Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

I messed on the parenthetical citations on the mythology report and had a bad grade in English. So I watched the Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and wrote an compare and contrast essay. I thought that the movie was actually pretty good. The special effects are awesome for 1963. But anyway this is the first draft of my essay, so do laugh. You don't really need to read it. I just need 500 words, so here it is. (P.S. this is draft #7)(I hope #7 is lucky)



Jason and the Argonauts, The Movie Vs. The Myth

Imagine an army of skeletons growing out of the ground in front of you. They rush at you and try to kill you. It sounds sort of scary, huh? This is what happened in the 1963 version of Jason and the Argonauts. Although the myth and the movie are very similar, the little skeleton scene was made up for the movie. The myth and the movie have a few similarities and many differences. Here are a few of them.
The first difference I noticed when watching the movie was that Hera was the goddess that helped the Argonauts not Atlanta. Another difference is that although the myth says that Jason was named Diomedes at birth and his name was later changed to Jason, the movie calls him Jason from his birth. The movie also has Jason born before Pelias took over Aeson’s (Jason’s father) kingdom. In the myth Jason is born after. Jason also goes to round up the sailors himself in the movie, rather then send out people to do it as in the myth. Another difference is that the movie has the Argonauts land on Crete before getting the fleece rather than after. In the myth Medea (King Aeetes daughter) defeats Talos (giant bronze statue) and not Jason. The movie also has the ship builder named Argos and not Argo. There are also many events that the myth has and the movie does not have that event or it happens another way.
There are some of the Argonauts’ adventures that are not mentioned in the movie. Some of these are when they sail past the sirens, when they go between Scylla and Charybdis, and when they go to Aeaea to be purified by Circe. Another difference in the myth and the movie is that the fleece is guarded by the Hydra in the movie and not the sleepless Dragon. The Argonauts also captured the Harpies when freeing King Phineus, not chase and almost kill them as in the myth. As you can see there are many differences between the movie and the myth. But there are also many similarities.
If a movie is about a myth, you can guess that the myth and the movie have some similarities. The Argonauts still go to get the fleece, the main character is still named Jason, the Argonauts free Phineus from the harpies, Pelias told Jason to get the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts had help from the gods, they had a large crew, the Argo went through the Symplegades, and they had to fight things that grew from teeth.
There are many differences and similarities. There were things that the movie did another way. There were things that were not included. There were many things that were the same in the movie and the myth. I think that the story of Jason and the Argonauts is a good story and I liked the movie.