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Released by: Arrow Video
Released on: June 28th, 2016.
Director: Gilles Penso
Cast: Ray Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan, directed by Gilles Penso, is both a documentary detailing the life and times of one of the most influential movie magicians in history, and also a fairly touching tribute. The feature length look at his work uses footage shot with Harryhausen himself, plenty of archival clips and stills and then footage shot with those who were influenced by his efforts to paint a pretty comprehensive picture of who Ray Harryhausen is and why he mattered so much to so many.
Clearly made by someone with a huge affection for the subject, the movie won't really give Harryhausen devotees much in the way of new information, but it's an entertaining watch regardless. He speaks with knowledge and enthusiasm about various film projects that he's worked on over the years and offers up some insight into how he was able to create the different stop motion effects that have since gone on to be so identifiable with his name. Most of his bigger films are covered well here, and there are clips and stills and various pieces of ephemera used throughout to keep things visually interesting. Pictures of various props are neat to see and give us a glimpse at the real size of some of the man's larger than life creations - it's interesting to note how something could look so huge and awe inspiring on the big screen but really be only a few feet or sometimes even just a few inches in size off screen.
Along the way, we also hear from some of his more recognizable fans - Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam, John Landis for example - as well as some of the people who worked with him such as the eternally beautiful Caroline Munro and John Cairney.
It's a warm and affectionate look at the Harryhausen mythos. He speaks candidly not just about his work and how he got into the special effects business, but also about many of his collaborators and about his own influences, his father being an obvious one. Personal photos and footage from his own collection are used here as well, giving us some insight into his private and family life. It's all nicely put together and well edited - this is interesting stuff and worth checking out for anyone with even a passing interest in Harryhausen's work and legacy.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan arrives on Blu-ray in AVC encoded high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. The newly shot interview footage looks nice and clean if not super detailed the way the best HD footage typically looks. The archival footage varies a lot. Much of the VHS sourced stuff is all over the place in terms of clarity, but that can't be helped. For the most part, everything here looks just fine. There aren't any compression problems and really, it just varies here and there because of the different sources used.
The same can be said of the movie's English language LPCM 2.0 Stereo track - most of the material sounds just fine, some of the archival clips not so much. But again, the vast majority of this is properly balanced and it sounds just fine.
Extras start off with a commentary track from director Gilles Penso, producer Alexandre Poncet alongside Timothy Nicholson and Tony Dalton. It's an interesting track that covers how and why this project came to be, where the various interview segments were culled from, how and why they chose to interview the people who appear in the film, their own thoughts on the documentary's subject and quite a bit more.
In the Interviews section we get fifteen minutes of footage in which Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Peter Lord and Rick Baker all express their admiration for what Harryhausen did for cinema and share some stories about what his work meant to them. There are also twelve separate interview outtakes included here, running about fifty-five minutes in length and featuring more screen time with Joe Dante, John Lasseter, Nick Park and a few others. Arrow has also included two Q&A sessions here, one conducted at the Paris Cinematheque with a few different cast members and running nineteen minutes and the second conducted at the London Gate Theater running nine minutes with a few cast members and with Harryhausen himself. They cover some of the same ground gone over in the commentary track but the second Q&E with Ray in attendance is worth watching just to get a look at him and the appreciation he clearly had for this project.
Rounding out the extras is an original trailer for the feature, three minutes of footage shot on the set of The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, eight minutes of deleted scenes, a two-minute 'Message To Ray' (basically a few quick tributes to the man from his cohorts), a Ray Harryhausen trailer reel (twenty-two minutes of stop motion awesomeness!), menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan is a fitting tribute to a giant of genre filmmaking. The documentary itself does a fine job of detailing the man's life, times and influence while the healthy smattering of supplements round out the package nicely. Anyone with an appreciation or interest in the history of special effects should check this out.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
