Unlike the vast armies of today's special effects companies who make the credit crawls of superhero movies stretch longer than 'Gone With The Wind', Harryhausen created his unforgettable creatures and wondrous sequences by himself........long gone, old school Renaissance artistry....
But like many fantasy/sci-fi filmmakers at the peak of their creative powers (in the 50's and 60's), Harryhausen's brilliant efforts were largely ignored, dismissed or made the butt of condescending jokes by movie reviewers and assorted culture vultures.....
'Gwangi', unfortunately suffered the dreaded fate of a movie that becomes trapped between changing regimes of the studio that produced it.......taking over a year to make, by the time the film was ready for release in the summer of 1969, the Seven Arts company that took control of Warner Brothers had little or no interest in it. After a quick dump into grindhouses and drive-ins, it disappeared.
These days, however, it' has taken its place among the rest of the celebrated Harryhausen classics and studied intently by the digital artists who craft the 'Jurassic Park' series.....
Taken from an old script by 'King Kong' special effects pioneer (and Harryhausen mentor) Willis O' Brien, the story fancifully throws together Wild West Show cowboys with a raging, jaw-snapping Allosaurus, one of the denizens of a lost prehistoric valley in the Mexican desert.
This leads to the film's signature, spectacular sequence, a thrilling, Jurassic rodeo round-up in which the cowboys try roping the beast as if it were a wild Mustang. As always, Harryhausen's meticulous visuals had audiences shaking their heads in amazement at the seamless blending of live actors and animated monsters......an astounding cinematic magic trick executed by a single master magician....
As a great lover of movie scores, we'd drop the ball if we didn't mention 'Gwangi's memorable music by Jerome Moross. And yes, we know Moross basically just altered a few notes here and there and delivered a variation of his classic 'The Big Country' score.......but it's still damn fun to listen to.......
Until his major, splashy farewell effort, "Clash Of The Titans", Harryhausen persevered through modest budgets and critical indifference.......but his work, the stuff of dreams and nightmares, lives on forever.....in the films themselves and in all the subsequent people he inspired......No film of his would earn anything less than 5 stars from us (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.....always a joy to saddle up and go Allosaurus ropin'.......
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