Title: Clash of the Titans (1981)
Starring: Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier, Ursula Andress, Jack Gwillim, Susan Fleetwood
Director: Desmond Davis
Duration: 118 minutes
Certificate: 12
Format: Blu-ray
Harry Hamlin is Perseus, the demi-god who takes up arms alongside humans when they declare war upon the Gods. Laurence Olivier is Zeus and Jack Gwillim is Poseidon. Ursula Andress is Aphrodite and Susan Fleetwood is Athena. It’s an all-star cast.
This film is well known as being Ray Harryhausen’s camp classic. And of course it’s now being compared to the new 2010 version. So just how well does it fair against the new film? Well for a start is doesn’t have Sam Worthington in it, who has been in every big blockbuster of the past few years, so I think that is a plus point. I mean he’s okay as an actor, but I prefer Hamlin in this particular role. I guess to be fair in 1981 I don’t think Sam Worthington was even born! So what about the acting in general? Well actually I think on the whole it is better in this 1981 version than in the 2010 effort.
What about the effects? They must be better in the newer version? Well no, not exactly. Harryhausen’s monsters are indeed fairly shoddy by today’s standards but the HD overhaul has been kind to them and I have to admit that this 1981 version of Clash of the Titans is more entertaining. It’s a guilty pleasure isn’t it? CGI is not always a good thing and in the 2010 version there are many scenes where the CGI just doesn’t work very well. Just like the special effects from the early 80s it too is shoddy, albeit in a different way. And where Harryhausen’s early 80s work was good for its time, the same can’t be said for the 2010 version. We’ve seen much better CGI and special effects in other recent movies. So on that basis alone I feel that I prefer the effects in the 1981 version.
The film is well paced and well directed by Desmond Davis and although you might have to be in the right type of mood to watch a slightly corny film from the early 80s I do think that it really has lasting appeal.
Overall Clash of the Titans 1981 is more entertaining than the 2010 version and on Blu-ray it really does look good. There’s obviously been a lot of work done on the print to bring it up to the HD standard.
