King Kong (1976)

"There is a girl out there who might be running for her life from some gigantic turned-on ape."

Updating King Kong for a modern audience was never going to be an easy task, especially not in the 70's.  The original film was lodged in audiences memories for a multitude of reasons, but what endured was the heart and drama of the story, and the truly excellent special effects by stop motion pioneer, Willie O'Brien. Preserving, or indeed, improving upon the soul of the original wouldn't be the hardest task. No, the toughest part of this re-boot was going to fall on the special effects team; just how do you film a giant, "Neither beast nor man" creature in a way that would convince the more 'sophisticated' cinema fans of 1976. The challenge was going to lie in the fact that special effects hadn't really changed all that much in terms of technique since the original film in 1933; there were no computer assisted creations, and it was all going to have to be done 'in camera', meaning either stop motion or animatronics. Would the production team have the creativity and, let's be honest, madness to pull this off?

Believing that there is an island in the ocean hidden under a near permanent cloud bank, greedy executive of the Petrox Oil Company, Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin; Last Resort, Midnight Run, The Couch Trip) heads an expedition to it in the hopes that his infrared imagery is correct, and that it contains a massive, untapped oil field. Lurking on board the ship is the scruffy paleontologist stowaway, Jack Preston (Jeff Bridges; The Last Picture Show, Tron, Starman), hoping that the island contains some new, undiscovered wildlife for him to snap. When Jack is discovered, Fred orders him to be locked up, but en route they spot a lone raft floating in the sea. In it lies the unconscious but beautiful Dwan (Jessica Lange; All That Jazz, Tootsie). Pulling her from the water and letting her recover, Wilson soon realises that Jack is on the level about his claims to who he is, and allows him to stay on board, making him the official photographer of the expedition.

Soon Dwan is awake; it turns out she is an actress, and was on board a directors yacht when it exploded. It doesn't take long for her and Jack to start falling for each other, but soon they arrive at the island. The crew land and discover a primitive tribe of natives living behind a massive wall built near the edge of the island jungle. A wall built to keep them from their terrible god, known only as Kong. The natives don't take too kindly to the intruders; but they are very interested in Dwan. The crew find out the hard way that the oil is useless on the island, but that night, the tribe steal on board the ship and abduct Dwan, tying her up as a sacrifice for their god. Out of the jungle emerges something truly terrifying; a gigantic ape that swiftly grabs Dwan and heads back into the night. The rescue team aren't far behind, though, and make their way past the protective wall around the village. Despite his huge and terrifying appearance, Kong seems to have a heart - he is fascinated with Dwan, seemingly smitten with her. The rescue party soon arrive, most of whom end up dead at the bottom of a ravine after Kong smashes their walk way. 

Jack finally gets hold of Dwan, leading her back to the wall, Kong hot on their heels. Luckily, Fred has built a deep pit in which he plans on capturing Kong, and sure enough, the lumbering beast drops into the hole and is laid unconscious by chloroform. Wilson plans to recoup his expenses by displaying Kong around the world, and begins in New York some months later. You can never truly tame a wild beast, though, and soon Kong is loose in the Big Apple, trampling anyone who'll get in the way of his search for Dwan...

If you've seen the original 1933 film, you can probably tell that, despite a few changes to characters and reasons for getting to the island, it's pretty faithful to the source material. Kong still escapes from the exhibition in New York, and still climbs the skyscraper, fending off bullets with the leading lady in hand. There are enough changes and updates to keep you interested though. The characters are written and played quite likable; from the happy-go-lucky Jack to the ditsy Dwan - even the obvious villain in the guise of Oil tycoon Wilson is never as horrible as he could be, despite the best sneers that Charles Grodin brings to the role, and to be honest, I'm glad they went down this road. What we get instead of the obvious 'good versus evil' is something that feels a bit more like an old fashioned adventure. The running time breezes by and you are never left feeling forced along for the ride here; all the characters are big, colourful and entertaining - Kong included. And when watching an action/adventure/fantasy of this type, that's exactly what you want.

But there are some problems here and there. Firstly, the way Dwan is discovered on the raft just seems rather silly - and this is an issue that script writer Lorenzo Semple, Jr. addresses in his prefix to the original screenplay. He acknowledges that it doesn't seem likely, but argues that as the film is a fantasy, what does it matter? This problem then extends into the character of Dwan itself, originally written to be an intellectual camera operator, she was then changed to the new age, trippy dippy character we now have in the finished film, much against producer Dino De Laurentiis' wishes. There were quite a few back-and-forth's with the script during pre-production, and in this part, I think it shows. Many reviewers of the film tend to single Jessica Lange out, with accusations of a 'terrible performance' usually levelled against her. In fact, I think she did a fantastic job here, as we know Lange really isn't as unintelligent in real life as she portrayed Dwan. Blame the script, not the actress. Her character just seems so dumb though, and it's hard to figure Jack falling for her in anything but a purely sexual fashion (which is usually the giant ape's job). But hey, it's an adventure film, so we won't nail it to the cross for these issues.

The other bone of contention for many reviewers is the special effects. As mentioned earlier, technology had only advanced so far in the 40 years between the original and remake, and the decision was made to build a giant, 40 foot animatronic Kong, which would be used for the majority of the shoot. This was to be created by special effects legend, Carlo Rambaldi, who worked on films such as Alien and E.T. A Kong suit was also prepared by soon-to-be-huge effects man, Rick Baker; this suit was designed to fit Baker himself, and would only be used in specific shots. Sadly, things didn't pan out this way. The giant animatronic just wouldn't work; the scale would have been just too big for what they wanted in those days, and it became an endless money pit that ends up getting less than 60 seconds worth of screen time. Those few shots we see it in are stiff, lifeless. So in stepped Baker and the suit, which ended up being used in majority of shots in the film. In fairness, Rambaldi and Baker both worked on it, so they really do deserve the credit. By using an actor instead of either animatronics or stop motion, they managed to bring a certain life to Kong, both in expression and movement. Sure, it's a guy in a suit, but I think the facial expression more than makes up for it. The giant animatronic hands that are frequently used are surprisingly emotive, and these shots match up perfectly with Baker's performance. The miniature sets look excellent, too, especially in the latter scenes. And even though the use of scale models and blue screen was still in effect, the techniques had become much more sophisticated, allowing for great immersion for the audience.

While the effects are plentiful and usually spectacular, I can't help but feel we got a bit of a raw deal in terms of what could have been. Allegedly, due to the spiralling cost of the animatronic full Kong, they had to cut out the budget for other creatures that were going to inhabit the island, to echo the original film and the prehistoric beasts that battle it out there. It's a pity, as all we get is Kong wrestling with a giant snake, which is never as exciting as it could have been. Despite its 20 million dollar budget, it really was a troubled production. Nevertheless, director John Guillermin does a nice job with it, and the film feels 'BIG'. John Barry's excellent score helps greatly, bringing a touch of class to the whole picture. The performances are fine throughout, with Bridges charming his way through the film and seemingly enjoying every minute of it. Lange, as I said, is solid, even if the script lets her down. It's testament to how great and under-appreciated she is as an actress, but even when given little but a skimpy pair of cut-off shorts and no bra under her wet shirt, she still manages to shine. Grodin is great, as always. Fans of Rene Auberjonois will be happy to see his face popping up here, too!

The film met with seriously mixed reviews, and still holds a 50/50 split with fans of this sort of thing, but despite this, the movie made a ton of cash, both at the box office and in TV sales. Myself? I loved it as a kid, then when watching it again in my late teens found I the film held little for me. I hated Lange and the monster suit. But watching it now, I can understand it a bit more and appreciate it for the rough fun that it is. In the end, we still get a solid Kong film, here. It's entertaining, it has the emotions we want and expect from the climax, and I don't feel it tries too hard to achieve this. The ending is definitely brutal, with the helicopters really tearing poor old Kong to shreds, ensuring not a dry eye in the house by the time he plummets to the concrete below. But worry not kids! Because didn't you know?! King Kong Lives! Well, according to Dino De Laurentiis, anyway. Tune in next time to see just how they revived him nearly a decade later, in a much less loved film than this...