Thursday, November 03, 2005

[DVD] King Kong (1976)

This movie is as old as I am, but it's not the original. Yes you heard me right. The original big gorilla debut in 1933. and this is a remake. Unless you've been residing in Mars, you'll also know that Peter Jackson will be adapting King Kong for the big screen for a release next month, and thank heavens it's closely based on the original.

While this film also adapts from the same source material by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, it has taken certain liberties and artistic license to change some character backgrounds and premise. For example, the film crew has been replaced with oil prospectors, and the blonde lass doesn't start off the journey with the team, but actually plucked out unconscious from the sea, an actress wannabe who didn't enjoy Deep Throat (don't ask). Gone too is the iconic scene atop the Empire States Building, now Kong scales the World Trade Center and hops between the two towers (alas, September 11 changed it all).

However, this movie still retained much of the story's structure - team ventures into island, chances upon island inhabitants, inhabitants kidnap blonde lass as a sacrifice to the great Kong, the beauty and the beast sequence, the capture of Kong, bringing him back to New York, and all hell breaks loose.

Just not quite. This Kong is quite benign in nature, and only goes berserk when jealousy makes him go on a rampage against those trying to prise his lass away from him. The effects look dated if you watch them today, and the animatronics probably made a giant ape hand - that's the only mechanical limb you get to see up close, the rest can be figured as a man in a rubber suit, captured using various techniques to achieve the desired proportions for size. Don't go scrutinizing the plot too, as there are gaping loopholes, and plenty of minor characters. Oh, Singapore's mentioned a lot of times in the first twenty minutes, as the ship crew navigates from Surabaya, Indonesia en route to looking for oil.

Starring a very young and very hairy Jeff Bridges in the role of a professor / ape expert, this movie is probably famous for introducing a very nubile Jessica Lange in her first feature film. She could be considered as the Jessica Simpson of that era, having prancing around the island in hot pants and tank tops, various strapless gowns and in wet island garb, which gave way to a wardrobe malfunction when Kong molested her with its finger (don't ask - the ape's probably horny too).

So while awaiting Peter Jackson's masterpiece, why not get your hands on this adapted classic too? Good for compare, contrast, but don't go bananas over this one if it doesn't meet your expectations.

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