The Harryhausen

The Harryhausen

Daniel Day-Lewis.  The only actor people talk about.

How many movies have you seen where there is one actor/character that stands out?  They might not have even been in it for very long, but it's that performance that sticks with you above all else.  This can say a lot about a specific actor or actress, but it says a lot more about everyone else in the movie.  There were dozens of other performers on screen that you may never remember.  Hollywood is filled with forgettable faces, forgettable performances, forgettable people.   Only a select few ever rise above the clutter to achieve recognition, and that is an amazing feat in and of itself.

Nobody should know who Ray Harryhausen is.  He was a guy with too much time on his hands, who never appeared on screen and, and who's looked 80 years old since he was 27.  Nonetheless, he has had a profound effect on many of the movies we see today, and with good reason.  For over 20 years, Harryhausen defined what special effects were in movies.  He brought creatures and stories to life that people never would have thought possible.  Everything about the guy is amazing.  How he could take balls of rubber and strips of wire and create terrifying monsters.  How he could spend hours moving puppets in complex patterns, keeping track of every minute detail in his head.  What's most amazing is how he took these lifeless blobs and made them feel like a real character, something with a personality.

He had a lot of tricks for giving his creations life.  One thing I noticed is that he often gave his characters a humanoid shape.  It might sound like a small detail, but because it resembled a person, it was much easier to convey emotions.  The audience was able to pick up on what the character was feeling much easier because they understood the basic anatomy of the character.

The main reason Harryhausen's monsters feel so alive is because of Harryhausen himself.   He wouldn't just design a monster and make up its movements as it went along.  He would do extensive research on different types of animals and their movements to try and figure out this creature would actually move.  For instance, when he worked on Mighty Joe Young designing an ape, he went to zoos and made recordings of gorillas walking around so he could study their movements and recreate it.  He did his best to make the monsters as real as possible, even if it was a stone lady with snake hair.  It was this attention to detail and devotion to making a good product that set him apart from pretty much every other special effects animator at the time.  To him, these creatures weren't just monsters for the main characters to run away from, they were characters themselves who deserved just as much time and devotion.