The acting in this movie is really good.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It only takes creativity and imagination to make a film like this work.The Valley Of Gwangi takes two childhood favorites and mix them together into one. Every child loves Dinosaurs and many love westerns so having a mix of the two actually works out.For a film in the 1960s it had some very good stop motion work with the Dinosaurs in the film every frame has been timed to make it work where the actors are actually in the same frame.The setting for the film does feel like a old time western but with Dinosaurs added to the mix how could you go wrong?The cast and crew does a good job with helping with the story along with some very good music in the film to help express the emotion during the film. It is a shame that this film is not given much respect for being creative at the time of it release The Valley of Gwangi is one of the few films that truly original in terms of story mixing dinosaurs with Cowboys. While it may not get much attention today as it did back in the day it is still a film that worth watching if you love Dinosaurs.I give The Valley of Gwangi an 7 out of 10

Like many of the reviewers, I remember this film from one of the late night "Creature Feature" movie marathons. It left quite a mark on me and I could never forget it. So, as I aged, I bought it on VHS, and will soon get it on DVD.Just a few couple of points: 1. I love it when "reviewers" slam a classic movie like this. They say intelligent things like "nothing happened the first 50 minutes" or "the special effects don't compare to today" or "it looks corny". I have just one thing to say to these folks: "Please take a film class." Let me back up a bit for them...in the old days, directors recognized the value of "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT". That's why they introduced characters early in the film, so you could emotionally connect to them. Those same directors also understood the value of "SUSPENSE". They knew that sometimes, it's more tense or scary to NOT see that thing that is after you, especially at the beginning of the movie. Also, since there was no CGI then, they had to get creative when it came to how they finally DID show the monster. They would use lighting, shadows, fog, and other props to slowly reveal the beast. It was truly amazing that they were able do so much with the technology they had. Let me say this about CGI: It is OVERUSED in movies today. I don't want to know it is there. I want more character development. I want more suspense. I don't want unbelievability to the point of ludicrous. The best CGI is unnoticed by the viewer.2. Dinosaurs in the Wild West. Are you kidding me? What an original concept! It is so unlikely. How could primitive cowboys stand a chance? Well, a) Cowboys are tough and crafty, and b) real dinosaurs aren't like Godzilla. They were simply animals. Though formidable, they could be roped and trapped. Again, part of the genius of the movie. It is strangely believable.3. To this day I am impressed with how Harryhausen used both Stop Motion Animation and life-size models together. The scene where Lupe is taken by the pterodactyl illustrates this point. When the beast is in the air, it is stop motion (how the heck did they used stop motion suspended in the air?). When it is on the ground, it's a life-size, moving puppet. (BTW: Spielburg wanted pterodactyl's in JP, but could't figure how to pull it off, that is until the very good JP III.) 4. In my book, there are only two great "humans vs. dinosaurs" movies: The Valley of Gwangi and Jurassic Park. They stand alone at the top.

Middling reworking of King Kong, based off of an idea from that film's special effects genius, Willis O'Brien. It's nothing great outside of the Ray Harryhausen special effects, which are good. Unfortunately you have to sit through over forty minutes of mind-numbing boredom to get to the best of that. There's a couple smaller bits of stop-motion earlier but all the dinosaur stuff doesn't start for awhile.James Franciscus is an obnoxious, smarmy leading man. Vivacious (and dubbed) Gila Golan makes for an unbelievable American cowgirl but she's nice to look at. The romance between these two is the movie's least redeeming feature; it's insufferable really. Richard Carlson is largely wasted in his role.Reading some of the reviews I feel like there are a group of people who just want to like this because of the premise. I'm sorry but I need more than a one line pitch (Cowboys vs Dinosaurs) to make me enjoy a movie. The movie has to actually, you know, be enjoyable. Which this one mostly isn't to me. A movie like this should be more fun than it is. The story is tired, the characters grating. The effects are its only saving grace, which is why I'm giving it a passable middle-ground rating.

Like the Hollywood western in the 1960's, the "wild west" depicted in The Valley of Gwangi - set at the turn of the century - was the post- cowboy sideshow, as displayed in reality by its most famous component, Buffalo Bill. It was this type of circus show that actually inspired much of the iconography of the filmic western. In this 1969 film (a time when westerns were more popular in television, and Hollywood was dissipating), we are introduced to a Mexican rodeo owner, the "cowgirl" T. J. (Gila Golan), and her once fiancée, Tuck (James Franciscus), T. J. being the owner of a struggling rodeo. After Carlos (Gustavo Rojo) returns from the "forbidden valley" he has in a burlap bag, a tiny, pre- historic ancestor of the modern day horse. After its escape, a team are set up to recapture the profitable little tyke, and return it for display. On entering the forbidden zone, they discover a wealth of creatures directly out of the past, extinct only to the outer area of the zone.The film is largely a combination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story, 'The Lost World' (which was itself filmed in 1925), and the 1933 genre defining King Kong. Gwangi was penned by the special effects wizard of Kong, Willis O'Brien, but was shelved, and not considered as a conceivable project until after his death in 1962. (Incidentally the script inspired a very similar film in 1956's The Beast of Hollow Mountain.) However, by its release, even the monster movie was a dying breed of film, as the New Hollywood began to take over. Of course, as with the film version of The Lost World, and King Kong, the group capture a beast to take back for a unique public show, which inevitably leads to destruction and disaster.Whilst this genre mash-up was clearly treading ground already exhaustively explored, the film has much period charm. The film is helped a great deal by the genius of Ray Harryhausen (a protégé of O'Brien - and instigator for the production of this film). His attention to detail is incredible, and he imbues character into the monsters. There are an incredible amount of his special effects (dynamation as it is known here), and he delivers with aplomb. When the horseback riders capture a dinosaur using ropes, the sequence must have been a logistical nightmare, but the effect is brilliant - this highlights the reason Harryhausen is a legend. Gwangi also marked the last project that he would animate his beloved dinosaurs, and his later projects largely involved the mythical creatures of Sinbad's '70's outings (Golden Voyage (1973) and Eye of the Tiger (1977)) and Clash of the Titans (1981).www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com