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Oddly engaging fantasy finds entrepreneur Franciscus returning to his old haunt, re-igniting his passion for former flame (Golan) and teaming up with a precocious (and loyal) youngster (Arden) and eccentric palaeontologist (Naismith) who has made a significant discovery of a fossilised footprint of an ancestor to the horse. When one of the tiny ponies is captured for Golan's circus-rodeo, Franciscus suspects there may be more dollars to be exploited if he can find other descendants. Their subsequent search leads to the discovery of a hidden valley where dinosaurs still exist, "Gwangi", the most feared of them all (a T-Rex) and potentially the most profitable, if he can be caught and circus trained. Predictably, "Gwangi" is not a performing monkey.
Unusual western - sci-fi fusion for adults is a "King Kong" rendition of sorts, with capable performances and Ray Harryhausen's superb stop motion animation depicting some brutal encounters with a number of well known dinosaur species. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Gwangi, the innocent T-Rex minding his own business, chewing up the odd pterodactyl, then abducted to be exploited by Richard Carlson's insatiable greed. An undignified treatment of an apex predator.
Potentially too bloody for the kids (and given their exposure to CGI effects, probably too primitive as well), the film's climax in which Gwangi is revealed to the peanut gallery is vintage stuff - there's a savage fight to the death between Gwangi and a circus elephant, and even more spectacular, the tiny taco attempting to release the enraged Gwangi from his cage, consumed in a bone-crunching fury as horrified spectators dash for the exits. Harryhausen devotee, or just a casual monster movie goer, you won't want to miss "Valley of Gwangi".
score /10
Chase_Witherspoon 17 July 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2459948/ |
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28-2-2021 22:58:11