A 1981 fantasy film directed by Desmond Davis and featuring stop motion animation by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.
< read all 4 reviewsCLASH OF THE TITANS tells the story of young Perseus (Harry Hamlin - TV's "L.A. Law"), the illegitimate son of the god Zeus (Laurence Olivier). Perseus discovers his ultimate destiny when he is mysteriously transported to the city of Joppa. There, he learns of the fair Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker), who is doomed to live her life challenging suitors with impossible riddles, given to her by the deformed Calibos.
Perseus solves her riddle, and is about to marry her, when the angered patron goddess of Joppa, Thetis (Maggie Smith), denounces the union and orders that Andromeda be chained to the foot of the sacrificial stone in a month's time, to be fed to the last of the Titans, the Kraken.
Perseus must find a way to defeat the Kraken, and sets off on a perilous quest to discover the answer...
Gorgeous romantic-adventure. Laurence Rosenthal's score perfectly captures the mood of the movie. Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects look quite obvious in this new digital age, but serve their purpose wonderfully.
Also starring Burgess Meredith, Claire Bloom, Ursula Andress, Sian Phillips and Flora Robson.
The DVD includes the featurette "A Conversation with Ray Harryhausen", "Map of Myths and Monsters" feature and the trailer. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).
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Clash of the Titans is a 1981 fantasy and mythology movie based on the myth of Perseus. Stop motion animation is used to a large extent in the film to animate the various monsters. The special effects creatures were created by Ray Harryhausen, who retired from filmmaking shortly after the movie was released. Stephen R. Wilk wrote in 2000 that "most people today who are aware of the story of Perseus and Medusa owe their knowledge to the 1981 film Clash of the Titans."
Clash of the Titans was released on June 12, 1981 (Raiders of the Lost Ark was also released on the same date). The movie was a box office hit, grossing $41 million domestically alone, on a $16 million budget. It was the 11th highest grossing film of the year.[