effects sequences in cinematic history (the seven fighting skeletons) to overshadow even him in this film.
shareI agree with you about Talos, when it turns his head and you hear the "screech" it's the first scene of a movie that kept in my head when I was a child, I was very scared (and still I am when I remember it), definitelly the best (and scariest) special effects of all time.
shareI watched this movie a lot when I was a kid and Talos always scared me. Now my kids adore this movie, in fact, they are watching this as I type this. Talos is their favorite part. I still get a little chill when I see him for the first time and hear the metal noises. It still gets me as much at 35 as when it did when I was 5. And I absolutely LOVE that my boys, ages 9 and almost 7, have made this movie their favorite for the last 5 years.
shareIt is such a familiar sound but I don't know what they used to create the sound effect? It reminds me of the doors on those metal storage containers opening.
shareNo way! Talos made me go "WOW!" as a child but the skeletons didn't. They were scary and creepy but I wasn't blown away impressed like with Talos.
shareNearing 35 years for me. I saw "Jason and the Argonauts" at the Capital Theater in Ansonia, CT one Saturday afternoon when it was a first run. Talos the bronze Titan, the skeleton Warriors, everything about that movie was simply awe inspiring. Mesmerizing. June, 1963. I was 11.
Of course, I had no idea who Ray Harryhousen was. The only name I recall remembering was Todd Armstrong. I always knew the names of 'leading men', WW2 Aces, and "Superman".
At the Assumption Grammar School, the Greeks were, for me, just about everything a boy could imagine. Hercules. Perseus. The Trojan War against the Persians. I still remember tales told by the Sisters of Mercy about the Spartans (and ancient Greece in general: the first Democracy and all that).
It's sad that with the 'cutting edge' effects of today TALOS' awesome presence has been largely forgotten(compared to Godzilla)when it comes to the great movie monsters of yore.
shareI'm not much for the latest "cutting edge" or CGI special effects when compared to Harryhausen's mastery of claymation. To me, Talos is so much cooler and scarier than the CGI creatures of today.
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