The Friday Rent: Release the Old-School Kraken in 1981’s Clash of the Titans

Before you see Sam Worthington take on the monstrous Kraken and defy the Greek gods in Clash of the Titans this weekend in theaters, you owe it to yourself to check out the charmingly cheesy original Clash of the Titans directed by Desmond Davis in 1981. Instead of Worthington we have a bare-chested Harry Hamlin as Perseus, the heroic son of Zeus (Laurence Olivier). In this loose retelling of the classic Greek myth, Perseus is tasked with saving the beautiful Princess Andromeda (Judi Bowker) from a virgin sacrifice to appease the Kraken, a powerful titan unleashed by Poseidon (Jack Gwillim) by order of Zeus to punish men for their arrogance.

See Hamlin in the movie that launched his career as he works the green screen and battles a slew of glorious stop-motion adversaries like Medusa, whose head of swarming snakes he needs so that her gaze will turn the Kraken to stone. The effects are obviously dated and, except for recent movies like Coraline or Fantastic Mr. Fox, stop-motion animation is a lost art form, but imagine what the CGI-dependent Worthington version will look like in 30 years when we won’t even need glasses to watch 3D movies. What the original lacks in snazzy effects it makes up for with more spirit than its modern remake.

The original Clash of the Titans was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1981 and retains its quirky charm on home video today. It has been available on DVD for years, but Warner Bros. just released the movie on Blu-ray on March 2. This high-definition version is lovingly encased in a metallically embossed 40-page hardcover digibook with production notes, cast and crew bios, color photos and illustrations. Extras include “A Conversation with Ray Harryhausen” (the stop-motion maestro behind the special effects) and the “Myths and Monsters Gallery” that highlights seven of the film’s creatures, including Medusa, the Kraken, the scorpions and Bubo (the beloved mechanical owl that makes a quick cameo in the 2010 version). When the Blu-ray loads, you’ll also be treated to a five-minute-plus preview of the new Clash of the Titans, which will hopefully reignite interest in Greek mythology or, if nothing else, this nostalgic old-school adventure.

The Beautiful Butterflies

One day the Creator was watching some children at play in a village. The children laughed and sang, yet as he watched them, the Creator’s heart was sad. He was thinking: These children will grow old. Their skin will become wrinkled. Their hair will turn gray. Their teeth fall out. The young hunters arm will fail. These lovely young girls will grow ugly and fat. The playful puppies will become blind mangy dogs. And those wonderful flowers-yellow and blue, red and purple-will fade. The leaves from the trees will fall and dry up. Already they are turning yellow. The Creator grew sadder and sadder. It was in the fall, and the thought of the coming winter, with its cold and lack of game and green things, made his heart heavy. Yet it was still warm, and the sun was shining. The Creator watched the play of sunlight and shadow on the ground, the yellow leaves being carried here and there by the wind. He saw the blueness of the sky, the whiteness of some cornmeal ground by the women. Suddenly he smiled All those colors, they ought to be preserved.

I’ll make something to gladden my heart, something for these children to look at and enjoy. The Creator took out his bag and started gathering things: a spot of sunlight, a handful of blue from the sky, the whiteness of the cornmeal, the shadow of playing children the blackness of a beautiful girls hair, the yellow of the falling leaves, the green of the pine needles, the red, purple, and orange of the flowers around him. All these he put into his bag. As an afterthought, he put the songs of the birds in, too. Then he walked over to the grassy spot where the children were playing. Children, little children, this is for you, and he gave them his bag. Open it; there’s something nice inside, he told them. The children opened the bag, and at once hundreds and hundreds of colored butterflies flew out, dancing around the children’s heads, settling on their hair, fluttering up again to sip from this or that flower. And the children, enchanted, said that they had never seen anything so beautiful. The butterflies began to sing, and children listened smiling. But then a songbird came flying, settling on the Creators shoulder, scolding him, saying: Its not right to give our songs to these new pretty things. You told us when you made us that every bird would have his own song. And now you’ve passed them all around. Isn’t it enough that you gave your new playthings the colors of the rainbow? You’re right, said the Creator. I made one song for each bird, and I shouldn’t have taken what belongs to you. So the Creator took the songs away from the butterflies, and that’s why they are silent. They are beautiful even so! he said.

It’s a story that’s popular among the Papago Tribes. I shared it with the readers of PFC because when I read it I could see at least two of my filmmaker friends among those children dancing in joy with the butterflies – Sarthak Das Gupta who made ‘TGIB’ and Sudipto Chattopadhyay who dared to tell a story like ‘Pankh’. Both the films, in spite of having no budget to make the right marketing noise, remain as beautiful as the butterflies. Both release this Friday. Doesn’t matter if the butterflies are relatively silent. They are beautiful even so!

CLASH OF THE TITANS: Five Cinematic Clashes To Rival The Gods

"Clash of the Titans" serves an important societal purpose in showing just how deadly having an arch-nemesis can be। But even as the vengeful rivalry between the likes of Zeus and Hades enjoys a moment in the spotlight, their heated relationship is far from being the only formidable head-to-head conflict throughout film history.

After the jump, we've listed five of our favorite cinematic clashes of the titans — outside of the one seen in the just released "Clash of the Titans," of course!

Aliens vs Predators: The "Aliens vs Predators" movies are far from fantastic, but as separate entities, these horrific creatures of science fiction are two of the greatest beasts of all time. That's probably why the potentially epic confrontation between them has been considerably less than epic on the big screen — there's simply no way to create a bad and bloody battle between these warring species that could ever live up to the showdowns we've played out in our mind's eye.

Freddy vs Jason: Another battle that doesn't live up to the hype, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhies represent two opposite ends of the horror icon spectrum. In one corner you have Freddy, a wise-cracking psychopath who would gladly spend a drawn-out moment torturing you to death. On the other hand is Jason, a lumbering mute looking to bury his machete into some meat without any real flourish. Given their disparate philosophies on murder, it's hardly surprising that these two icons are constantly at odds with one another.

The Galactic Empire vs The Rebel Alliance: One of the most readily apparent cinematic clashes of the titans is the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion in the "Star Wars" saga. It's a classic David and Goliath tale — there's no reason that a monstrous conglomerate of evil like the Empire should ever have to worry about the insignificant fleas of the Rebellion, but thanks to ingenuity and a whole lot of hope, the Rebels are able to pull through in the end.

The Jets vs The Sharks: The mean streets of New York City belong to two rival gangs — the Jets and the Sharks, two warring factions at the center of "West Side Story." There's no real reason for these street tough teens to hate each other so much. I'm sure if they called a ceasefire and enjoyed a few beers and hamburgers, they'd get along just fine. Sadly, such a truce never happened, leading to a complete decimation of the Jets and Sharks' respective hierarchies.

John McClane vs Terrorists: The "Die Hard" hero has made more than a few enemies during his career, most likely pre-dating the Nakatomi Towers incident. But the only reason that McClane's endless war on terrorism even makes it on this list is because the resulting battles are always glorious — in terms of there being a legitimate threat posed to McClane, there is none. One John McClane is equivalent to 1,000 highly trained terrorists. I'll take those odds any day of the week!