Ok, here's a challenge for you in this time of holidays: Anyone got a movie special effect that rivals the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments? Remember that piece of Hollywood magic occurred in 1956!
Special effects in movies aren't awesome as they used to be, it's all mostly CGI.
I was always taken by Roy Harryhausen's special effects especially in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad for which he won an academy award in 1958 for special effects, he was also responsible for a ground breaking bit of work in Jason & The Argonauts, 1963, with a sword fight against skeleton warriors.