Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: THE VALLEY OF GWANGI
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- Yee-haw! It's cowboys & dinosaurs time with the 1969 Ray Harryhausen movie "The Valley Of Gwangi"!
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Before "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs" there were "Cowboys and Dinosaurs".
Great work as usual after all these years you're still my favorite snarky Canadian/movie reviewer
I have a movie for you to review. "Triassic Attack"
Please review Triassic Attack
That, or do another godzilla movie.
It would be great to see Xenozoic get adapted one of these days.
Look. About that Alec Baldwin joke, I'm one of the people who stand behind him. ........ because I'll be damned if I'm gonna stand in front of him..
100% the fault of the firearms supervisor.
Why was live ammunition even on site?
Why wasn't it locked up?
Who's job was it to make certain it wasn't in the weapon?
And so on...
It wasn't Baldwin's fault.
@@timtheskeptic1147 Still preventable on Baldwin's end by double checking. It was a string of errors.
@thacobell4700 not untrue, but it still doesn't explain why live ammunition was on set.
I digress and agree. It was a string of errors that resulted in tragedy.
@@timtheskeptic1147He fired the gun. His fault. Any responsible person would always, regardless of what anyone else says, check the weapon for ammo and safety. Also, the firearms supervisor had no idea what they were doing. Everything would've been prevented if Baldwin was properly trained in firearms.
@@Mister-Six I agree! But it all starts with the person in charge of the weapons on set.
"Where did this tiny horse come from?" Well, when two horses really like each other.......
11:15 "plucked ostrich" which IS a pretty accurate description for a donosaur with no feathers
Except, they actually have feathers and look like ostriches with hands and long tails.
@@ExtremeMadnessX
Some did, some didn’t.
And some of the ones that had feathers didn’t have a full coating of feathers, and instead had sparse coverings, similar to the fur covering of an elephant.
Proctolostrich
Tho I would say reptilian ostrich sound nicer
@@beastmaster0934 That's true, but I'm specifically talking about ornithomimosaurs here.
Ray Harryhausen, a legend who will never be forgotten of his work
for the record, "-hippus" _means_ "horse" and is where "hippopotamus" comes from--it's Greek and means "river horse" ;)
I seem to remember eo hippus is equally boring and means something like tiny horse or first horse....
@@marhawkman303dawn horse.
@@iapetusmccool ah, ok, TY
@@iapetusmccool beat me to it ;)
the little horse! my dream animal
The 'Cowboys vs. (Fill in the creature)' movie genre goes all the way back to the 1935 serial "The Phantom Empire" where western icon Gene Autry plays a singing cowboy who discovers a lost subterranean civilization descended from Atlantis existing under his ranch.
Cowboys never go out of style they even had them in Star Trek,and in Star Wars -- Han Solo was sorta a cowboy,anyway Cowboys rule!👍💪🤠
That actually sound really cool as a concept
@@randybarnett2308 Lucas even explicitly described Han as a cowboy. Part of why he's first encountered in a cantina, not a bar or a tavern or something.
It was even the basis for The Secret Empire segments of the TV series Cliffhangers.
@@Wanttowrite I remember that show. I liked the "Dracula" segments, and I recall that there was a Brenda Starr-like female reporter.
Gwangi's death has always been hard to watch for me. He's trapped in the burning cathedral as he's screaming in agony and fear, and the scene just goes on for so long. It's also sad because the humans took him from his habitat, similar to King Kong.
It was sad, but I always wondered did the villagers have a BBQ later?😂🍖🍖🍗🍗😂
@@randybarnett2308 LOOKS LIKE MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!
@@randybarnett2308mmm...grilled allosaurus sounds tasty...🤤
You’re quite right.
@@IndominusGojira pass the BBQ sauce!😛😀🍖🍖🍗
This was Ray Harryhausen's last and final dinosaur movie he had made, as he knew that people weren't interested in dinosaurs anymore, and that western movies were making monet at the box office.
I guess he was a little too late to see Jurassic Park then
@@rextexan4727 He said in an interview that he saw the film and it was well done and said that the Dinosaurs were so real and scary, little kids would have nightmares for years.
I always wonder what he would've thought of Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal had he still lived.
Too bad they couldn't do a spaghetti western cowboys and dinosaurs movie.
@@winternow2242I Don't Think Clint Eastwood would Want to be in That Movie.
😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
Still a masterclass work of art by Ray Harryhausen love this movie
I'm always in awe of Ray Harryhausen's artistic skills. I was 6 when I first saw this. "The Valley of Gwangi" will always hold a special place in my heart of nostalgic love from me.
This movie just feels so unique. I don't think there aren't any westerns and dinosaur sci-fi films that came close to Gwanji or even Beast of Hollow Mountain
I learned recently that one of the people involved in the earliest pitch meetings for Doctor Who shot down the idea of giving the Doctor child sidekicks because he reasoned that children don't strongly identify with child characters who aren't the actual protagonist of the story, and even when they do, they don't identify with children significantly older or younger than themselves.
I immediately thought of Brandon's thoughts about Kennies when that came up. And the reasoning makes perfect sense when you remember that a lot of kids are in a hurry to be seen as grown up.
It took time for the comic book industry to realize similar.
It's fine if kids are the main focus of the story, but whenever they're shoehorned in as side characters it almost always feels superfluous.
@@TheBrandonTenold it's mainly because the kids are never well-written characters. In Jurassic Park the kids are well-written and have good interactions with the adult characters because they're treated like humans and not vessels for the audience to feel extra tension.
@@TheBrandonTenold There are exceptions. "Short Round" from Temple of Doom was great.
@fakshen1973 Short Round was decent, but as a kid I was still more engaged by Indy.
Nice timing doing this review because this past Tuesday was the 55th Anniversary of The Valley of Gwangi.
Regarding that Turok reference, the character's older then the film. Turok's first appearance was in Four Color Comics #596, published in 1954. 15 years before The Valley of Gwangi premiered in theatres.
When the purple T-Rex scratched his head with his claw, this was a Ray Haryhausen's nod to Willis O'Brian's T-Rex from King Kong.
I'm pretty sure Gwangi is an Allosaurus.
That scene where Gwangi comes out from behind that rock formation and eats that Ornithomimid was definitely referenced in the first Jurassic Park - that scene where Rexy charges out of the trees and kills a Gallimimus. The scene where Rexy eats the goat was a reference to the rancor in Return of the Jedi, so it's all intentional.
@@ggrarl Referenced? I'd say inspired from.
He's an Allosaurus/T-rex hybrid (I call Gwangi an "Allotyrannus")
@@ggrarlThis movie also has quite the parallels to The Lost World.
"Guy goes down to Mexico to try and get some from an Ex, gets mixed up with dinosaurs. Truly a tale as old as time..." Suddenly I feel Brandon has had a way more interesting life than I have.
I'll always remember being a young kid in the late 70's (before VCR's) and they were playing this on TV as a late night movie at 1am. My father woke me up and we watched it together. It was a real treat and we absolutely loved it. I bought it for him on DVD just last year and we watched it with my kids. This movie will always have a special place in my heart.
Brandon doing all the classics. I remember my father having this on super 8mm. We would watch it projected on my bedroom wall. This was even before we bought our furst VHS player, which was a top-loader.
Never had a projector to watch those 8mm clip reels, but I'm old enough to know about them. For those unclear, during the early to late 70s, I recall visiting stores like K-Mart and in either the phonographic record depart or either the camera section, the stores had display racks offering 8mm celluloid film reels. These items either contained highlights of movies, some pivotal or iconic scenes or a severely truncated cut of the overall movie, usually condensed to 15 minutes or less. This was an era before "affordable" video playback and recording devices like BetaMax, VHS, and a plethora of abandoned technologies. If one wanted yo watch a "movie" at the time of one's choosing (not dependent upon the whims of the local station's programming scheduler), this was one's primary option. And one had to be a bit more fiscally affluent if one wanted audio. Sound for these reels, and the projectors with the hardware to play it, cost considerably extra. While my father was not poor by any means, he was prudent with finances, so we never owned these entertainment "frivolities". We made do with "rabbit ear" color TV in the den. But I do remember "drooling" over the reels offered in the store. Of course, once the video industry started to offer movies upon tape, full length with audio (and color if the it was filmed that way), the 8mm reel market died hard.
I always loved the church setting in the finale. It is unique, dramatic, and shows how out of his element Gwangi is. The scene where he reacts to the pipe organ, a sudden and overwhelming sound like nothing he has ever heard before, is perfectly done.
James Franciscus. The discount Charlton Heston. Too bad Franciscus lit up his health, ruined his career, and foreshortened his life. With smoking and alcohol. Relegated to B movies and died from emphysema. Like Doug McClure.
Franciscus co-starred with Heston in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. They looked like twin brothers.
Truth! Before my time. Although, my Planet of the Apes DVD with commentary supports your statement. Linda Harrison played Nova. During the interview she said James Franciscus was a smaller version of Charlton Heston.
@@markrowlett6921on the nose:
60s film producer type: Let's get Heston!
60s film producer type 2: He does come with an asking price....and he's penciled in for....(big name title 1)...
and...(big name title 2)
60s film producer type: Let's then get...Franciscus
Looked great shirtless, tho, and that smooth look was overtaking Heston's hairy-chested manliness by this time.
He was also the star on LONGSTREET where Bruce Lee was often the guest star.
Actually, the word “hippus” is latin for horse. Hippopotamus means “River Horse”. Eohippus means Dawn Horse.
That's what I would have named my daughter. Luckily for her, I didn't have one.
Love Brandon's thumbnail pics.
Fun Fact:
Professor Bromley was played by
Laurence Naismith, who's best known
as Captain Edward J. Smith from
the 1958 docudrama film: *"A Night to*
*Remember"* and the minor role of
Sir Donald Munger in Sean Connery's
last EON film: *"Diamonds Are Forever"*
in 1971.
I love a night to remember, I much prefer it over '97 Titanic with Jack and Rose. I'm so glad he was both on the Titanic and wrangling dinos in the old west.
He was also in another Harryhausen film: Jason and the Argonauts, as Argus, the man who built the Argo.
Also in the classic war movie "Sink the Bismarck!" as Sea Lord Dudley Pound along with fellow "Night to Remember" co-star Kenneth More.
I always associate Laurence Naismith most with the original "Village Of The Damned" and especially his Merlin in the 1967 film of Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot".
@@thenumbah1birdman
*"Sink the Bismarck!"* also
starred Michael Goodliffe (Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews), Russell Napier (Californian's Captain Stanley Lord), and Jack Watling
(4th Officer Joseph Boxhall)
from *"A Night to Remember".*
As well as featured other Bond actors that co-starred in the
film: the aforemetioned Michael Goodliffe (MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner), Geoffrey Keen (Minister of Defense Frederick "Freddy" Grey) and Walter Gotell (SPECTRE agent Morzeny in *"From Russia With Love"* & KGB General Anatol "Alexis" Gogol from 1977-1987).
The Valley of Gwangi is easily one of my favorite Harryhausen movies, and one of the my favorite Dinosaur movies of all time.
One of my childhood faves. First time seeing it: Trapped at home with the flu during summer vacation, watching a week's worth of daytime TV and then.... THIS came on!
11:29 to 11:36
They show a side by side comparison on the Jurassic Park DVD. The special effects crew included that as a tribute.
Forbidden Valley Ranch Dressing
😆
Just opening a bottle of that and you could suffer the Gypsy's Curse of Gwangi!
This one hits me right in the childhood. I watched this on TV - the old school, three channels, big dial, no remote - when I was about six or so.
I look forward to these uploads more than any other channel I subscribe to.
7:50 OK, the animation on the little horse is absolutely stunning. It's almost perfect. And how in the world did he keep its hair from going all wonky from being moved around?
Glue
Same way Willis O'Brien did with Kong, carefully brushed it back into place between each frame. This is a big part of why stop motion was mostly used to depict reptiles instead of mammals.
@@davidvanhorn3340 better hair kept it from ruffling like you can still see in Kong and Mighty Joe Young.
The Valley of Gwangi is my favorite Ray Harryhausen movie of all time Cowboys and Dinosaurs sounds like a fitting match. 🏜 🤠 🦖 🦕
18:45 “Damn! I knew we should have kept running out of the arena instead stopping right here and facing in the direction of the dinosaur!”
"Meet Diablo."
Cue ad for Diablo IV.
"Dammit, Google. Stop linking ads to the video!"
My dad showed this movie to me as a kid, and it’s still my favorite Ray Harryhausen films. The action, the dialogue, the animals. I love how you kinda feel bad for Gwangi, he aggressive, but only because he’s a territorial animal captured and forcibly brought to an unfamiliar place.
Also, the bit where he says something along the lines of, “On one hand I love her and don’t wanna hurt her. On the other hand I love money”, ALWAYS makes me laugh
Yeah, same, my dad showed this and some other monster movies recorded from TV on a VHS, including Reptilicus, which that movie traumatized me.
Fun Fact #2:
The Ornithomimus' death scream can also be heard in *"ORCA"* (1977) and Richard Williams' unfinished animated film: *"The Thief and The Cobbler".*
OMG You are absolutely right.
And The Dark Crystal (specifically in the scene where the Garthim kill the Landstriders).
I agree that it takes a while to get going, but Harryhausen's dinosaur effects are always fun to witness!
I don't think anyone wants to see Segal fight a dinosaur, he doesn't get out of a chair in films, not even for action scenes.
I can think of two versions I'd want to see:
1) Steven Segal doing his slapfighting thing with a T-Rex.
2) The carnivorous dinosaur wins the fight and kills Segal (character or actor, either way is a win).
Best thing is, they could do both in the same fight.
Seagal could also play the dinosaur. He's fat enough now.
Fun fact: James Cameron was thinking of offering to direct Jurassic Park before Spielberg got the job. Cameron wanted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlton Heston.
I wanna see Seagal play Older Cameron Mitchell in the biopic.
Space Ice liked this comment.
I giggled at the Buffalo Bill “Silence” jokes, and I truly agree with your comparison between Harryhausen and contemporary period art direction. Well done as always!
There's also "The Ship Of Monsters," a Mexican film where a wisecracking ranch-hand battles alien monsters AND vampires... and there's a robot that falls in love with a jukebox.
Brandon doing ‘Valley of Gwangi’??
How COOL is THAT??
FINALLY! One of my favs since childhood.
I saw this film at the movies when it first came out. I recall my sister being astonished at the pteranodon scene. "It looks so real! How did they do that?" Love Harryhausen.
I saw this at the movies with my dad, possibly the Portage in Chicago.
That last other dinosaurs just had me expecting Doug McClure to leap out and save the day 🤣🤣🤣
Valley of Gwangi will always hold a special place in my heart, because I got to watch it for the first time on the big screen at the NIFFF festival when Ray Harryhausen was a guest that year. After the show I got to meet the man. At the time my English really wasn't adequate so we had a translator and I was so starstruck, I could barely say anything in front of Mr. Harryhausen. Yet, he mentioned me later on, at a Q&A, happy to see the young generation was still getting inspired by his work.
Thank you Mr Tenold! Always a pleasure to watch you sir! Love this movie!
4:50 Truly a tale as old as The Land Before Time.
I think I got a name for Gwangi:
Tyrallosaurus Rex
I am always a fan of Ray Harryhausen's work. I had already seen "The Valley of Gwangi" and loved it. But I remember when my dad and I went to an all-night drive in romp, where they played this and several others of Ray's, with some Godzilla films of the 60s.
I remember when we drove home, the sun was just about to rise. It was one of my fondest memories with my father.
Damn, that sounds epic!
OMG old school movie dino's + cowboys... Loved this one as a kid, stop motion pictures like this one are great fun.
The Wild Wild West tv show was an attempt to mix cowboys with James Bond.
And started steam punk.
Still remember the epic battle between Gwangi and the elephant. 🦖 vs. 🐘
Compare it to the Ymir fight with the elephant in "20 million miles to Earth."
I didn't even realize this wasn't an old-ass video.
This movie has to be the main inspiration for the classic 2000AD series 'Flesh', which isn't just cowboys versus dinosaurs... it's time-travelling cowboys rounding up dinos to be slaughtered to feed future Earth society!
Its nice to see this classic again.
Definitely an underrated movie.
"TJ's not ready to say Goodbye Horses just yet."
Dammit, now I have excellent 80's music stuck in my head. You fiend!
Warner Brothers issued THE VALLEY OF GWANGI as part of a double feature; it was paired with WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1971).
As a dinosaur aficionado who's also really into classic pulp. I feel this little nugget is on topic:
Porter Emerson Browne's "The Diplodocus" (published in 1908) is a humorous western tall tale where the narrator & his long-sufferings mule meet an eccentric coot who makes "eggsperiments" similar to plant grafting, but using animal material. His ultimate goal is to recreates a dinosaur using the genetic material of other animals, specifically in order to display to the public for big bucks. It doesn't go to plan, & hilarity ensues.
What's fascinating is that not only is it one if the earliest entries in the Cowboys & Dinosaurs genre, it also kind of anticipates Jurassic Park in the wackiest possible way.
I love that story.
That sounds interesting
Saw it on TV as a kid and just loved it. Cowboys vs dinosaurs...what's not to love?
5:12 Dropping a horse and rider from a tower into some water, was a real carnival/circus trick, however a trap door was used as the horse wouldn't jump (rightly so!).
My friend David, who sadly passed away last year, was a big fan of your channel. He loved classic monster movies, and had a wicked sense of humor. I know he's laughing in heaven at your Alec Baldwin crack.
I love this movie. I have the theater poster hanging in my office.
I was absolutely obsessed with this as a kid!
Hell yeah, my favorite Harryhausen movie!
The tuck reference flew over my head but the good bye horse had me on the floor !
Stephen King's magnum opus The Dark Tower is a great example of a paranormal Western
"The human leads"
This will be how I describe all starring actors from now on. Thanks, Brandon!
Excellent Brandon!!!! One of my all time favorites since it combines two things in my life; cowboys and dinosaurs!!!!!
_in your life_ ?
@@M2Mil7er I work in ranching in Nevada and rodeo, and I have a masters in geology because of my love of dinosaurs
I would love to see a Ray Harryhausen-themed month on this channel.
Hi Brandon! Thanks for reviewing this movie. It should be noted that one of the co-stars of Gwangi is Richard Carlson, who also starred in "It Came from Outer Space", The Creature from the Black Lagoon", and other movies.
Cheers for reviewing Gwangi! If under interrogation, I'd have to tell the truth and say that Blazing Saddles and Valley of Gwangi are the best westerns ever made!
The theme tune is unforgettable.
This along with the original King Kong and Jurassic Park are my top 3 favorite dinosaur flicks
That Alec Baldwin gag took me off guard😂😂
A classic that NEEDS A MODERN REMAKE.
I saw this film at the theatre when it was first released and I was six years old. It remains, to this day, one of the greatest dinosaur movies ever produced. It left an indelible impression on me, and I’ve even dreamed about Gwangi! It boasts one of the coolest movie posters in cinema history, I remember clipping the ad from the newspaper and drawing it repeatedly! I’ve written about it a few times for Scary Monsters magazine.
Sweet! One of my favorite dinosaur movies!
I first saw this as a kid, I had gotten up early for Saturday morning cartoons, turned on the TV, to a dinosaur burning alive in a church. The TV had been left on TMC or AMC, it was the 80s... it took me decades to learn what the movie was, but that scene always stuck with me.
Easily my second favorite dinosaur movie
Saw Gwangi as a kid when it came out in '69... still my favorite Harryhausen film.
The comparison to other dinosaurs is everything lol😂
Looks like Brandon’s about to escape from his vault.
But before that? He made this awesome video. Love Gwangi!
That's the most flamable stone church I've ever seen!
You've made me very happy. One of my favourite movies as a kid. Going to watch it again now...
This movie had so many different titles. I rented as a kid multiple times mistakenly because of the different titles.
Awesome I been waiting for you update video ❤❤❤
Great video 📼
I hope you get around to reviewing one of my favorite Ray Harryhausen's Classics, The Mysterious Island (1961) 🏝 🦀
Loved Harryhausen films when i was a kid. Best saturday afternoon movies!
Okay, the "Buffalo Bill". "Tuck", and "Goodbye Horses" joke was comedy gold.
I got to hold the armature of Gwangi, along with one of the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. And met Ray Harryhausen.😂
Just stumbled across your video and really enjoyed it.. So I thought I'd throw my two cents in.. I was fortunate enough to speak with Mr. Harryhausen at a convention in Chicago once. As Gwangi is one of my favorite movies of his. He told me a couple things I thought I'd share...I think it was after he had finished the film he gave Gwangi to his daughter who would put it in a baby carriage and play with it like a doll. He said she got some funny looks from some of the mothers at the park...Also I actually asked him if the elephants in Gwangi and 20 million miles to earth were the same model and he said no. He usually tore the models apart after he was finished with them in order to use the armatures on other projects. So both elephants were built for their individual movies.
The score is stellar. Animation is at its best. The color shifts have been attributed to producer Charles Schneer ordering the wrong film stock.
Shown at a local theater in the early 70s, making it the first Harryhousen film I ever saw. It's a pretty impressive movie to a kid.
Brandon's killing it today.
This is one of the few films where I wish it got a remake.
Not because I don’t love this film, far from it, it’s one of my favorites, but could you imagine the kind of visuals they could create using modern technology?
Imagine a dust cloud in the distance on an old western arid frontier. You think it’s a stampede of cattle, but then BAM it’s a herd of triceratops!
I remember watching this moving in my teens and it was actually not bad as a popcorn friday night with friends. Good times.
3:41 I remember him from Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Longstreet, but hey, you do you.
And that horrible Irwin Allen / Paul Newman volcano flick, When Time Ran Out.
Love these type films.
Not since the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has someone hated children in all forms as much as Brandon does.
Man I have been missing that funky theme from Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds.
I think I remember seeing some clips of this movie on a "Sci-Fi Channel" special about the legendary Ray Harryhausen. I sadly forgot the title always assumed the movie was called "Cowboys & Dinosaurs". Seeing it here, it does make me curious to check it out if it ever airs on TV or I run into it on DVD. Great episode man!
this has always been a favorite movie of mine! we taped it when it was on USA Network and it was one of those movies i would play She-Ras while watching until the Good Parts came on - i was an adult before i saw the entire thing in one sitting