Fall of the
Titans
In the last two months we’ve lost
some giants. They were icons of their individual fields that were imitated and
emulated but stood alone on their own shelves – no one coming close to their
level.
***
Ray Harryhausen died in May at the
age of 92. His stop-motion animation made the fantasy sequences of his movies
real, especially to an impressionable youngster with a love of fantasy and
monster movies. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was real. Mighty Joe Young was
real. The skeletons that fought Jason – real. The Kraken, Medusa and Pegasus
from “Clash of the Titans” were better actors than Olivier.
And “The Valley of Gwangi
Without him I would be taking Jean-Luc Godard and Dziga Vertov seriously.
A
friend’s mother went to high school with him. Her mother still has the year
book. Isn’t that cool?
It’s very easy in this cynical age
to look back and say how cheesy his artistry was. “Look at Lord of the Rings,”
one would say, “how can any of his work compare to that?” The answer is simple
– the son always strives to be better than the father. Peter Jackson would be
the first to agree.
Watch
the battle between Jason of “…and the Argonauts” and the undead skeletons near
the end of the movie. Imagine you are eight years old. Did you fold your legs
under you on your seat? Were you afraid
of a boney hand brushing your ankle from under the sofa? No? You are lying.
He made me believe in monsters said “Shaun of the Dead” director Edgar Wright in a memoriam. Thank you, Ray, for making us believe.
***
George Jones died in April at age
81. He was one of the last great country singers of his era. For almost sixty
years he ruled the country music roost. If there was an award, he won it. His
music was of a kind only imitated now.
His signature tune, “He Stopped
Loving Her Today” has been called the greatest country song of all time. It is
certainly one of the saddest songs of all time. But that is saying the same
thing, isn’t it?
***
Jonathan Winters died in April at
the age of 88. He was a comedian. No one, no one, has been able to match his
styling. He didn’t do stand up, he didn’t do monologues, he didn’t do wry
political commentary. He did one-man acts; skits with his own sound effects.
Some comedians start with, “two Jews
walk into a bar…” Winters started with
“Colonel, the Apaches are lining the hills...”, or
“(affecting an elderly lady’s voice)
Oh, what a lovely day for a drive…”, or
“Did you ever undress in front of
your dog?” I laugh out loud still
thinking of this bit. I smiled while typing it.
“Are you queer?” “No, I’m
homosexual. My little brother’s queer. He collects little bugs.”
Marvin Kaplan, his co-star in “It’s
a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” said he worked with two geniuses in his life – Charlie
Chaplin and Jonathan Winters. Watch him discuss his time in that movie with
Winters giggling alongside at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD5WeFCcu68.
Jonathan Winters was on Scooby-Doo,
he was Papa Smurf, and he was on the Muppet Show. You can see the exact moment
Frank Oz as Fozzy Bear gave up trying to improvise with him. The crew’s
laughter drowned out the laugh track.
Robin Williams is the only comedian
who has come close to the weird and manic ways of Winters comedy-style; and
even he admits he didn’t come close.
Was he insane? He spent time in a
mental institution. But he channeled any mental illness he suffered into a
useful and beneficial way. He made us laugh. He made us laugh until our bellies
hurt. Goodbye old friend.
***
We've lost two other artists who I will miss as well. Not the titans of their genre, but I was still
saddened by their deaths.
Richie Havens was a folk artist with
a very unique guitar playing style. He died in April at age 72. He will be
renowned for being the opening act at Woodstock
Ray Manzarek died at 74 in May. If
he had not founded the Doors with Jim Morrison, he would have been known as a
great keyboardist – either in rock or jazz. If he would not have stayed in the
music business he probably would have been a professor of music at a
distinguished university. I interviewed
him in the late 1980s and he was extremely intelligent and funny. He talked
about the influence for his opening riff on “Light My Fire” and his
relationship with Jim Morrison. He sang on a few Doors song – notably “Close To
You”.
Copyright 2013
Michael G. Curry
Just finished 'Hearts in Atlantis' by Stephen King, Mike, and wishwishwish I read it before takign you all on the Magic CHILL Mystery Tour Game, since one section takes place at a college in 1966. The heartwarming tributes and memories of the folks above add to the nostalgic mood the book had started; all these folks, to one degree or another, were a bright thread in the tapestry of my childhood. As for Mr. Harryhausen's achievements, to those who would claim modern CGI epics are superior, I offer a challenge: Do one of your scenes alone, no staff of other computer artists and renderers and programmers on hand. Just, y'know, YOU...with the camera...and the background...and the articulated stop-motion animation figure. The one you first imagined, then rendered in 2D via a sketch or two, then built the armature for, and finally cast in latex plus layered hair or fur on if it's that kind of creature. Now animate it Ray's way. Don't forget to add in the little pantomimed nuances of character through movement and creature body language alone, doing your best to replicate how such an unusual form would move given weight, stance and outside effects like gravity or a hail of bullets. For most of you, I'm thinking the result would not touch the charm and artistry that Ray managed. If there was a feeble glimmer of promise in your effort, cool....now do it for an entire film like 'Jason and the Argonauts', with multiple creatures. Now do the same thing for 30 movies of varying kinds. Then...then...you might have the common ground needed to applaud or dismiss The Master Animator's work and legacy. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is a wonderful way to describe Harryhausen's technique! It reminds me of the CGI folks from the second Star Wars trilogy discussing doing Yoda as a CGI characters instead of a puppet. They had a hard time doing Yoda pursing his lips as Frank Oz did. He would draw back his fingers and cause a "pout" - much like Henson did while making Kermit "clear his throat". A human could do it, but it was hard to make a computer do it!
ReplyDeleteAnd your Chill game was of epic proportions - a mega module!