More 1963 Special Effects: Talos is the name written on the statue found on the beach of the island where the Argonauts land. Hercules steals weapon from treasure trove and awakens the monster, Talos, who chases the crew back to the Argo. The Argonauts try to escape through two rocks that define a bay. But the monster reaches down and grabs the boat. They must all swim ashore. The giant Bronze Man follows them until Jason appeals to the figurehead who tells him to look to Talos’s ankles. In a scene that echoes Achilles’ heel, Jason attacks and defeats the monster so they can rebuild the Argo and get on their way to find the Golden Fleece at the end of the world in Colchis.
This special effects scene from the movie Jason and the Argonauts tells you what the Greeks thought of geography in their day. As soon as you sailed away from the islands in the Aegean you were in uncivilized, foreign, alien, barbarian territory where anything at all could happen. It was a place where evil lurked around every rock and boulder, and people in Greece would believe there were giant bronze men who could rise up against sailors and sink their boats. It was sort of like the people in the Middle Ages who though the Earth was flat and you would sail off it and fall into the abyss if you sailed far enough away from home. In ancient Greece only heroes and adventurers like Jason would even attempt such a feat. That is why it is the subject of 1963 Special Effects.
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Talos, the Bronze Man