{"id":1834,"date":"2010-12-13T10:53:42","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T15:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2011-01-02T12:49:16","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T17:49:16","slug":"br-king-kong1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1834","title":{"rendered":"BR: King Kong (1933)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent \/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\u00a0\/ DVD Extras: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: Warner Home Video \/ \u00a0Released: September 28, 2010<\/p>\n

Genre: Fantasy \/ Action \/ Simian-Homosapien Romance<\/p>\n

Synopsis: A director’s quest to film an action movie in the jungle yields King Kong, a giant ape that’s captured for touring as the Eighth Wonder of the World.<\/p>\n

Special Features: \u00a0Audio Commentary by visual effrects veterans Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston \/ 7-part documentary: “RKO Production 601: The Making of King Kong, The Eighth Wonder of the World” (2 hours 39 mins.) \/ Original “Creation” test footage with Ray Harryhausen commentary in HD (4:57) \/ “The Lost Spider Pit Sequence” recreation in HD (6:00) \/ 2005 TCM documentary: “I\u2019m King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper”(57:02) \/ 1938 theatrical reissue trailer \/ 33-page Digibook with liner notes by film historian Rudy Behlmer<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Preamble<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of 2010, King Kong<\/strong> is 77 years old, and its central story, of a large ape taken from its natural habitat and exploited to cruel lengths by media-mad megalomaniac Carl Denham, still stirs up raw emotions of pity, fear, and anger in viewers by the time the film reaches its tragic finale.<\/p>\n

Technically, King Kong<\/strong> doesn\u2019t exist \u2013 he\u2019s a stop-motion puppet \u2013 but everything in the film is nearly perfect because the instincts of every creative technician crafted the world\u2019s first sympathetic character out of special effects, and the repercussions of this milestone continue to influence filmmakers today.<\/p>\n

The semi-comedic ingredients in the 1976 remake misguidedly satirized the archetypes of the original \u2013 great white explorer\/oil magnate Fred Wilson (comedian Charles Grodin), determined to conquer & profitably exploit the mighty beast; blonde bimbo\/wannabe actress “Dwan” (Jessica Lang); and hero\/environmental activist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) \u2013 and ruined the few efforts to dramatize the unlikely love affair between a woman and a big ape (played by Rick Baker in an otherwise remarkably expressive monkey suit).<\/p>\n

Peter Jackson\u2019s 2005 remake was an earnest effort in nostalgia, but Jackson\u2019s decision to play up the romanticism of Denham\u2019s great white hunter persona, interpolate thirties-styled characters (like gratingly clich\u00e9d ship lad Jimmy), expand the drama\u2019s scope with backstories on Darrow and Denham, and add longer bonding scenes between beauty and beast in New York City yielded a 3.5 hour film steeped in a pungent blend of reverence and directorial excess.<\/p>\n

The \u201933 version is perfect, and its structure and characters are straightforward, the plotting is lean and tightly paced, and the buildup towards Kong\u2019s first onscreen appearance is still a thrilling combination of skilled filmmaking and showmanship. And yet the making-of details in the disc\u2019s commentary and featurettes reveal King Kong<\/strong> is also the result of perfect timing.<\/p>\n

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Beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Invigorated by the creative success of The Lost World<\/strong> (1925), animator Willis O\u2019Brien was struggling with his next venture, an epic tale called Creation<\/strong> (1931), which had elaborately conceived creature sequences for a world where humans become trapped during a terrible seas storm.<\/p>\n

The film was over-budget and production was creeping slowly after its first year when co-producer\/co-director\/co-writer Merian C. Cooper thought O\u2019Brien\u2019s skills would be better used to realize the producer’s own creature project, a big ape movie every studio exec turned down, except for RKO\u2019s David O. Selznick.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s idea was initially hashed out by prolific novelist Edgar Wallace, but the script needed a major overhaul from Ruth Rose, a novice screenwriter who re-orchestrated events to create the film\u2019s perfect progression from an adventure film to mystical journey, action movie, and grand romantic tragedy.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s leading characters were also drawn from real figures: Denham (Robert Armstrong), patterned after Cooper, often spouts dialogue attributed to the adventurous producer\/director; love interest\/hero Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) was inspired by the less flamboyant co-producer\/co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack; and Darrow (Fay Wray) was a riff on the prima donna Marguerite Harrison, the journalist who appeared in the Cooper-Schoedsack documentary Grass: A Nation\u2019s Battle for Life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Some of the more thrilling sequences \u2013 the men falling from a log shaken by Kong, and the stegosaurus attack \u2013 were appropriated from O\u2019Brien\u2019s Creation<\/strong> scenario, as well as the animator\u2019s use of multiple planes that incorporated live, animated, and painted components to create realistic shots where live action and stop-motion effects characters interact.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s own exploits of jungle exploration, his interaction with unique cultures, and his sense of adventurism were worked into the scenes where Denham and his film crew arrive at the island, and are determined to film Darrow among the natives for a docu-drama spectacular, Also rolled into ther mix was Coooper\u2019s keen interests in wild things (and particularly primates), which ensured Kong would be realized as a mighty beast, wild and totally at odds with the civilized world of man.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Cooper\u2019s giant ape movie stemmed from his fascination in reading a case where giant komodo dragons always died when they were snatched and brought back for breeding in captivity. The idea of a wild thing struggling to survive in an alien world made up the film\u2019s finale & lone moral comment, and it further enhanced the romance between Kong and Darrow, even though she remains fearful of the beast and the romance is always from Kong\u2019s perspective: he\u2019s fascinated and taken by a pretty living thing, calmed by her neatness, and devastated when Darrow disappears \u2013 a dramatized behavior that echoes the documented joy \/ sadness when Koko<\/a> the linguistically learned gorilla lost her beloved cat<\/a> in the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n

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The Big Monkey is Real<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, the reason Kong is a compelling character stems from O\u2019Brien\u2019s amazing focus on movements, reactions and behaviour adapted from real animals. The most-oft cited example is the T-Rex fight where Kong plays with the dead lizard\u2019s jaw before he\u2019s confident the dangerous threat has been neutralized. It\u2019s an extraordinary behavioral detail among many which distinguish the film from subsequent imitations (if not menacing apes consisting of men in monkey suits).<\/p>\n

Every moment Kong is onscreen is treated as real: the snake attack in the caves, fiddling with Darrow\u2019s clothes, anger when Driscoll attempts to whisk her away from a dangerous cliff, and Kong’s earnest but misguided desire to spend a few moments with Darrow on the Empire State Building, away from the masses of humans who just want him dead.<\/p>\n

The anguish the giant ape feels as he realizes he\u2019s been lethally shot by biplanes and can\u2019t hold or look at Darrow any longer is the film\u2019s singularly devastating emotional hit, and his tumble from the building is almost unwatchable \u2013 a remarkable achievement considering the film\u2019s effects have been eclipsed by sophisticated CGI.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s skill went beyond the technical, and Kong remains a superb creation because in addition to cradting natrural movements, the animator also kept in mind where his creation had to be emotionally throughout the film. When Denham gasses the ape and Kong tumbles out cold onto the beach, ready to be hauled off to civilization, O\u2019Brien didn\u2019t just position the puppet to lie there unconscious: its entire body is laid out to evoke sympathy because it\u2019s a wounded creature, and a now powerless majestic ape, with its jaw open, eyelids locked in a fixed, pained position, and limp arms no longer expressing the creature\u2019s physical might and pride.<\/p>\n

That image \u2013 filmed only from the shoulders up \u2013 is also replicated in the end scene when Kong lies dead on the city street, surrounded by press, curious onlookers, and Denham, although Kong\u2019s placed much closer to the foreground, further emphasizing the tragedy.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s intriguing about this final scene is how the famous line Denham quips to the media \u2013”It was beauty killed the beast\u201d \u2013 is deflated by O\u2019Brien\u2019s still creature. Kong\u2019s pain and sense of humiliation is blatantly frozen on the ape puppet\u2019s sad visage, and while the writers may have doodled the quasi-poetic quip as the final statement for the benefit of audiences, O\u2019Brien\u2019s final work turns the oft-quoted line into an offence: most audiences probably walked out feeling thrilled by the movie\u2019s adventure and effects, but those taken by Kong the character felt outrage. To Kong\u2019s fans, Denham was an asshole, and he deserved to be clocked in the head \u2013 an intense reaction Cooper probably hadn\u2019t intended beyond the moral message of ‘respect nature, and leave well enough alone.’<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s 2005 version of Denham (via camera-mugging Jack Black) is tough to digest because the character was redrawn as an egomaniacal arse responsible for the deaths of many<\/em> men during their attempts to rescue Darrow; Jackson augmented Denham\u2019s most loathsome characteristics, whereas in the 1976 version, screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and actor Charles Grodin played their Denham variation as a buffoon.<\/p>\n

Robert Armstrong\u2019s portrayal of Denham is the least offensive because unlike the later variations, he\u2019s still the most believable as an adventurer capable of tackling sudden bursts of violence (dinosaurs) or aggressive villages who could at any moment launch a stream of spears at the island\u2019s arrogant invaders. He\u2019s a team leader who can bluff his way out of a village with natives ready to follow a kill order from a chief pissed off that the pompous white man refused to trade the blonde Darrow for the ultimate Kong offering; Grodin\u2019s variation\u2019s a goofball, and Black\u2019s Denham\u2019s a loudmouth worthy of a knuckle sandwich.<\/p>\n

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Extras & Extras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warner Home Video\u2019s Blu-ray replicates the contents of the 2005 2-disc DVD, and like the label\u2019s The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/strong> (1938), Gone with the Wind<\/strong> (1939), and The Wizard of Oz<\/strong> (1939), this special edition isn\u2019t just loaded \u2013 it\u2019s packed with extras that are equally educational for film buffs and historians alike.<\/p>\n

The 7-part documentary runs over 2 hours and covers every major component of the production, including the development and abandonment of O\u2019Brien\u2019s Creation<\/strong>, the simultaneous filming of Cooper and Schoedsack\u2019s The Most Dangerous Game<\/strong> (which made use of several Kong<\/strong> sets as well as actors), Max Steiner\u2019s ground-breaking score, and the amazing sound work by pioneering sound designer Murray Spivak, whose later sound work included Spartacus<\/strong> (1960), Cleopatra<\/strong> (1963), and Tora! Tora! Tora!<\/strong> (1970).<\/p>\n

Surviving sections of Creation<\/strong> appear outside of the doc (in HD, with Ray Harryhausen’s wry commentary), and there\u2019s a also recreation of Creation<\/strong> using surviving drawings and narration, but B-movie fans may notice a weird similarity between O’Brien\u2019s aborted project and Jerry Warren\u2019s grade-Z idiocy, The Incredible Petrified World<\/strong> (1957).<\/p>\n

Creation<\/strong> has a group of rich snots rescued from their sinking yacht by a Chilean submarine. The craft gets lost, but the group eventually escape to an underground world inhabited by dinosaurs. Realizing there\u2019s no way back, remaining supplies are taken from the sub, and the group set up a permanent home in their new world. Not unlike Jules Verne\u2019s Journey to the Center of the Earth<\/strong>, they\u2019re forced to flee when a volcano threatens to destroy the hidden world, and sends them running. In Warren\u2019s riff, the crew from diving bell get lost, and discover an underground cave system with prehistoric creatures (well, one<\/em>: a lizard). After making trips to re-supply themselves from the stranded diving bell, they set up a permanent home, only to be threatened by an ersatz caveman, and an exploding volcano that sends them running.<\/p>\n

Also noted in the 7-part documentary are the edits made by the studio for the film\u2019s 1938 re-release to appease censors. Removed were the film\u2019s still-shocking violence, and little bits of naughty monkey behaviour, including the infamous \u2018sniffing dress\u2019 scene, and Kong\u2019s dropping an innocent woman to her death.<\/p>\n

The violence was created during a pre-Code era, so it\u2019s unsurprising prudish censors wanted shots of humans getting stomped on, chomped to death, or flailed to death removed for the benefit of kiddies and conservative audiences. The footage was eventually found in a beautiful print in Britain, and the restored scenes provide needed contrast, reinforcing Kong as a wild animal – hence his curiosity for half-naked Darrow, his primal rage, and capability to kill without hesitation \u2013 as in the brutal village attack.<\/p>\n

More intriguing is a chapter in the doc devoted to the lost spider pit sequence where the men who fell from the log are killed by various creatures. Deleted because it stopped the film dead in its tracks, all that remains are a few stills and the original script, but that proved more than enough for Peter Jackson and his effects crew at WETA, because they recreated the sequence using vintage stop-motion techniques on their off days during the production of the 2005 Kong<\/strong> remake.<\/p>\n

This amazing effort (seen in the doc as well as a standalone extra in HD) is part film archeology and fan-edit, but the results perfectly capture the essence of the lost sequence, with its strong violence. What\u2019s ironic is how Jackson created his own version of the bug attack in his remake, and while technically brilliant, the gross bug assault goes on for an eternity, and as happened in the ’33 version, it stops the film cold.<\/p>\n

Also addressed in the doc are the creature models, and the visual design of the film, with exquisitely composed glass paintings, models, and sequences designed to be immersive for the audience. Perhaps the most clever trick has Kong grabbing a hunt early into his village rampage on the island, and throwing the model into the air, after which a real hut comes crashing down in the foreground with live actors. O\u2019Brien repeats this effect several times in the new York City rampage, breaking the barrier between models and practical effects.<\/p>\n

The last area of importance is Merian Cooper himself, a man with multiple lives who was a combat pilot in WW1, documentary filmmaker, studio exec, writer-producer-director, and visionary for supporting 3-strip Technicolor (such as the format\u2019s first feature-length film, Becky Sharp<\/strong>) as well as co-supporting Cinerama, which inaugurated the second (and enduring) widescreen film revolution.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s given a separate showcase in the TCM doc I\u2019m King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper<\/strong> (2005), which functions as a natural appendix to the main doc because of the shared interview subjects, and film footage. Directed by Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird, the doc is graced with many rare stills and film clips, and features a rich orchestral score by Carl Davis. (Note to blimp fans: the doc also includes rare footage of a Goodyear blimp \/ dirigible coming for an approach to moor at the peak of the Empire State Building<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Lastly, there\u2019s the Kong <\/strong>reissue trailer, and a feature-length commentary track with visual effects whizzes Ray Harryhausen (who worked with O\u2019Brien on The<\/strong> Son of Kong<\/strong> and Mighty Joe Young<\/strong>) and Ken Ralston (Star Wars<\/strong>, Dragonslayer<\/strong>, Who Framed Roger Rabbit<\/strong>). The two maintain a candid conversation that adds slightly different information on the film\u2019s effects and O\u2019Brien’s legacy and impact. Archival audio excerpts from interviews with Wray and Cooper appear once in a while, but they don\u2019t really add much, and the Cooper extracts have the same low volume audio as the related clips used in the I\u2019m King Kong!<\/strong> doc.<\/p>\n

When King Kong<\/strong> was originally released by WHV in 2005, it was available in a boxed set with the aforementioned O\u2019Brien films, available separately in a standard DVD alpha case, and in a tin with a 20-page reproduction of the 1933 souvenir program, postcards, and a mail-in offer for a King Kong<\/strong> poster.<\/p>\n

The BR edition replicates the DVD contents, and the Digibook packaging includes a 33-page booklet with art, stills, and narrative of the film\u2019s production by Rudy Behlmer. Pity the tin extras weren\u2019t included as PDF files (or for that matter, a new isolated score track of Steiner\u2019s music with music historian commentary), but this BR is a must-have for the film\u2019s fans, sporting a crisp transfer with clean mono sound. Spivak\u2019s effects are beautifully detailed, and Steiner\u2019s music remains largely absent until the ship gets lost in the fog, signaling the film\u2019s shift to fantastical thriller.<\/p>\n

Far Wray\u2019s other action and thriller films include Dirigible<\/strong> (1931), the 2-strip Technicolor shockers Doctor X<\/strong> (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum<\/strong> (1933), The Most Dangerous Game <\/strong>(1932), and The Vampire Bat<\/strong> (1933). Robert Armstrong also appeared in Cooper and Schoedsack\u2019s The Most Dangerous Game<\/strong> with Wray, and The Son of Kong<\/strong> (1933).<\/p>\n

Cooper and Schoedsack\u2019s pre-King Kong<\/strong> documentaries are very much worth tracking down for their energy, snappy pacing, exotica, and elements that would be folded into King Kong<\/strong>. The pair\u2019s key films are Grass: A Nation\u2019s Battle for Life<\/strong> (1925), Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness<\/strong> (1927) with its early widescreen Magnascope process in the finale, Gow the Head Hunter<\/strong> (1928) The Four Feathers<\/strong> and Ra-Mu<\/strong> (both 1929), and Rango<\/strong> (1931).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2010 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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Related external links (MAIN SITE):<\/em><\/p>\n

DVD \/ Film: \u00a0Adventures of Robin Hood, The<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>(1938) — <\/strong>Becky Sharp<\/a> <\/strong>(1935) —Cinerama Adventure<\/a> <\/strong>(2002) —\u00a0Dirigible<\/strong> <\/a>(1931) — <\/strong>Dragonslayer <\/a><\/strong>(1981) <\/strong>Gone with the Wind<\/a><\/strong> (1939) — <\/strong>Incredible Petrified World, The<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>(1957) — <\/strong>Journey to the Center of the Earth<\/a> <\/strong>(1959) \u2014\u00a0Mighty Joe Young<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>(1949)\u00a0— <\/strong>Mystery of the Wax Museum<\/a><\/strong> (1933) \u2014\u00a0Son of Kong<\/a><\/strong> (1933)<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buy from: <\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/strong> – King Kong [Blu-ray Book]<\/a> – King Kong (Two-Disc Special Edition)<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/strong> –\u00a0King Kong [Blu-ray]<\/a> — King Kong (Two-Disc Special Edition)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em><\/em><\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of 2010, King Kong is 77 years old, and its central story, of a large ape taken from its natural habitat and exploited to cruel lengths by media-mad megalomaniac Carl Denham, still stirs up raw emotions of pity, fear, and anger in viewers by the time the film reaches its tragic finale…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[206,211,204,208,205,210,209,207],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-tA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1834"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2100,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834\/revisions\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}