KING KONG Thread

[AndyDursin]

KING KONG (1976)
8/10

Hadn't sat through this childhood fave of mine in many years -- surprisingly, it holds up really well. As much as the reviews at the time came down hard on Rick Baker running around in a monkey suit (the few shots of "life size robot Kong" are hilariously stiff) and the occasional heavy-handed line of dialogue in Lorenzo Semple, Jr.'s screenplay, this updating of the '33 classic manages to entertain and maintain a sense of '70s dread from start to end.

The lead-up to the Petrox Explorer's arrival on the island builds up a good amount of tension thanks to the performances and John Barry's terrific score -- the island sequences themselves are well-executed by Tarzan vet John Guillermin and mounted with superb production values and sets. The second half is more like a '70s disaster movie with Kong stomping on the Big Apple -- but it's still fun for the creature feature that it is.

Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin both do a fine job throughout. As has been echoed here before, I'm not the biggest Jessica Lange fan but her harshness as a sort of vain young starlet, ultimately willing to put her career first, suits this role well -- meanwhile, Richard Kline's cinematography captures it all in attractive widescreen proportions.

One thing this version also makes abundantly clear: how putrid Peter Jackson's 2005 remake was, needlessly expanding the story to suit unnecessary characters like every member of the ship's crew (who cares) and hitting us over the head with bloated plot points and asides. He also managed to botch the central triangle of the three leads, turn Adrien Brody's would-be hero into a worthless passerby, shift the focus to the Denham role (to diminishing effect), and neuter Kong himself in the process. That movie is a total dud, and as much grief as the '76 movie took at the time of its release, it's really Jackson's film that's deserving of the Golden Banana Peel.

[Eric Paddon]

Kong '76 I have a soft spot for because it was the first "event" movie of my childhood at age 7. I remember the hype, and the trading cards and the toys/games associated with it and this was before "Star Wars" keep in mind. The fact that it spotlighted my home base with the WTC was another plus. My brother was even in the crowd that night when they filmed the scene of Kong lying in the Plaza. I think time has been more kind to it as you say because unlike Jackson, this film didn't try to copycat the original and self-consciously try to one-up it, it instead offered its own reinterpretation of the material and while some parts misfire, the good far outweighs the bad. Barry's score helps and so does the beautiful Hawaii location photography along with the New York cinematography too. The snake fight is bad, but in the end this film really didn't need all the prehistoric creatures of the original as that would have worked against the tone of the film and been unnecessary. Lange is very good and it's unfortunate she got such a drubbing from the critics because they didn't realize she was playing the part as it was written, which was that of a Monroe-like starlet.

I had never seen that poster before since almost all of them were basically tied in to the art work of Kong on the WTC. Thanks for sharing that!

[AndyDursin]

I had never seen that poster before since almost all of them were basically tied in to the art work of Kong on the WTC. Thanks for sharing that!

I had never seen it before either...I wondered if it's legit or is it a fan creation? Looks really solid and legit but you never know!

[Eric Paddon]

Here's that Kong board game I remember. The box with the traditional poster art was the only one I remember showing the full length of the original artwork (all the way to the other side of the other WTC building)

[Paul MacLean]

Kong '76 I have a soft spot for because it was the first "event" movie of my childhood at age 7.

For me as well. King Kong was the first non-Disney movie I ever experienced in the cinema (well, not counting All The Presidents Men -- and that was because my parents wanted to see it and had to drag me along!).

I was quite enthralled by imagery in King Kong (all beautifully captured by Richard Kline) and John Barry's score. I actually saw it twice in the cinema! Barry's score was also the first soundtrack I ever bought. I have not seen the film in a long time; perhaps I ought to re-visit it.

[mkaroly]

I love Barry's score, and I was obsessed with the movie poster of Kong crushing the train on top of the buildings (I used to cut out newspaper "posters" of films and tape them to my door as if my room was a movie theater), but honestly the movie does not hold up well for me. Jessica Lange is awful in it...her overacting made me think she was on drugs or something. I did think the ending was effective though...even in Peter Jackson's version I was moved when Kong dies. All three versions actually make my eyes water when Kong dies - it is an incredibly moving, tragic moment.

[Paul MacLean]

I love Barry's score, and I was obsessed with the movie poster of Kong crushing the train on top of the buildings (I used to cut out newspaper "posters" of films and tape them to my door as if my room was a movie theater), but honestly the movie does not hold up well for me.

I think the reason I was enthralled when I first saw King Kong was that I'd never seen any type of epic or fantasy film on the big screen. The panoramas, the photography, the effects, the idea of a "hidden island" -- it was all very overwhelming and magical to a kid who'd only seen lame 1970s animated movies and The Love Bug.

Plus our television was an old 13" black and white relic (my dad made a good living but his philosophy was the bare minimum was "good enough") so nothing on TV made much impact on me.

For all those reasons it became my favorite movie at that age.

Then Star Wars arrived...

[Eric Paddon]

Still can't understand why this film has been MIA on Blu-Ray. And there are scenes that were cut that should have been put back in, most critically a scene between Bridges and Lange in the bar which basically makes the point that if Kong were to die there could never be anything between the two of them (which explains why at film's end there is no happy reunion between the two).

I have the long NBC two-part airing from 1978 (I actually remember switching to Part 2 after the first hour of the debut of "Battlestar Galactica" because I wanted to see the finish and then Jimmy Cater and Camp David kept me from doing that!). A lot of other material they put in is just filler stuff to extend scenes like the arrival on the island etc. The Main Title music gets a reprise as well for the scene establishing Kong in captivity in the tanker which I think does work better than the theatrical cut.

[BobaMike]

I also think the 70's Kong has a bad rap- the Barry score alone makes it worth watching, and the cinematography is great. It's a unique take on the Kong story, and miles ahead of the Peter Jackson snooze-fest.

Those John Berkley posters are amazing.

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[AndyDursin]

The TV cut also uses an interesting alternate cue of John Barry's (also on the FSM 2-CD release) when they reach the island for the first time. That 3-hour TV cut really is bloated to a degree neither "Superman" nor "The Deep" were, which may be why the overseas Blu-Ray & DVD releases only included 16 minutes of discarded scenes in the extra features.

Still can't understand why this film has been MIA on Blu-Ray

It never showed up in widescreen on laserdisc either -- which is strange also. Time after time Paramount has had an opportunity to use a natural tie-in to get this out on Blu-Ray, be it the release of the Peter Jackson movie, or a couple of years ago with KONG SKULL ISLAND, and it weirdly never happened.

The only thing I wonder is if there's some kind of licensing they have to do that places this down the priority scale -- even though Paramount has the North American distribution, is there something in the contract of this where Universal who owns the King Kong character gets some part of it? (Note they couldn't use the "King" name in KONG SKULL ISLAND because of Universal).

I mean, you release a flop like THE TWO JAKES on Blu-Ray in 2020 and not KING KONG? Something doesn't add up.

At any rate there are no shortages of Blu-Rays available literally everywhere around the world since DeLaurentiis owned it outside the U.S. (and Studio Canal now does). Many of them are region-free. I just picked this limited-edition Brazilian import up a few days ago -- might get it in 2022, but here's hoping!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40-OFF-King-Ko ... SwyiZfoarp

[Eric Paddon]

The TV cut also uses an interesting alternate cue of John Barry's (also on the FSM 2-CD release) when they reach the island for the first time. That 3-hour TV cut really is bloated to a degree neither "Superman" nor "The Deep" were, which may be why the overseas Blu-Ray & DVD releases only included 16 minutes of discarded scenes in the extra features.

Basically those are the only "scenes" of import there are (one of them, which shows the irate Petrox Chairman firing Wilson after Kong escapes was cut because once the film was re-edited in previews to imply Wilson getting stomped it no longer had any relevance though even without that, the idea of the chairman stopping amidst the chaos of everyone fleeing to lecture Wilson came off as silly). Everything else is indeed just padding. I think they replay Kong going down the streets of Manhattan several times before he reaches the WTC and they may even replay the scene where he destroys one helicopter to make it look like he destroys two.

Of course if it had been a Universal film we would have probably seen some insignificant characters brought back to shoot new scenes for the occasion!

Semple's script is not available from Script City but apparently it was published in paperback form when the movie came out (there couldn't be a novelization because of the exclusivity of the old Lovelace novelization of the 1933 film) and I just ordered a used copy. It should reveal the original preview cut version in full.

[mkaroly]

BobaMike, that first poster on your post is the one I was obsessed with...I would stare at the newspaper print of it for what seemed like hours. I love that poster!

[BobaMike]

BobaMike, that first poster on your post is the one I was obsessed with...I would stare at the newspaper print of it for what seemed like hours. I love that poster!

Me too!

I'm a middle school art teacher, and I always use those Kong posters as examples when we talk about perspective. Also his Towering Inferno poster

[AndyDursin]

Thought it was worth spinning this off into a separate thread!

I came across the Bo Goldman final draft for the unproduced Universal LEGEND OF KONG at Archive.org -- haven't read it but fans have always wondered what that movie was supposed to entail. Turns out aside from the '30s setting the film wasn't apparently that different than the DeLaurentiis movie's plot, though you can see for yourself there. Peter Falk was set up to play Carl Denham with Joseph Sargent directing. Susan Blakely was lined up for Ann with names like Nick Nolte thrown around for Jack. The UNMADE KONG book I picked up at Amazon also claims Universal had licensed Max Steiner's score for use in the film (?).

Here's Goldman's script:

https://archive.org/details/LegendOfKin ... nprod.Scan


KING KONG (2005)
7/10

Thought I'd revisit this one since we've been talking about the different versions -- and really I felt my original review from 15 years ago was pretty much on-target. I admit the flaws in this movie have clouded its positive elements the more distanced I've become from it, and I picked up the 4K UHD again to give it a fresh look (as it turns out, you're better off watching the Blu-Ray, as the UHD's brightness levels are absurdly aggressive and borderline unwatchable at times).

In short, I'd stick with my review from 2005 -- there ARE some great sequences I had forgotten about. The material on the island with the dinosaurs was great, the film is lovingly made, the homages to the '33 film show the obvious affection Jackson had for the movie. I didn't mind Naomi Watts or Adrien Brody -- I just wish more of a focus was put on them, which is inexcusable for a movie that drifts for over 3 hours.

The problem is that Jackson didn't take sufficient time to craft the screenplay. Even though he was going to make the movie in 1996 before the plug was pulled late in the game (in a version more like THE MUMMY with lots of "action humor"), this reconfigured script still needed more work. They rushed into production before RETURN OF THE KING was even finished, and the screenplay shows the biggest issues that were never overcome:

-Too much time on the boat
-Too much time with the Captain, his 1st mate, and the kid from Billy Elliot, who has no pay off in the plot
-Not enough time focusing on Jack and Ann's relationship
-Poor articulation of Denham's character, who nearly veers into villain territory (and essentially does), but Jackson didn't want to go there
-The "Natives" are very poorly articulated and the entire sequence with them attacking the landing party is probably the worst in the movie -- the editorial work is poor, the violence is ramped up, and the entire way he portrays them (if they're so "ill" how are they fed?) made no sense. They looked like LOTR refugees.

In hindsight, I almost felt like Jackson's best bet on this project was to make a SKULL ISLAND movie. Maybe a prequel -- maybe a fresh story. 2/3 of this film is basically set on Skull Island as it is, he nails the big set-pieces there and the film works best in those moments. And Kong IS superbly articulated, even if not all of the CGI has dated well (some of the water compositing is downright mediocre).

But the love story just doesn't come off, and the lack of focus for a movie THAT long -- it's a problem. In fact I still had to spread this film out over a couple of days, it's very difficult to watch in one sitting.

Overall the 76 picture is much more focused and entertaining for me, even if I acknowledge there are some good moments in Jackson's movie -- the evocation of '30s NYC is believable and attractively portrayed -- but they're surrounded by a lot of unnecessary and/or poor sequences that needed cutting...plus missing components in the development of the three lead roles that should've been worked out before production began.

[Eric Paddon]

I have the Goldman script and what I recall is that they have Denham flying one of the planes at the end shooting pictures of Kong and he gets killed when Kong swats his plane down. That was to set up Fay Wray doing an end of film cameo to give the "Beauty killed the beast" line (an idea that survived all the way to Jackson's script until Fay died before she could get approached to do it, though that meant giving the line back to Denham and it does NOT work for him in that film).