Old Movie

After several years I viewed DRAGONSLAYER again. This is a 1981 film that I saw during its initial release. It was also the first monster movie I watched that employed a primitive version of CGI that we have come to accept as the norm.

This movie is excellent in every way. Cast. Direction. Cinematography. FX. Art design. Etc.

This is also the film that famously made Ray Harryhausen retire. Over Go-Motion. Even though they used a stop-motion figure for the dragon, they enhanced it with inter-frame blurring. The FX guys gave Harryhausen a preview and he knew then that his days were done--that computers were going to do it all and that his career as an artisan were over.

I love this film. I can't really find anything at all to criticize when it comes to this movie. It's almost perfect. As such, I should hold it in higher esteem, but for some reason I don't list it among my favorite films. Perhaps there is something subconsciously bugging me about it that I'll have to find on a future viewing. Or maybe I'm just a critical curmudgeon.

I've seen it now probably five or six times (I don't keep count). But pretty much the casting is perfect. Ralph Richardson is spot-on as Ulrich, the last remaining wizard. I think the movie was Albert Salmi's final performance before he committed suicide. The fact is that I can't think of anyone in the movie who turned in a less than excellent performance and for which they were not effectively cast.

Also, the monster, Vermithrax pejorative, is the most perfectly designed dragon that I have ever seen for the movie screen. Anatomically the creature looks right and moves logically and remains both awe-inspiring and terrifying. When it attacks a village it looks like some kind of organic fighter jet spewing napalm. 

I'll probably give it a few more viewings before I get tired of seeing it. If there is a flaw that keeps me from placing the movie higher in my esteem, maybe I'll find it.

Ralph Richardson as Ulrich, the Wizard.

Peter MacNicol and Vermithrax pejorative.

The late Caitlin Clarke as Valerian.

Ruined by Monsters!

This is the kind of thing that set me on the path to becoming a writer. And, of course, Kong specifically. I saw that movie for the first time when I was five years old...and there was no going back. I was hooked on a lifetime love of all things fantastic.

And then I saw this one!

The creators of magic films had their hooks in me. I was addicted to stop-motion dinosaurs, science fiction stories, and comic book adventures. I haven't regretted an instant of it all.

So here's to Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Forrest Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko! Thanks one and all!

Kick his ass, Kong!

Ackermonster Chronicles Review

Some time back Jason and Sunni Brock wrote and produced a wonderful documentary about the writer Charles Beaumont. It was a freshman work that remains one of my favorite documentaries.

So I have been eager to see their follow-up work, THE ACKERMONSTER CHRONICLES, a film about Forrest J Ackerman.

To just about everyone in science-fiction fandom and the related fields, Forrest J Ackerman is one of the most famous personalities the genre produced. He was a classic huckster with a powerful ego who was as instrumental in the promotion of genre literature as Stan Lee has been to the comic book industry.

Lifelong pals: Harryhausen, Bradbury, Ackerman.

"Uncle Forry" as he was commonly known was a true character. He was often generous, always friendly, and a natural born promoter.

This documentary--as the name implies--chronicles Forry's life. Unlike the Beaumont film, this one contains interviews with Mr. Ackerman, the project having been initiated a couple of years before his death. So we have Ackerman himself dictating a part of the proceedings.

John Landis, Jason Brock.

Added to this we are treated to conversations with many of the people with whom he lived, worked, and influenced. And Forry was one hell of an influence to several generations of artists who went on to create much in the world of fantasy, horror, science-fiction, and films. Brock was good enough to give us interviews with many of these people--some well known to most of us, and some more obscure.

If you were a long-time fan of Mr. Ackerman, this documentary will  be a pleasure. If you're unfamiliar with his life and works, then you should see the film. As David Schow once said, "All of us are Forrest Ackerman's mutant children."

It couldn't be better said.