Film Rant: The Valley of Gwangi
WARNING: Potential Spoilers for a four-decade old film you've probably never heard of anyways.
FURTHER WARNING: This isn't a "review" of the film so much as it is me ranting about my impressions of it.
Okay, granted, it's a B-grade "horror" film one usually lumps together with the likes of THEM! and The Giant Claw. And, granted, the general populace usually tries it's best to ignore films like this. But this film really stands out for me among other B-movies. For one thing, the special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen. That right there would get it a ringing endorsement from me, I'll admit. But even beyond that, it has so many varied and tantilizing elements to it:
*Cowboys. Not many B-movies have any sort of Western element to them (those that do are generally better off for it, in my opinion). Even fewer take place in the old west, making this one stand out even more.
*Mexico. Here we even have a different flavor than the traditional Western element, as the film takes place south of the border.
*Gypsies. You'd think with the film taking place in Mexico at the turn of the (previous) century, and a group of people denouncing a nearby valley as "evil," you'd think that group would take the form of a local Native American tribe or something. And you'd be wrong, as in Gwangi it's gypsies. This manages to add a further "Old World" element into the mix.
*Dinosaurs. Any of the above three combined with dinosaurs would, by themselves, make for an interesting twist on the traditional "when dinosaurs attack" B-movie. Instead we get all four, which is even better.
*Obscure Paeleontological Refferences. How many films are there where they've mentioned the word "Eohippus," period?
*A Midget. Enough said.
*Ray Harryhausen. I know he's already been mentioned, but then that's how much of an element he adds to a film.
Perhaps more suprisingly, they managed to throw in a decent enough plot to fill the spaces between dinosaur attacks. You never really get the sense that the sole existence of these people is to be killed messily by "the creature" later on (as is characteristic with many other B-movies I could mention). They even had a woman in a role other than that of "complete incompetence" (a trait of horror films from this era in general), and there was only one point in the entire film where I cringed on behalf of the imaginary feminist watching it with me. Honestly, I'm sorry I've never rented the film before now.
FURTHER WARNING: This isn't a "review" of the film so much as it is me ranting about my impressions of it.
Okay, granted, it's a B-grade "horror" film one usually lumps together with the likes of THEM! and The Giant Claw. And, granted, the general populace usually tries it's best to ignore films like this. But this film really stands out for me among other B-movies. For one thing, the special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen. That right there would get it a ringing endorsement from me, I'll admit. But even beyond that, it has so many varied and tantilizing elements to it:
*Cowboys. Not many B-movies have any sort of Western element to them (those that do are generally better off for it, in my opinion). Even fewer take place in the old west, making this one stand out even more.
*Mexico. Here we even have a different flavor than the traditional Western element, as the film takes place south of the border.
*Gypsies. You'd think with the film taking place in Mexico at the turn of the (previous) century, and a group of people denouncing a nearby valley as "evil," you'd think that group would take the form of a local Native American tribe or something. And you'd be wrong, as in Gwangi it's gypsies. This manages to add a further "Old World" element into the mix.
*Dinosaurs. Any of the above three combined with dinosaurs would, by themselves, make for an interesting twist on the traditional "when dinosaurs attack" B-movie. Instead we get all four, which is even better.
*Obscure Paeleontological Refferences. How many films are there where they've mentioned the word "Eohippus," period?
*A Midget. Enough said.
*Ray Harryhausen. I know he's already been mentioned, but then that's how much of an element he adds to a film.
Perhaps more suprisingly, they managed to throw in a decent enough plot to fill the spaces between dinosaur attacks. You never really get the sense that the sole existence of these people is to be killed messily by "the creature" later on (as is characteristic with many other B-movies I could mention). They even had a woman in a role other than that of "complete incompetence" (a trait of horror films from this era in general), and there was only one point in the entire film where I cringed on behalf of the imaginary feminist watching it with me. Honestly, I'm sorry I've never rented the film before now.
Labels: cowboys, film rant, harryhausen, old sci-fi b-movies
posted by Mithrandalf at 5:33 PM
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