Dick
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- May 22, 1999
- Messages
- 9,906
- Real Name
- Rick
I admire Ray Harryhausen as much as the next guy (I own the Masters Of the Majiks books, which are not inexpensive). My favorite fantasy film since I was young remains THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Many of Mr. Harryhausen's commentaries are excellent, especially the one on the Criterion laser disc of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. But his commentaries for the films that were colorized by Legend Films (three of the Columbia Sci-Fi's, plus this one) are little more than feature-length adverts for the horrifying Legend Films colorization process. I would find it hard to believe I was alone in positing that our hero Harryhausen was offered some unspoken money and/or bennies for continually mentioning during his commentaries how wonderful the "color" is in these films. C'mon -- could this man, whose special effects were almost always a visual wonder, actually believe that the crap "color" added to his or another's films look, even if the original dream of the respective directors were that these films be made in (real) color? Colorization is invariably pasty, with seriously un-lifelike flesh tones, the color palette narrowed to a few dull choices, and will never, NEVER look natural in its current state. Although I haven't gone back and counted, I swear that Harryhausen and his not very helpful moderator Bob Burns return to this colorization process fifty times during the course of a 102-minute film. Constantly, Bob Burns asks the master, "How did you decide on the color of [name scene or character or costume]?" Harryhausen, for his part, deifies Legend's colorization by saying that the film literally burst to life now, whereas the black and white original was way-y- inferior. REALLY? Colorization looks like shit, and I think Ray and Bob knew it, but they were hooked into some kind of agreement with Legend to promote this sleezy practice. I can never listen to the SHE commentary track again. It's an infomercial, and from respectable filmmakers to boot. I hate to speak against the dead, especially one of my heroes, but I truly believe Mr. Harryhausen sold out here.
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