THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969)
Director: Jim Connelly
Genre: Monster of the loose/Western
THE MOVIE
The Valley of Gwangi is first and foremost notable for being a unique genre mash-up that combines elements of a cowboy picture with that of a classic “Lost World” style adventure movie, complete with dinosaurs and other prehistoric fauna. Gwangi was the brainchild of Willis O’Brien, the famed special effects artist who brought King Kong to life in his original 1933 movie. The movie was originally to have been produced in 1942 but was later shelved. O’Brian’s pupil, Ray Harryhousen, picked up the project in the 1960’s, updated it, and it was finally released in 1969. The Valley of Gwangi is something of a classic among dinosaur movies and was a staple of syndicated TV monster movie shows during the 1970’s and 80’s. Myself, I remember seeing it as a small child on the old “Son of Svengoulie” show that used to broadcast here in Chicago. Gwangi is also one of the great examples of realistic stop-motion dinosaur animation in movie history and it was a big influence on the Jurassic Park movies which featured whole sequences inspired by Valley of Gwangi such as the T-Rex ambush of the Gallimimus and the dino round up sequence from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Gwangi is set in Mexico around the turn of the last century, in the Wild West. A cowgirl named T.J. Breckenridge runs a failing stunt show and circus. Through some local gypsies (Yes, there are gypsies in Latin America), she comes into possession of a mysterious prehistoric horse-like creature called an Eohippus. With the help of a sneaky paleontologist, a faction of the gypsies try to return the creature to where it was found for fear of retribution from an entity called Gwangi. T.J.’s fiancé tracks the little horse down to a forbidden valley filled with prehistoric creatures, the largest and meanest of which is the Allosaurus, Gwangi. Lots of lassoing and Western high jinks ensue and Gwangi is ultimately knocked unconscious by a series of improbable events and taken back to the circus in an impressive but hastily made wooden cage. Gwangi is put on display ala King Kong and you can guess what happens next. Needless to say, it is a Harryhousen movie, so an elephant dies.
Can you find and circle the bad idea in this picture?.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
There are several creatures featured in this movie, but the titular monster is the Allosaurus, Gwangi who is fancifully colored in lavender. For an old-school dino, Gwangi is fairly realistically animated. While he isn’t animated with the back/ground parallelism we would find in a modern dinosaur movie, he doesn’t drag his tail on the ground either. He is also animated with the characteristic Harryhousen attention to detail and character and there are many little moments where you witness the creature “behaving” in a very lifelike way.
What happened in Ray Harryhousen's youth to make him hate elephants so much?
Gwangi is notable for the high quality of its visual effects and the wonderful way that the animated shots are composited with the live-action footage, resulting in a very seamless integration of the two. This is most evident in the famous “lassoing scene” in which several live actors on horses appear to lasso this dinosaur around its neck and are struggling to pull the creature in different directions. The motions of the little puppet are matched perfectly to those of the footage of the actors on horseback. Or in the truly magical little scene in which a live horse briefly interacts with it’s tiny stop motion ancestor.
MONSTERS FEATURED
Eohippus
Gwangi
Styrakasaurus
Pteranodon
Ornithomimus
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
There are quite a few great sequences in this movie but I like the Gwangi’s stalking our heroes in a giant cathedral, which seems to be a vague inspiration for the Velociraptor kitchen scene from Jurassic Park.
Gwangi’s demise is particularly hellish.
"I love you, you love me..."
DVD AVAILABILITY
Widely available and on Netflix. Has an interview with Harryhousen and a featurette as well as trailers for other Harryhousen movies.
SEQUELS
None
SEE ALSO
King Kong 1933 The Beast of Hollow Mountain 1956
The series of bad decisions starts when these cowboys decide to poke this dinosaur with a sharp stick.
THE TRAILER
TRIVIA
O’Brien originally realized his idea as the 1956 movie, The Beast of Hollow Mountain.
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