There's no sex in Jason and the Argonauts. In fact, there's not really a lot of women in Jason and the Argonauts, except for a nubile princess and the Greek goddess, Hera. In it, she guides Jason to help him retake the throne stolen from him soon after his birth by King Argus. As a young man, he unknowlingly meets King Argus, who manages to send him across the world on a quest for the mythical golden fleece. He assembles a ship and a group of champion Greeks to get him across the world to get the fleece. Not exactly Last Tango in Paris.
The definition of erotica tends to vary depending on who you ask. Mine emphasizes the sensuality of experience. Any thing that can make you aware of its presence in a sensual way is an erotic object. And in this sense, Jason and the Argonauts is an erotic dynamo, thanks to the exquisite workmanship of Ray Harryhausen. Using stop-motion animation, he creates the monsters that Jason and his Argonauts must face. All of them, from an iron giant to a group of Furies to a breathtaking army of skeletons,. are given movements that are both jerky and fluid, evoking something simultaneously new and familiar. "That's beautiful," my roommate said more than once as the creepy crawlies skittered and hacked their way across the screen, and I had to agree. It was not only the aesthetic beauty of perfection, however; it was that embarrassing-to-admit beauty of the movements of animals that can strike one at odd points as erotically charged. If you've ever been turned on by the mating movements of bugs and the sinuousness of lizards, you'll know what I mean. Now, either I'm a pervert (which I admit freely) or I'm talking about the sort of pre-sexual eroticism that will keep kids entranced by certain animals for hours. Somehow Harryhausen is able to recreate the nuances of those movements and, if you're still alert to those old reflexes (or just a big old perv), the actual vaguely erotic feelings those movements can summon. Within its B-movie faux-Greek myth setting, Jason and the Argonauts actually recaptures something of genuine myth, if by myth we mean a way of talking or dealing with subjects and ideas that are culturally taboo. Watch it and see if you agree with me, or if I should be neutered and run out of town on a rail.
All written material on these pages is © 1997 by Jeff Lester. With the exception of non-profit distribution, all other rights are reserved.