The original CLASH OF THE TITANS was made in the veign of those 50s/60s cheesy sword 'n' sandal fantasy adventure movies with Harryhausen stop-motion FX, except released decades later in the era of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, and was dismissed as stale dated popcorn.

Personally I thought it was OK if not really memorable, but it was definately no JASON & THE ARGONAUTS, which I retain a strong child-like fondness for.



Let me put my Capo hat on.

There is a halfway point in relationship between a movie and it's audience that both sides have to be willing to reach. And in that relationship, people conciously or not project themselves onto the canvas that is the movie.

TIS, you're not "wrong." Personally I love 2001, and I admire the shit out of it. But movies aren't a science where by rules you like "this" and hate "that." The movies that became classics or turkeys come about from more or less popular consensus. I was moved by the movie's visual storytelling and it's secular-flavored religious thematic narrative. I'm surprised whenever people dismiss it as cold, whene I actually consider it a quite emotional movie, if not told by the traditional filmatic standards. Not to mention as a thriller, I'm highly hooked and involved with the conflict over HAL. (It's not boring! :p)

Or take a movie we both liked: SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Box-office bomb, a handful of Oscar nominations but zero wins (the director was snubbed), and TV rights sold to Ted Turner for dirt cheap because who wanted to play on television a prison drama?

Yet people discovered it and fell in love with it. But why? From my end, I was highly engaged by the journey a victim goes through against society, against his environment, against himself and the adaptations and trials he must take. And I was moved by his bromance relationship with Bruce Wayne's gadget man, who himself undertakes his own dramatic transformation. Also there is a delicious joy when the hero does get his revenge against his jailers and the system. One of the few movies that absolutely deserves it's unashamed happy ending.

Or even another American classic more beloved in retrospect than when it came out: CASABLANCA. It was a topical melodrama produced during wartime. So why do people still love it? Probably because the Nazis are perfect movie villains, of which you can project any tolerated totaltarian savagery at any time in history after that war concluded. (After WW2, people didn't see Nazis as much as the Soviets or Chinese or South Africans or Iraqis or whoever. Who knows, they might even see Iranians now in those parts.)

Not to mention we absolutely relate to Bogart's character. When evil things are committed in our civilized world, freely exposed and everybody is a witness. Yet nothing happens, we easily take refuge in Bogart's earned cynicism and seeing the world as a game. Add to that the broad unfairness of life, as what happened with him in Paris.

Yet like SHAWSHANK, there is an optimistic ending which argues that shit is not that hopeless, that even the most cynical son of a bitch can leave his shell and stick his neck for something noble. Hell even Claude Rains, the corrupt and despicale (if entertaining) Vichy French Nazi stooge makes a faceturn at the end for the right thing. (And surprisingly doesn't come off as contrived. That's good filmmaking.)