Dear Cinemythologists,
On Thursday, September 10, we continue our unit on Perseus on screen. Please do the following.
VIEWING
- Clash of the Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010)
The film is streaming on Swank Digital Campus. Take notes as you see fit. You might contemplate how this remake responds to the original from the standpoint of narrative, theme, and/or technology.
READING
- Curley, Dan. 2015. “Divine Animation: Clash of the Titans (1981).” In Monica S. Cyrino and Meredith E. Safran, ed. Classical Myth on Screen, 207–17. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Since I’ll be evaluating your writing this semester, it’s only fair that you evaluate some of mine. See what, if anything, my take on animation in the original Clash and its remake lends to your appreciation of either film.
- Tomasso, Vincent. 2015. “The Twilight of Olympus: Deicide and the End of the Greek Gods.” In Monica S. Cyrino and Meredith E. Safran, ed. Classical Myth on Screen, 147–57. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Tomasso’s essay (from the same volume) will get us further along in our ongoing discussion of how modern media wrangles with Greek deities and their immortality. Value added: Tomasso surveys a variety of screen texts from the 1960s onward.
SEQUENCES
- Bernstein, Knepper, Whatley.
Use the comments feature on this post to recommend a sequence to be reviewed and discussed in class.
Recommendations should contain the following:
- A brief description of the sequence.
- Precise starting and ending times (hh:mm:ss — hh:mm:ss).
- A rationale as to why this sequence is worth our time.
DC
The sequence I chose is from 00:59:40-1:01:40. The sequence shows Zeus approaching Perseus on his journey. Perseus instantly recognizes him. Zeus tries to give Perseus sanctuary and even offers him a spot as a god. Perseus refuses his offer and denounces the gods, claiming he does not want to be like them and associates himself with his mortal adopted father over Zeus. I chose this sequence because it is an interesting dynamic between Zeus and one of his hero children that I have never seen before and relates to the overall theme of the movie that being an immortal power-hungry god is not something to aspire towards. Perseus shows humility rather than hubris, a common trait of Greek heroes. This scene also demonstrates Perseus’ conflicting identity of being both mortal and god.
The sequence that I chose starts at 00:10:10 and goes until 00:12:35. This is the first look we get of both Mount Olympus and the Gods. This takes place after the people of Argos have destroyed the statue of Zeus. Hades approaches Zeus to try and convince him to let Hades loose upon the mortals. I think we should look at this scene for a few reasons. It gives us a good look at Olympus and how it is set up, which is different from the original Clash of the Titans. We also get an understanding of the gods relationship to mortals, as well as with each other.
I chose 00:17:30-00:20:30, when Hades arrives at Argos’ royal feast and condemns Andromeda to death by the Kraken in order to punish her mother Cassiopeia for hubris. Though relatively early on in the film, this sequence is a good example for looking at the differences between the 2010 and 1981 versions of the same story. The biggest difference is that in the 2010 version, Hades plays the same role Thetis did in 1981. Additionally, rather than imparting the wrath of the gods largely offscreen, all of the consequences from the 1981 version (Argos’ destruction, Calibos’ transformation, Andromeda’s imminent sacrifice etc.) become concentrated into one instance with the mass killing of Argos’ soldiers, the transformative consequences being placed on Cassiopeia with Calibos omitted entirely, and Hades’ announcement all happening more or less at once. However, these changes have larger consequences than those regarding our perception of the film’s “authenticity.” Argos becoming Andromeda’s home kingdom rather than Ethopia or Joppa whitewashes her character both to a larger degree but also a different degree than ’81’s Clash. On top of this, costuming seen on Argos’ nobles and courtiers in this scene suggest that the kingdom is being portrayed as “exotic” despite the real city’s location in Greece and the cast’s overwhelming white Britishness.
Furthermore, while Hades is a more well-known god than Thetis, and has a much more familiar beef with his brother Zeus, questions of projected gender roles and subsequent female agency arise in 2010’s altered plot. Earlier, in the gods’ council, Apollo speaks in 2010 where Hera did in 1981. Adding this to Thetis’ replacement, all major divine drivers, and by extent major players in the film’s plot as a whole, are now men, and whether purposeful or not, this does affect the movie’s commentary on social norms and gender roles.