Everybody has a pet hate. We once owned a parrot I couldn’t stand.
People who like to name-drop annoy me, and at my recent lunch with Tom Cruise, King Charles and The Krankies they all confided in me they feel the same way.
Joking aside, what I really cannot abide is pretentiousness, something that was in abundance in posters responding to a newspaper article listing the Top 20 Mythological Movies, around the time “The Odyssey” was released in cinemas.
If I tell you the name of the newspaper (sort of) rhymes with ‘Cardigan’ and is famous for its typos, you’ll understand the Mount Everest level of pretentiousness!
Out of its Top 20 mythological films, I’d only heard of “Clash Of The Titans” (1982) and the magnificent “Jason And The Argonauts” (1963) which both featured Ray Harryhausen’s stunning stop-motion visual effects. Remember the bronze giant, Talos?
Some of the readers’ posts below the article were worthy of inclusion in Private Eye’s ‘Pseud’s Corner’.
What follows are my interpretations of some of them, not too far removed from the originals . . .
‘I’m surprised you didn’t include the little-seen, five hour Mongolian epic “Changa!”. I saw this at its only UK screening, in 1976 at the Snobs-R-Us Arts Centre, in the original Mongolian language with French subtitles.
‘The audience (me and the usherette) almost managed to stay awake for most of it, so I was shocked when it was replaced by a double-bill of “Can You Keep It Up For The Weekend, Vicar?” and “Emmanuelle In Aberystwyth” – films I’d never have brought myself to watch, even if every performance hadn’t sold out for the week.’
Another was…
‘Amazed at the exclusion of Francois Bore’s silent “Eye, Hercules!”. It was made in 1989, but Bore chose not to use sound, subtitles or actors. Three hours of a close-up of his dog Hercule’s eye. A neglected masterpiece.’
If I’d posted a comment, it would have been . . . As Tom Hanks said to Ray Harryhausen as he presented him with an honorary Oscar at the 64th Academy Awards, “Some say…Citizen Kane. I say . . . Jason & The Argonauts!”