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USA 1958
Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher, Richard Eyer, Alec Mango, Alfred Brown, Danny Green
Rating: G
Language: English
Release Date: 23 December 1958
Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
The Movie Review
D'oh! Whuddup mate?!
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| The 7th VOYAGE Of SINBAD |
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The 7th VOYAGE Of SINBAD is simply a mesmerizing view... A very very amusing movie which still can be enjoyed until this very day by almost all movie buffs in the planet. I'll never forget the day I watched the movie and figuratively taken to a new dimension of mythological marvel... It was a quiet and boring afternoon and back in the 80s, Indonesian people didn't have many luxuries in choosing what movies to see at their will because we only had one TV channel back then, TVRI.
 Only One Channel??!!
So, when I caught The 7th Voyage of Sinbad on TV, I was already excited even before knowing what I would see because that afternoon, for me, any movie will do! And boy oh boy I was blown away by the outstanding and visual effects breakthrough in depicting the monsters! So vivid and so real, that it feels like you can touch those Mythological Creatures! I didn't know who Ray Harryhausen was (the man behind this marvel), and I didn't know the names or familiar with the actors, but I was indeed very familiar with Sinbad stories as well as Greek Mythology. So, for me it's like watching a moving pictures version of all the stories I had read in the books. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Couldn't agree more, but significant in all those criteria does not directly make a movie consistently amusing through times. Fortunately, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad definitely has aged very, very well.
 The Dance of the Blue Serpent
The movie opens with Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews) is seen leading his crew ship penetrating the thick fog in the middle of nowhere, everyone is having doubt whether they would find a land or not, but Sinbad easily spots a shore. Before setting foot on the mysterious island, some crew are already restless and having a bad feeling about the remote place. Not for long, Sinbad with his most-trusted friend, Harufa (Alfred Brown), and the rest of the men come upon a big cave with its opening carved like a face --which Sinbad thinks it's coming from an ancient civilization--. The sight of the odd-looking rocks causes Sinbad's crew to get a really baaad vibe. And they are right! Because suddenly a magician named Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) is storming out of the cave and screaming for help! Behind him follows a gigantic one-eyed monster, Cyclops, with furry legs growling at the tiny Sinbad.
 The Angry Two-Headed Roc
They survive the wrath of Cyclops and make it to the ship on time with the help of Sokurah's sympathetic genie on the lamp named Barani (Richard Eyer), but Sokurah is dreadfully upset over the Cyclops taking over his genie lamp and brings it back to its lair. Sokurah tries to persuade Sinbad to go back to the Island of Colossus to retrieve the lamp back, but Sinbad refuses the selfish Sokurah's wish mainly because Sinbad himself have to go back to his palace in Baghdad to have a wedding with Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant).
 Monster Brawl!
Once in Baghdad, Sokurah's tries every which way he can to convince Sinbad, Prince Parisa and even the Caliph of Baghdad (Alec Mango) to grant him ship and men. Unfortunately, Sinbad does not realize how sly Sokurah is. And so, Sokurah works on his black magic which forces clueless Sinbad to sail once more to the Island of Colossa/Colossus. Certainly, Sokurah may not be the most dangerous thing to Sinbad in Colossus, because the Island is a home to scary giant monsters like the fire-breathing Green Dragon, Two-headed giant bird called Roc of the Arabian Nights tales, Cyclops and even living Skeleton! What will happen to Sinbad and Princess Parisa?
 Mutiny!!
The marvel that I was talking about was invented by visual effects and special effects master, Ray Harryhausen, in what is called as Dynamation. In the time of its released, seemingly Dynamation is hailed as a breakthrough to bring to life writer's imagination, and in the case of adventure/fantasy/sword-and-sandal stories, Dynamation is really really helpful. Dynamation is a advanced version of Stop Motion Model Animation, a technique used by filmmakers to create a lively fantasy motion picture, before the use of CGI. And for me personally, for most of the time I would rather see any classic dynamation films such as Sinbad here than modern movies with their monsters depicted by CGI. Actually if I want to be very nitpicky, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad sometimes feels more like a showcase for Ray Harryhausen's skill and works, because the story is quite linear with minimum elements of suspense and no elements of comedy, the drama is fairly just ok, and it tickles to see a figure like Sinbad to be so naive in this story. But thankfully, the constant presences of odd-looking monsters are really what driving this movie forward, and for that... it's really a fun adventure to behold. Especially while being accompanied by the perfect musical score by Bernard Herrmann.
 Dinner Time
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was the first Dynamation by Ray Harryhausen completely shot in color. I always fancy the sword fight between Sinbad and a skeleton, it turns out the skeleton was portrayed by Kerwin's real fencing coach, Enzo Greco, who was an Italian Olympic Fencing Coach. And apparently, there were many viewers fascinated by this skeleton duel, that Ray Harryhausen extended the scene with more skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). When Princess Parisa was shrinked by Sokurah the Magician, she looks very small while in fact, the pillow of which she's standing on was 25-feet high and 40-feet wide that it occupied a sound stage in Madrid, Spain. Some of Sinbad movies were indeed shot in Spain. And to portray her as tiny person, the scene was shot from 70-feet away.
Of course, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, may not be well-received by everyone. If you like better the use of CGI monsters and/or man-in-monster-costumes in adventure/horror/fantasy movies, probably you won't get how beautiful The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is. In the end it may come down to personal taste. And if The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is your cup of coffee, you should definitely and definitely hold this near and dear.
> You're gonna love these titles too: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).
> Model Animation goes a long way back before The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in: The Lost World (1925) which was the work of Ray Harryhausen's own guru!
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: Monday, 24 October 2011 08:11 pm
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