Today’s practice of casting women or racial minorities in the roles traditionally reserved for white men is cause of much debate, but it isn’t something without precedent. It has been done before, although without much brouhaha, with commentators seeing it merely as an attempt to give exotic new flavour to stories already told rather than attempt to push ideological agenda. An example can be found in Jason and the Argonauts, 2000 television two-part miniseries directed by Nick Willing.
The plot is based on Greek myths and begins when evil Pelias (played by Dennis Hopper) kills his brother Aeson (played by Ciarán Hinds) in order to become King of Iolcus, city in Thessaly. But the prophecy tells that the throne will one day be taken by Aeson’s son Jason (played by Jason Landon) who, as young man, comes to take what is his. Pelias promises that he would grant him his request, but only if he manages to bring him valuable Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis. He has only six months to do it, otherwise his mother Polymele (played by Diana Kent) will be killed. Jason gets a ship called “Argo” for the expedition and gathers group of followers that would be called “Argonauts” and which include such notable names like giant Heracles (played by Brian Thompson) and famous poet Orpheus (played by Adrian Lester). After series of adventures they manage to reach Colchis where King Aertes (played by Frank Langella) doesn’t have any intention of giving Golden Fleece and wants to get rid of troublesome outsider by offering him valuable prize only if he finishes impossible tasks. What he didn’t count on is that his own daughter Medea (played by Joanne Blalock) would fall in love with Jason and help him achieve his aim.
Jason and the Argonauts was made by Hallmark Entertainment, company known for the expensive and ambitious television adaptations of popular legends and classic works of literature. As such, it had very large budget, spent both on picturesque locations Turkey and CGI special effects. However, from the very start the project was burdened with inevitable comparisons with Don Chaffey’s 1963 eponymous feature film which is, partly thanks to stop animation by Ray Harryhausen, today known as classic of fantasy adventure genre. Thanks to advances in technology, television version looks visually more impressive (except in the scene where Jason fights a dragon), but this can’t compensate for the weak script by Matthew Faulk which tries to stuff too many material from the myths into the film only to leave many characters undeveloped and subplots unfinished. Director Nick Willing, who would later have much better success by mixing fact and science fiction in longer miniseries The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells, simply can’t give the source material justice within time constraints. Cast, made out of highly diverse actors (including black British actor Adrian Lester as Orpheus), does what it can with poorly written roles, but some members are worse than others. Brian Landon is quite bland as the protagonist, while Dennis Hopper plays standard villain in uninspired way. Jason in the Argonauts fares even worse in comparisons with two other television projects that had similar subjects - Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: The Warrior Princess. They strayed much more from the classic texts than this miniseries, but they did it with more playfulness and ability to provide entertainment to the audience.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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