King Kong: The De Laurentiis Movies (1976–86)

King Kong (1976)

Dir. John Guillermin

The biggest difference between the original 1933 version and the 70s remake is that the latter movie is full colour. It wasn't the first Kong movie to use colour film stock, but it was the first English language one to do so.

The second major difference is that Kong is now a human actor in an ape suit, whereas previously he was a model that had been brought to life by the magic of stop motion animation. It seems as if Hollywood were taking cues from Japan, specifically Toho, who had used the King Kong character in their Godzilla franchise over a decade previously.

Likewise, the impressive scale model landscapes used in the Hollywood version seem to be inspired by Japan's movies. [1]

There's less flaffing around than there was in the 1933 film. The men who sail to Kong's island are already aboard their ship when the movie starts. They pick up the all-important female passenger (Jessica Lange) en route. Luckily for her, the ship of all men evidently has a plentiful supply of ladies' makeup products for her to use.

A giant hairy hand is used to make the difference in scale between the humans and ape more convincing, enabling dramatic responses to be shown in CU with less necessary editing. It must've been an expensive construct; it's used a heck of a lot, as if someone is trying to justify the expense by giving it a maximum amount of screen time. Additionally, there's a respectable level of effort put into characterising Kong as something more than just an angry primate.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers heavily from the 'pretty girl effect', which describes the drop in general intelligence that occurs in the male population when an 'attractive' female stirs amorous feeling in their hearts and loins. In King Kong's case, however, the entire movie periodically drops to levels that are as dumb as shit when Dwan is onscreen. (Yes, Dwan. That's not a typo. I didn't misspell Dawn.) It's not Jessica Lange's fault, it's the script itself; the dialogue she was required to deliver is at times even worse than the men get when in her presence. [2]

The weird love triangle in the script is... well... weird, but the kaijū-esque rampage that results from it is pretty good and once more suggests that Hollywood liked what Toho did previously.

NOTE: Wikipedia mentions that FX wizard Rick Baker is the man in the Kong suit, while Peter 'Optimus Prime' Cullen provides his growls, although both are uncredited.

King Kong Lives (1986)

Dir. John Guillermin

The opening 2:40 mins of KKL repeats the ending of the previous movie, in case you'd forgotten what happened. Or simply hadn't watched the first one, I suppose. I don't know what percentage of movie-goers would willingly watch a sequel without experiencing the previous entry, but I'm sure there's some.

It then leaps forward by about ten years, which is around the same amount of time that had passed between the two productions.

I'm limited in what I can say about the plot, because of spoilers, but anything I could write otherwise would probably sound ridiculous because the plot is very much that, at least in the beginning. And I don't see how it would've seemed any different on paper.

Moving on, then, there's a super-convenient discovery and romance once again has a role to play. There's an amusing but well-meaning dramatic irony that's tethered to one of the things I can't mention, but mostly it drags its heels when Kong isn't onscreen. When he is it's possible to root for him. It's easy to see why it gets such bad reviews, but it did something different to what came before, which is noteworthy.

Hollywood's next King Kong movie was another remake of the original, released in 2005, co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. I considered making a post about it, but it was so piss-poor that I was unable to get past the first 30 minutes. Therefore, this will be the last live action Kong post on the blog. But perhaps not the last post to feature the character.

[1] See my King Kong: The Toho Movies (1962–67) post for more details.

[2] I'm generalising based on how it's most often portrayed in media. Naturally, women can just as easily succumb to the same thing in the presence of someone else. It's not male-exclusive.