The Gods’ Gambit: Clash of the Titans (1981)

Last week, I wrote about wanting to highlight lesser-known movies, yet this week I picked the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. Not a small movie by any stretch! While it may not be as well-known to younger gamers, who might be more familiar with the 2010 remake, it was certainly a massive hit back in the day. That remake was a good, big-budget CGI action fest, but to me, absolutely nothing compares to the magic of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation.

For those who haven't seen it, here is a quick synopsis (spoilers for a 45-year-old film based on ancient mythology!): The story follows Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, on a heroic quest to save Princess Andromeda from being sacrificed to the Kraken. To succeed, he must navigate a treacherous world of gods and monsters, taming the flying horse Pegasus, consulting the sinister Stygian Witches, and decapitating the deadly, snake-haired Medusa to use her petrifying gaze as a weapon.

With memorable creature designs and the classic hero's journey structure, the film stands as a defining achievement in practical visual effects and fantasy cinema.

This movie came out the same year as Raiders of the Lost Ark. I saw it in theaters with my grandmother and grandfather when I was 8, and it sparked my obsession with Greek mythology. I got the toys and played with them for years; my uncle even brought me the Kraken figure during his college holiday break.

The movie became a cornerstone of fantasy cinema for me, and Perseus's trials heavily inspired my TTRPG games. It had a Pegasus, a Medusa, epic quests, riddles, and witches with one magical eye. All of these shaped my ideas of monsters and adventures when I began playing D&D five years later.

The film's Pegasus perfectly visualized the creature I would later read about in monster descriptions. While the Medusa in the original Monster Manual and the Kraken in Monster Manual II differed vastly in their TTRPG versions, this movie remained my primary reference in my mind and in how I described them to players.

Another interesting element of the film that easily translates into games is Perseus’s arsenal of magical weapons. Mythology influenced literature, which in turn influenced the game, but to teenage me, seeing Perseus rely on the helm of invisibility and a sword that could cut through stone made the necessity of magical items in RPGs click perfectly.

The gods' role as active participants in mortals' lives, so typical of Greek mythology, was fundamental for me as a GM. In many ways, I saw the gods as fickle, meddlesome powers who toyed with mortals. That’s how I handled them in my early games, a mix of the gods in Clash of the Titans and Fizban (there are spoilers if you follow that link and haven’t read the books!) in Dragonlance.

This movie, along with the Sinbad movies I wrote about last week and my love of the Elfquest comic book, primed me to play fantasy TTRPGs. By the time I began playing role-playing games, I had already watched it on VHS several times. If memory serves, I rented it the same day I rented Barbarella! But that’s a topic for another column.

Sadly, this was Ray Harryhausen’s final stop-motion movie before computer-generated graphics and other special effects replaced his artistry.

Two additional fun facts for you:

During my very first D&D session in 1986, I used the classic LJN AD&D figures to keep track of the characters’ marching order. That toy line had no Thief figure, so I used my Perseus action figure wearing a Luke Skywalker Jedi Knight cloth cape from Return of the Jedi as my thief stand-in!

The legendary Brothers Hildebrandt painted the iconic movie poster below. Their art in the classic Tolkien calendars and their fabled Atlantis calendar also greatly influenced my love of fantasy.