Great actors are not only those that simply display great talent in their roles, but also those who manage to build their careers despite serious impediments. “Oscar”-winning actress Jessica Lange made one such impediment by herself by having her debut screen role so dreadful that it nearly ended her career. Thankfully, that role was in King Kong, 1976 monster epic directed by John Guillermin, a film with more than decent levels of success at box-office.
King Kong is based on eponymous 1933 film directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack, combination of adventure, horror and disaster film which displayed the very pinnacle of early 1930s Hollywood film technology and quickly developed reputation of classic, inspiring many other film makers in the next decades, including Japanese creators of Godzilla. 1976 film faithfully follows the basic plot of the original – expedition comes to remote South Pacific island, finds a giant ape that falls in love with beautiful blonde woman, gets captured and shipped to New York where he gets free and causes mayhem before meeting his end at the top of New York’s tallest building. Script by Lorenzo Semple Jr., however, tries to update the plot for 1970s audience. The expedition to the island is led by Fred Wilson (played by Charles Grodin), ambitious oil company executive convinced that the mysterious island, permanently covered by the veil of fog, holds enough deposits of black gold to make him obscenely rich. Jack Prescott, young primate paleontologist, has secretly embarked on the ship in order to reach the island and confirm semi-mythical accounts about large ape living there. Along the way the ship’s crew rescues Dwan (played by Lange), shipwrecked starlet who miraculously became the sole survivor of yacht explosion. They find the island and its natives who have built large wooden wall to protect the village from something large on the other side. Natives kidnap Dwan and use her as sacrificial “bride” for what turns out to be gigantic ape called Kong. The ape apparently likes horrified woman who is later rescued with the help of Jack. In the meantime, Wilson finds out that there aren’t any oil deposits on the island and the only way to justify expedition is to trap and imprison Kong and later use him for company publicity stunts.
Made as attempt to exploit popularity of Jaws and disaster films, second version of King Kong was produced by Dino de Laurentiis, who managed to provide large budget. It is mostly visible in the spectacular scenes, including those that include special effects by Carlo Rambaldi that were more than decent for its time and even won film’s only “Oscar”. Apart from being superior to 1933 version by being shot in colour instead of black-and-white, new version also features a very good soundtrack by John Barry. But those are, more or less, the only good things that can be said about this film. Semple’s script tries too much to be relevant by stuffing the dialogue with 1970s references like energy crisis, New York urban decay, environmentalism, feminism and even Porno Chic, which would be most likely incomprehensible to audience that doesn’t remember or isn’t familiar with those times. But even worse is the way he handled characters, especially Dwan who is presented as dimwitted bimbo and burdened with truly atrocious dialogue. Prescott, played by young Jeff Bridges, is an interesting character who could have transcend cliches of tree-hugging liberal hippie and whose “wokeness” make him the only one from this film likely to survive purges at today’s Twitter; however, he is terribly underwritten and lacks necessary chemistry with Lange. Even worse is Grodin who simply goes over the top and makes his villainous character, as well as the rest of the film, almost parodic. Although watchable and much better than its infamous 1986 sequel King Kong Lives, this film might give some idea how would today’s superhero films and similar Hollywood blockbusters would look in next fifty years or so.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
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