I’ve just learned that Ray Harryhausen has died. He was 92. It is reported here on the BBC.
Ray Harryhausen was a hero of mine. Not simply someone I admired but a big influence on me. From the books I read, movies I watch, in fact, my tastes generally; so much of it was down to Ray and his film work.
From an early age, I’ve loved movies. From fun escapist capers to true works of art, I’ve be captivated by the movie and during my formative years I watched Jason and the Argonauts. I was transfixed. The fantastical adventure truly brought to life by Ray’s stop motion work on such creatures as the seven-headed Hydra and of course the battle with the risen skeletons. This then gave me a thirst for more of his work such as Clash of the Titans and Mysterious Island but also for other fantasy movies, while not involving Ray, most definitely influenced by him.
From this early influence of Ray’s work, my love of movies was cemented and more importantly my tastes were truly changed and I had a new appreciation of the fantasy story which later developed and for which I am truly grateful as this was a large factor in forming my sense of imagination. One of my few traits I am truly proud of.
A gauge of the impact of Ray’s work on me is the effect it still has. I am a perfectionist (pain in the neck, some would say!) when it comes to my audio/visual set-up; making sure the blu-ray is being displayed at its optimum and the colour is all as it should. I am also a nerd when it comes to the technical aspects and I like to read about the newest development in film-making such as the quest to artificially render water more realistically (I told you I was a nerd). Despite these elements and my hunger for more and more realistic fantasy, watching Ray’s stop-motion creatures still achieves something, computer rendering never will. What that is, is the magic that Ray Harryhausen brought to audiences and changed movies forever.