Clash of the Titans

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox Film Clash of the Titans is a 1981 fantasy movie based on the myth of Perseus.

Among its stars were Harry Hamlin (as Perseus), Maggie Smith (as Thetis), Claire Bloom (as Hera), Ursula Andress (as Aphrodite), Judi Bowker (as Andromeda), Burgess Meredith (as Amon), Sian Phillips (as Cassiopeia), and Sir Laurence Olivier (as Zeus).

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, the last feature film for which he did so.

1 Inaccuracies
2 See also
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit]

Inaccuracies

There are numerous departures from the Greek myth, of which some notable examples are:

The sea monster sent to kill Andromeda is called the Kraken, a Scandinavian name. The Greeks called it "ketos".
Perseus tames and rides the winged horse Pegasus, a feat that was accomplished in Greek mythology by Bellerophon. In the original myth, Pegasus is born of Medusa's blood when Perseus beheads her, and he does not ride Pegasus at all. Nevertheless, portrayals of Perseus riding Pegasus long predate the film.
The movie shows Perseus throwing Medusa's head into the sea in the end. In the Greek story he first uses it to dispense with an unwelcome wedding guest, then presents it to Athena, who placed it on her shield.
Bubo, a mechanical owl that flies heavily and tweets and beeps around, remarkably resembles the robot R2-D2 of the contemporary Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but Harryhausen had started work earlier.
No mention is made of Medusa's two sister Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale. Also, the home of Medusa is an island in the Underworld, beyond the river Styx, as opposed to the original story, which places her in Libya.
Dioskilos, the guardian of Medusa's shrine, a ferocious dog with two heads is possibly based on Orthrus or Cerberus.
On the cover of the DVD, Perseus is wearing a helmet when facing the Kraken. However, in the film, the helmet was lost in a swamp never to be found again. Also, the helmet had the power to make its wearer invisible. Perseus would have been invisible in the promotional poster (used as the DVD's 'cover-art') if the information from the movie were used to design it.

[edit]

Trivia

From an off-screen romance that occurred during the filming of this movie, Hamlin and Andress have a son named Dimitri.
A scene in which the Kraken arrives from the sea can be seen in the introduction of the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.

[edit]