Customer Reviews
Interesting Mix of Cowboys And Dinosaurs With Spectacular Ray Harryhausen Animation 
2006-01-20
At first glance you would be possibly right to think that a film like "The Valley of Gwangi", just wouldn't work. Prehistoric dinosaurs mixed up in a western does not appear a very promising combination however this effort set sometime in 19th Century Mexico actually creates a very exciting story that in some ways has shades of "King Kong", to it. It most memorable qualities however are the truly spectacular dinosaur creations of special effects legend Ray Harryhausen. Again as in so many previous classic films such as "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", Harryhausen creates some wonderful stop animation monsters with his unforgettable stop motion Allosaurus (long before computer generated monsters on "Jurassic Park"), truly stealing the whole movie once it makes its appearance roughly half way through the feature. The film's highly original western setting I found very interesting that helped give "The Valley of Gwangi", its own distinct look and character. However in common with these types of features "Gwangi", of course includes an exciting and very fiery climax which will also stay in your mind for a long time with its stunning special effects involving the rampaging Allosaurus becoming trapped in a burning Cathedral which will have you on the edge of your seat right up to the finale.
Cowboys and dinosaurs. Need I say more? 2005-12-13
A terrific minor classic, Valley of Gwangi holds up remarkably well today. Like King Kong, the original Godzilla, and Clash of the Titans, it's a fun film that has stood the test of time.
The special effects are solid. I love CGI monsters, but the stop-motion dinos are top-notch and really cool to watch. The scene where our heroes rope and wrangle a dinosaur is still great fun. This film deserves a place on any monster movie fans shelf.
One question though. Were there really such a thing as Mexican Gypsies? Seriously. I'd really like to know.
Gwangi! 2005-11-02
In the movie its about a bunch of cowboys from mexico who run a cheap circus,a girl named Tj has a x boyfriend named tuck who comes along.The first thing they do is go to a gypsy ground and they the valley has a curse but like in king kong they go to the forbiddan valley and encounter a ptertactle,stragosaurs,and gwangi a fercious allosaur.gwangi eats the other dinosaurs and is lassoed but it doesnt work so gwangi gets knocked out by rocks and is captured.
About Gila Golan in VOG 
2005-10-24
Gila was a knockout! Due to Franciscus's part in both this and Beneath The Planet of The Apes comparisons have been made of Golan to Linda Harrison (Nova in BTPOTA). I read another found Harrison more attractive but I say Golan is Linda Harrison's physical equal. Golan is also a good actress. Her genuine warmth she demonstrates with the hyracotherium (mini ancient horse) is touching and this and in other ways in the film she shows to be a very fine actress.
Mex-zilla Does Mex-villa! 2005-10-07
The special effects carry this fun color B-flik from early on (though arguably not early enough) to the end.
I've gotta criticize some things though... The script was only occassionally inspired. The lighting was too often too dark. why do that to our straining eyes, Mr. Director? no need for the dusk scenes! Many potentially interesting personality clashes, but those conflicts never seemed to impress me... ho-hum... and some scenes were just too long, without enough going on.
The late scene clips of all of the sombraro-covered masses fleeing the stadium reminded me of the comic spoof-scene in Monty Python And The Holy Grail where that castle guard sees a guy perpetually running toward him. Gosh, the last of those Mexican locals (and Mexico City it ain't) were forever still cramming into the exit tunnels. unintented laughs!
If you love seeing Marlboro guys whipping around on horses (over and over again), you'll go ga-ga over this late 60s entry.
and, sorry, but I have to critique the ending. Out of the blue, the long last scene seems to be some sort of commentary on Roman Catholicism. We see the protagonist-Rex big-butt his way into a bigger-on-the-inside-than-on-the-outside cathedral (so big and ornate it would make V-City drool). As the masses rush in the front door and all instinctively rush out the back (I kid you not), the evil Rex gets locked in, and then gets burned to death, in a fire that burns the entire cathedral to the ground, though the attached building on either side remain unscathed. and everyone stares in awe and disbelief. um..... ok.... meaning? not sure how to end a cowboy/dinosaur movie? trying to give James Fran a way to not die in the end, as he did in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes? is the "message" that these Catholicized Mexicans would be better off getting out of their church because evil resides in there, and is bound for the fires of hell??? if that isn't close to the message, then what was the point? no point?
maybe our non-eaten couple could have been shown riding off toward the Wyoming sunset. [yawn...]
A straightforward, no-nonsense, monster movie. 2007-12-29
The sound and image quality of the film are excellent. Only at a couple of points does the image have a slightly dirty or deteriorated appearance. The light balance is excellent throughout. The character development is nice, and at least as good as those found in the Indiana Jones movies. The confident, strong willed woman (T.J.), the operator of a Wild West Show, works well in this movie. My complaints are only slight. The stop-action of the tiny horse looks a little phony (its a phony pony). The stop-action technique works better with imaginary creatures than with real animals. (Perhaps twice the density of stop figures should have been used with the horse.) Also, Gwangi is somewhat violet in color. I would have preferred the more traditional dinosaur color of green or brown. Another complaint is the sour ending. If I had my way, I would have written a happier ending, for example, by disclosing the discovery of Gwangi's eggs with babies hatching out, where the baby dinosaurs are recruited for use in the Wild West Show. But we are stuck with the sour ending.
To put things in perspective, a much better movie in the same genre is SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. SINBAD is another Ray Harryhausen movie, which also features two battling monsters, a prophetic curse, and a small valuable object (a tiny horse in GWANGI; a lamp in SINBAD). But GWANGI lacks the epic qualities and more abundant variety that is found in the SINBAD movie.
If you don't want to learn the plot, you need to stop reading at this point.
The film opens with a bleak landscape resembling Death Valley. We see eight gypsies in a valley searching for a companion. The companion, a man with a bag, is shown stumbling down a gulch. He clutches a bag. Something alive is inside, something making neighing sounds. But an old blind woman (a witch), one of the gypsies, issues a warning, "No, no. Leave it I tell you. If he does not go back to the Forbidden Valley, we will all suffer a terrible fate. Fool! Ah. One day he will learn to obey the Law of the Gwangi."
A few minutes of credits are then shown.
The story begins with a Wild West Show marching into a Mexican town. A cowboy atop a moving stagecoach twirls a lasso, followed by a cluster of running Mexican boys. Then, a cute Mexican boy (Lope) materializes and offers to do odd jobs for Tuck Kirby, a former associate of the Wild West Show. We see the actual Wild West Show. Indians chase a stagecoach around and around the arena. Galloping horses tumble to the ground, throwing their riders. The stagecoach is set afire, and it leaves by way of a gate. There are faux gun fights and faux fist fights. The stunts in the arean scene are excellent.
The next act introduces us to Miss T.J. Breckenridge ("T.J."), a beautiful woman, who does tricks on a horse. We see her atop a horse, about to dive off a platform into a pool of water, where the rim of the pool is ringed with flames. The horse dives from the platform--a trick identical to that performed, at one time, at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. But the crowd in the arena is sparse.
Tuck Kirby makes another appearance. T.J. does not welcome him at first. T.J. throws him out saying, "You stick to your con tricks and I'll stick to my horse tricks." Lope is friends with a professor, an American paleontologist. The old professor adds science to this science fiction film. At turning point then occurs. We see the arena being used for rehearsing a bull fight. A matadore practices in the ring, but Lope fools around in the ring with a blanket. A bull begins to attack. Tuck Kirby dashes into the ring and saves the boy. Then T.J. falls back in love with Tuck. Another man (Carlos) saves Tuck from the bull.
In the next scene, we finally see the tiny horse, the one contained in the cloth sack at the start of the movie. This occurs 25 minutes into the movie. "What are you doing here, over 50 million years after you should have been extinct," exclaims the professor. T.J.'s goal is to use the tiny horse as an act in the Wild West Show, to bring in more customers.
But at night, the dwarf, the blind witch, and their gypsy friends, steal the tiny horse, and deliver it back to the Forbidden Valley and set it free. While stealing the tiny horse, the dwarf conks Carlos on the head. But Lupe with the professor, and separately Tuck Kirby, follow the gypsies to the Forbidden Valley. Finally, 40 minutes into the film, the gypsies let the tiny horse free, saying, "Fly little one."
Within a few minutes, T.J., Tuck, Lope, and the professor have re-captured the tiny horse, but it escapes and leads them through a tunnel to a second valley. The second valley resembles Elephant Hill, a part of Canyonlands National Park. Now, fortyfive minutes into the film, there is a scene with a pterodactyl. The bird carries Lupe off, but he is saved a few minutes later. Then, a tiny dinosaur appears, and shortly thereafter, Gwangi materializes and eats the tiny dinosaur. Then, 50 minutes into the film, a triceratops appears.
Comedy makes its appearance. One of the group observes that the bullets that they had been shooting at the dinosaurs were only blanks, used in the Wild West Show. The men dig a deep hole and cover it with pine branches. Something gets caught in the trap, but it is only the professor.
From the 60 minute to 75 minute time point (15 min altogether), there is a generous lassoing scene. At one point, three cowboys on three horses have simultaneously thrown three lassos around Gwangi's neck. After this scene, Gwangi is wheeled into town on a large cart. But in lumbering along a desert road, they encounter the witch and the dwarf. The witch warns them, "Soon you will be doomed, all of you, unless the evil one is set free."
Within a few minutes, we are back at the arena. This time the arena is packed with thousands of Mexicans, many with sombreros. But we see the witch instructing the dwarf to set Gwangi free. The dwarf sneaks under Gwangi's red tent and unlocks the gate to the cage. At this point, an elephant act draws to a conclusion. Then Gwangi escapes, with the Mexican dwarf in his mouth. Gwangi fights the elephant, and in the mean time, there is a massive mob scene, as thousands of Mexicans dash from the arena, upsetting fruit carts. The scene is reminiscent of the theater mob scene from THE BLOB with Steve McQueen. Part of the mob runs into a cathedral. At one point, an escaping person falls and rolls down the cathedral steps. But at 90 minutes, Gwangi enters the cathedral. A torch is overturned, and the entire cathedral, along with Gwangi, goes up in flames. The film ends at 95 minutes
they grow em big south of the border! 2007-09-10
Ray Harryhausen adapted a Willis O'Brien story to create another magical fantasy. It goes without saying that the sfx are wonderful, the settings exotic and the final scenes frantic. The actors vary from the endearing Laurence Naismith & eohippus,the bland James Franciscus & Gila Golan, to the ridiculous Indian woman & the obligatory annoying kid. Sadly, Ray can control dinosaurs but not ham actors.
Still a great movie 
2007-05-15
Before technology found the way to improve monster moves, this was the way we saw them. Even with the old methods, the story is still one of the greats.
South of the border - down Mexico way 2006-06-10
It was the turn of the 20 th century. Champ Connors (Richard Carlson) was putting on a rodeo show. Returning to make a horse deal and to see the girl (Gila Golan) that he did not realize he love was Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus.) Looks like more than one man loved her. However she had a "show must go on" attitude.
Can anyone win her heart? Meanwhile down in the valley, the valley so low, in an environment that was untouched for millennium Gwangi waits. Gypsies warn us not to go there.
We get a good history lesson as many people do not realize that the horse originated in the Americas and migrated to Asia.
There are some staking similarities between this cowboy love story and King Kong. The only major difference is Gwangi (Ray Harryhausen creation) would eat anything or anybody.
It Came from Beneath the Sea
Ray Ray Ray Ray Ray! 2006-03-19
James Fransicus can't act. He tries hard though and that's a good thing. It's fun watching him try and try. But he doesn't matter, just like a preacher matters not in church during the rapture... there is no preacher at that point, is there? And the rapture in the case of Valley of the Gwangi is the last half of the movie when all the cowboys, Fransiscus one of them, gets chased by Harryhausen's dinosaurs. The meanest of these prehistoric nasties is a big purple T-Rex. He's related to Barney, perhaps; I haven't seen that many other purple dinosaurs... But this is no Barney... He's a mean motorscooter and it's just amazing seeing this Rex battle cowboys and one scene in particular that's very, very nice is when the cowboys actually pull off lassoing this big purple brute, sticking him in a cage, and bringing him back "home". Then they take him to town and display him in front of many people (in a bull ring) and he gets mad and breaks free and reeks havoc ala King Kong. Mean Purple Dino even battles a Harryhausen elephant that looks fantastic. There's also a small horse in the film that's the size of a toy, and it's a little corny, but it doesn't matter because of Ray Harryhausen and his awesome stop-motion effects, making this flawed film into one heck of a masterpiece... as Ray does so well.
