The Valley of Gwangi (1969) Review

The Valley of Gwangi (1969) Review

What do you get when you combine cowboys and prehistoric flesh-eating reptiles? You get The Valley of Gwangi, of course—one part western, one part dinosaur action-adventure.

The Forbidden Valley lies deep in the Mexico desert, isolated from the rest of the world and occupied by dinosaurs, as well as other prehistoric animals, including Eohippus, an early species of horse no bigger than a cat. Members of a rodeo show capture one of these horses, calling it El Diablo, and a cowgirl named T.J. hopes it will salvage her declining show, but a local gypsy warns that taking the creature from the valley will bring doom to them all. When the gypsies steal it and return it to The Forbidden Valley, T.J. and her former lover Tuck, along with a young Spanish boy, an elderly Paleontologist, and a bunch of cowboys, go to get it back, but end up battling deadly dinosaurs. 

The story is basically the same as other classic dinosaur films like The Lost World or King Kong, but it’s the element of cowboys that makes it feel different. Tuck is the main character, played by James Franciscus, and he’s a charming lead, if a bit stereotypical. All the characters, really, are stereotypes, but many of them are just there to be eaten by the dinosaurs, anyway. 

The dinosaurs are the star attractions here, brought to life via stop motion by Ray Harryhausen, who worked on the original King Kong, among many other projects, but Gwangi is some of his finest work. Though it takes a while for the expedition into Forbidden Valley to get underway, once they arrive, it’s scene-after-scene of dinosaurs chasing cowboys and eating them, with the main threat being the Tyrannosaur Gwangi. The movie is surprisingly gory, especially considering the DVD sports a G-rating, and the dinosaurs are menacing, though for some reason, they all seem to have purple skin. There’s debate about whether Gwangi is an Allosaurus or a Tyrannosaurus. Allegedly, Harryhausen based the design on the famous painting of a T. rex by Paleo-artist Charles R. Knight, which incorrectly depicted the creature with three fingers (like an Allosaurus) instead of two (like T. rex). 

The most famous scene in the whole movie is when the cowboys try to lasso Gwangi and capture him. The blending of real actors on horses with the stop motion dinosaur is extremely impressive. Gwangi is eventually captured and brought back to the city, very much like King Kong, and it ends on a similarly dark note. 

 

One thing I always wondered about was the title. Why is it The Valley of Gwangi, if the valley is actually called Forbidden Valley? I mean, it pretty much is Gwangi’s valley. It’s just such a weird name. But, it’s also memorable. I heard this title when I was very young. It was many years later that I finally saw it, but I never forgot that name. 

The Valley of Gwangi is a classic dinosaur adventure film. The effects are old school, but still impressive, and Gwangi is a formidable villain—surely one of the all-time best dinosaurs in film.