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Stars:
James Franciscus, Gila Golan, and Richard Carlson
Writer:
William E. Bast
Director:
James O’Connolly
Feature
length: 95 minutes
Extras:
Return To The Valley Featurette and Trailers
Languages:
English and French Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Snap Case
Chapter
Stops: 31
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1969/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: G
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
In
turn of the century Mexico, an Eohippus is stolen from the “Forbidden
Valley,” a place believed to carry a curse for all those who would take
anything from a beast nicknamed, “Gwangi,” a Tyrannosaurus that along with
several other prehistoric creatures have managed to thrive the geologic changes
of the Earth in this enigmatic “Lost World.” When word of the discovery
reaches an industrious businessman with a history of womanizing and down on his
luck paleontologist, they each begin to manipulate anyone they can in order to
fulfill their own desires. However nothing is exactly what it seems as several
groups of cowboys enter the valley and set their eyes on Gwangi as the latest
attraction for their rodeo carnival, resulting in mayhem and tragedy.
“The
Valley Of Gwangi” is one of the best of Ray Harryhausen’s “Dynamation®”
feature films with touches of “The Lost World” and “King Kong” mixed
into fantastic western fable filled with greedy duplicitous characters, tragic
misunderstandings, and haunting superstitions. Characters change from profiteers
to humanitarians and vice versa throughout the film, but the truth is if there
is any one tragic character in the entire film it is “Gwangi” because the
beast is taken against it’s will and is only behaving according to it’s
nature. Thus Gwangi is really the only truly innocent character in the entire
film, which I think is a noble idea to put into a G-rated monster picture where
kids are likely to marvel at the effects and root for the cowboys while adults
might appreciate the darker subtext in the story.
The
effects sequences are outstanding for their time and inspired many of the
effects artists at Industrial Light & Magic who used the film as one of many
resources to refer to when creating the CGI dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park.”
There is an entire featurette devoted to their inspiration and appreciation of
Harryhausen’s work (8:05) included on the DVD along with the theatrical
trailer (2:41) and trailers for “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” (2:33),
“The Black Scorpion” (2:08), and “Clash Of The
Titans.” Harryhausen
explains that his inspiration for the project came from an unfinished proposal
his mentor Willis O’Brien had been developing in the featurette too.
“The
Valley Of Gwangi” is presented in a matted anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1)
aspect ratio and for the most part looks terrific on DVD. There are some
instances where the image seemed to flicker a bit and there was shimmering
occasionally on the top edge of the frame. However throughout most of the film,
the picture quality is so clear that it almost looks like it had been produced
recently. In fact the only real giveaway about the age of the film is the grainy
composite shots between the live action characters and stop motion effects and
the mere fact that films like “Jurassic Park” have raised the bar of what it
takes to suspend our disbelief. However “The Valley Of Gwangi” is still a
terrific film for the entire family to enjoy and I think kids of any generation
will love it. A clear and full
sounding English Monaural Soundtrack is included along with a French Language
Monaural Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing
impaired as well as French and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options.
The
menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. While not
exactly a Halloween horror picture, I still find “The Valley Of Gwangi” an
easy recommendation for anyone’s monster picture marathon for Halloween or any
other day or night too. “The Valley Of Gwangi” is available on DVD-Video now
at retailers on and offline from Warner Home Video.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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