King Kong was a name that resonated in the imagination of movie fans for decades. The incredible magic of Willis O'Brien and his crew alongside the savvy movie making talents of so many others created a special event, one seen now and again over the decades on re-release and usually to ever more popularity than before. So I guess a revised King Kong was inevitable. Dino DeLaurentis was a producer sometimes bigger than life and often more impressive than his movies. He by most reports was a dynamic fellow eager to see things get done. So when he got the nod to remake the classic movie he sought the most efficient way to do it. The magic of stop motion was not his way.
After the surrealistic magic of the original, it seems downright strange to try and evoke its memory with a man in a suit, even if that man is renowned simian make-up artist Rick Baker. And then there was the giant robot which like the shark in Jaws almost worked. There are things about the 1976 King Kong that I like. Using an oil company as the initiator of the trip to Skull Island was smart in a decade marked by fuel woes.
The cast isn't anything to go crazy over, but Jessica Lange is a worthy replacement for Fay Wray even if her ditsy character of "Dwan" might not be all that sympathetic. Jeff Bridges is good at times and absolutely awful in the finale when he actively roots for human beings to be killed by Kong. I get that Kong was not responsible for his situation but neither were the troops in those helicopters that cause such glee. It made ache when I first saw the movie and still does today.
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Michael Medved, in one of his Golden Turkey books, referred to Jessica Lange as "the forner, and future, model" - years later, he apologized for that remark, after Lange won two Oscars!
ReplyDeleteThe hype machine was on for Dino's Kong, with merchandise like King Kong peanut butter cups, no threat to Reese! And George Jones recorded one of his worst songs: "Old King Kong was just a little monkey compared to my love for you..."
It's remarkable indeed that Lange is not just remembered for this movie. It was a potential career killer but everyone escaped unscathed, unlike those poor mopes on Skull Island. And I'd forgotten that Jones song -- completely! It does suck doesn't it -- listening to it right now.
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Frankly, I think you may have shown the best things about the movie right here - those pieces of pre-production artwork by John Berkey.
ReplyDeleteI love these powerful images and you are right -- nothing in the movie approaches the intensity.
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I remember watching this movie as a young boy and being utterly terrified of the scene where Kong fights and kills the only other kaiju in the movie, the giant snake.
ReplyDeleteYears later, I rented Kong '76 from Blockbuster... and when I got to the snake-killing scene, I was shocked by how fake and cheap the snake looked , especially compared to the obviously expensive and sophisticated Kong costume. It was like being scared by a shadow in the night, then seeing it's just a coatrack in the daylight.
Over the years, I have developed a certain appreciation for this movie... but nothing will ever equal the terror of my childhood memory.