JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
180 min. (TV) | Hallmark Entertainment | US
2000

Starring:

• Jason London as Jason
• Natasha Henstridge as Hypsipyle
  
• Dennis Hopper as Pelias
• Frank Langella as Aeetes

Directed by: Nick Willing
Produced by: Dyson Lovell
Written by: Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet

A man of passion. A warrior of courage. A hero of destiny.
- tagline for the DVD release.

Jason and the Argonauts aired on NBC as a "sweeps" miniseries event in May 2000. The film averaged 13 million viewers and a 5.4 rating. The miniseries attempted to hew closer to Apollonius' Argonautica than did the 1963 version; however, this was not always done to great effect. Notably, to appeal to a broader demographic, the movie added Atalanta as a female Argonaut, attested only in a minority of ancient sources, and it had Atalanta fall in love with Jason. Instead of putting the dragon to sleep, Jason essentially hurls it off the side of a cliff. The film also had Zeus attempt to seduce Medea, and provides a happy ending for the story by setting up the married couple of Jason and Medea as the reigning royals of Iolcus.

Antalya, Turkey. (© Erencet / Wikimedia Commons)

Portions of the TV movie were filmed in Antalya, Turkey (left), a resort city on the Mediterranean coast, while the rest of the film was shot in Britain. Unfortunately, Antalya is too young to have a connection to the Argonauts, officially founded by Attalos II of Pergamon only in 150 BCE as Attalia atop the remains of a third century BCE city. The Argonauts' voyage took them nowhere near southern Anatolia.

The following plot summary is adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

PLOT
The film opens as soldiers invade Iolcus and King Aeson's (Ciarán Hinds) brother Pelias (Dennis Hopper) is leading the charge. Inside the temple he goes to embrace his brother but produces a dagger and kills him during the embrace. This is witnessed by his wife Polymele (Diana Kent) and his son Jason (Jason London). He intends to do the same to Jason but one of the guards rescues him and takes him out of the palace through a secret tunnel.
 
It is then revealed that this is a memory, experienced as a nightmare by an older Jason, who awakes. He is then ordered by his uncle to retrieve the golden fleece.
 
He recruits a crew from the simple folk of Iolcus, including shepherds and farmers. He is joined by Hercules, Orpheus, Atalanta and the brothers Castor and Pollux. Acastus stows away on the ship. The Argonauts run aground on a strange island in the middle of the ocean that is actually the sea god Poseidon. The crew make their way to the Isle of Lemnos, an island of warrior women, to recover from the experience and repair the ship. The men pleasure themselves with the women while their ship is repaired (except Orpheus and Atalanta) and Jason sleeps with the queen Hypsipyle. Atalanta discovers that the women have killed all the men on the island and are planning to sacrifice the crew. She warns Jason, and the Argonauts flee the island, losing the map in their haste.
 
The crew become rebellious and Jason has Zetes, a young man with brilliant vision, see the stars and find their route to Tabletop Island, where they find Phineus. They are attacked by the Harpies on the island and kill them. In return, Phineus tells them the Golden Fleece is in Colchis. Meanwhile, on Colchis, the princess Medea has visions of the crew and her brother Aspyrtes goes out to find them. Jason finds the ship wrecked and rescues Aspyrtes. They approach the clashing rocks and send a dove through before sailing through themselves.
 
The ship docks at Colchis and Jason goes ashore with Aspyrtes, Castor and Pollux. Hera asks Eros to shoot Medea so she falls in love with Jason. King Aertes wants Jason killed but Medea convinces him to face the Minoan Bull. Medea gives Jason magic oil that protects Jason from the bull's fire-breath. Jason yokes the bull and ploughs a field and sows it with dragon's teeth. Warriors spring up from the earth and attack each other. Medea tells Jason she must go with the Fleece. Aspyrtes overhears this and sends soldiers out after them.
 
The other Argonauts debate whether to leave or not. Hercules, Orpheus and Argus sail the ship around the island to make it seem as if they have left while the others hide in the water and then join Jason and Medea. When the soldiers attack, Medea kills her brother and leads them to the Fleece which is guarded by a dragon. Some Argonauts are killed before Jason sets a noose around the dragon's neck and makes it fall off a precipice. They take the Fleece and sail away from Colchis.
 
Acastus has been wounded and Medea uses magic to heal him. Atalanta confesses she loves Jason but he says he will marry Medea. She has a vision of her father's death and the two kiss. Zeus attempts to seduce Medea but she says she loves Jason, even when he pulls out Eros's arrow. The ship arrives back in Iolcus and Jason learns his mother killed herself, believing him and Acastus to be dead. They rest in the bay and Acastus steals the Fleece and goes into town. Pelias kills him and takes the Fleece. Medea then goes and says he will marry her. Jason and the others sneak into the palace through the secret tunnel. Argus is killed by one of the guards. Pelias tries to kill Jason but is stabbed by his own knife.

To cremate the dead Argus, his corpse is burned with the Argo, thus eliminating the event of the mast of the ship falling on Jason to kill him. Then Jason marries Medea and they live happily ever after as King and Queen of Iolcus, while Atalanta mourns the life she might have had with Jason. Laertes is killed while trying to obtain the fleece.

Those who think about this "Jason" too hard will readily find flaws [...] [T]here's a sense that there was a lot of laughing on the inside. When this "Jason" works, that is why: It's drama wrapped around a sense of fun.
-- Neal Genzlinger, The New York Times, May 6, 2000.