[Vision2020] King Kong Review

[Robert Dickow]

Chasuk has done a very good review of King Kong. And here are some of my
additions, with asides:

The length of the movie was a problem for me. More precisely, it was the
'tempo' of the movie. The RKO classic of 1933 had a zippy, 'seat of your
pants' tempo that really helped make that movie work. It's not the length of
the movie that's the problem. It's the tempo. Jackson's Kong reminded me of
the drawing-out-of-time feeling you get in a typical Stanley Kubrick film.
Heck, I can take long movies if the other ingredients work well. But even in
Kubrick, you can buy into it (except maybe in 2001-A Space Odyssey), but not
so well in Jackson.

I loved the "back references!" Early in the film, Denom and friend are
brainstorming who Denom might get to star in his film, and runs through all
the greats. Lastly, "Faye might do it" ... "No, she's already working on a
film with RKO"... obviously a reference to Faye Wray, the original Anne. I
chuckled at that, and evidently I was the only one in the theater who caught
that one. And there are some direct quotes too from Max Steiner's original
score. Some of the most impressive moments are the orchestral fanfares and
curtain-openings in the New York theater where Kong is on show. The composer
of the recent film knew there was no substitute for these passages of
Steiner's. The 33 King Kong, by the way, was one of the first talking films
to have a full-length symphonic score composed for it.

Now, for a real treat, go rent that N. De Lorentis King Kong-- just for the
amusing contrast. See Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange in this one, with a
score by John Barry(!). Actually just a couple of luscious tunes by John
Barry. But this rather cheezy Kong-- which does NOT try to slavishly clone
the plot à la Jackson-- is less about the love between Kong and Anne as it
is about slighting the oil industry and all the other 20th Century ills of
society and technology. There isn't much hi-tech special effects in that
one, it's fairly low budget. There is one hillarious scene in which Kong
(actually a guy in an ape suit) makes goony faces while teasing Jessica
Lange's costume off. I was quite disappointed to see that Jessica Lange's
costume never fully comes off, but it comes close. There are some poignant
moments though, in the De Lorentis film, especially when we find our beloved
Kong penned up in the empty cargo hold of a huge oil tanker bound for the
states. And then of course there is the finale: Kong climbs up the World
Trade Center building and is attacked by Apache helicopters.

Bob Dickow, erstwhile film critic

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Chasuk
This isn't Peter Jackson's best film, nor is it his worst (which of his
films qualify as "best" and "worst" I'll leave for others to argue).

When you watch this movie, pretend that is a Steven Spielberg for adults.
By this, I mean Steven Spielberg with no maudlin sentimentality, no
blue-aura imbuing anything, no precociously cute kids.  Then notch the
violence up several levels.  I'm not talking about Quentin Tarantino
violence, but 
<snip>