Return of the king
Lord
of the Rings director Peter Jackson revisits 1933 horror classic
Darius
Kadivar
January 11, 2006
iranian.com
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King Kong © United International Pictures
(UIP)
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"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And
it stayed its hands from killing. And from that day, it was as
one dead." - Old Arabian Proverb- Opening for King
Kong
What makes a movie Great ? Nothing would be more biased
than trying to answer this question. Film History is filled with
great movies, but rarely does critical acclaim and box office success
get along. There may be some justice in this assessment after all.
It takes years to become a Cecile B. DeMille, Steven Spielberg,
George Lucas or Alfred Hitchcock, all of whom gained fame and critical
recognition in the long run. Peter Jackson has been quite lucky
on this front. His visually stunning screen trilogy adaptation
of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's novel Lord of the Rings was
saluted with a flood of Oscar awards and nominations. More disturbing
for George Lucas' SFX company Industrial
Light and Magic is that Jackson's Big Primate Production is
shifting Hollywood's focus on New Zealand as the leading Special
Effects El Dorado. His latest film King Kong proves this
point if needed. It is not only a remake of the 1933
classic film made by film pioneers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest
Schoedsack but a tribute to one of the most lasting legends in
film history. All the more remarkable is that it is the result
of more than 30 years of stamina (and weight loss: 70 lbs. during
the production ) by a director, who as a child, discovered his
vocation watching the RKO classic on TV.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of introducing the film debut
of King Kong's creator Merian C. Cooper whose very first film was
shot in Iran in 1925 (See Zardeh
Kuh to King Kong).
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Left to right : Merian C. Cooper, Marguerite Harrison
(who inspired Fay Wray's character in King Kong) and Ernest
B. Schoedsack on location in Iran before shooting Grass. ©Angora
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Merian C. Cooper and collaborators Ernest B. Schoedsack and Marguerite
Harrison made their Hollywood breakthrough with a documentary called Grass:
A Nation's Battle for Life. Shot amongst the Bakhtiari tribes
during their annual migration in the wintery mountains of Iran, the daunting
experience was also to inspire the filmmaker for his future fantasy film:
Carl Denham, a filmmaker heads to the remote Skull Island to capture Kong,
a huge creature who the locals hold at bay with a giant barrier that keep the
beast locked in his primordial jungle. Ann Darrow, and John "Jack" Driscoll
get caught up in the adventure, as Ann is captured by Kong and taken into the
interior of his island home, and Jack leads the rescue mission to bring her
back. On the way, the explorers are attacked by various types of dinosaurs.
Eventually, they capture the gorilla and take him back to civilization, where
Kong meets his end on the Empire State Building.
Peter Jackson's plot is basically the same as the one shot in 1933. Although
set during the Great Depression, it nevertheless takes advantage of the digital
technical wizardry of our times. The director manages to give a new dimension
to the great monster. The confrontation between prehistoric animals as well
as breathtaking scenes like when the film crew led by Denham (Jack Black) desperately
tries to escape the deadly predicament of being crushed by an army of Brontosaurs
or Ann Darrow's (Naomi Watts)dilemma of choosing between either being eaten
by a Dinosaur or trusting Kong, will certainly stay as landmarks in the history
of motion pictures.
What will certainly amaze CGI artists and movie buffs will certainly
be the phenomenal progress made in various Special Effects techniques. You
will see nothing like this in Jurassic Park. The interaction between
Kong and the Dinosaurs is fantastically detailed. The Big Ape's fur and hair
can be seen blowing in the wind. Using the known techniques of photo composition,
motion capture (initiated by George Lucas' space opera Star Wars) the actors
and animated monster's seem to interact as never before. Andy Serkis ( Gollum in
Lord of the Rings) renders Kong's facial expression's that give the digital
monster great humanity particularly in the scenes shared with Naomi Watts
who is now propelled to Stardom Status.
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Living dangerously: (Top) Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts)
being sacrificed to King Kong on Skull Island and Below: her mortal
dilemma © United International Pictures (UIP)
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The other star of the movie is certainly Jack Black for his hilarious personification
of Carl Denhama second rate Orson Welles ready to sacrifice everyone
for a movie he will never make. Black (who looks like Peter Jackson without
his beard) steals the show to co-star Adrien Brody. The latter's love story
with Naomi Watts (looking like Aussie friend Nicole Kidman) is less convincing
than that of Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lang on top of the pre-9/11 World Trade
Centre in John Guillerman's awful 1976
remake.
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One of the excellent Art work done during pre-production
by the © Big Primate Production Artists
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Naomi Watts however truly manages to replace Fay Wray as Ann Darrow. Interestingly
Peter Jackson shares a private joke in his movie, when filmmaker Carl Denham
(Jack Black) desperately looks for an actress in the title role and suggests
several names including Fay Wray. ìToo expensiveî responds Preston
his agent. Also divided between her love for Adrien Brody and an ever growing
affection for Kong, Watts makes us share her fright and fascination for the 8th
Wonder of the World.
Apart from Watt's, all other human characters lack Kong's humanity or so it
seems for the audience only can identify to the way Kong set's himself free
in Manhattan and destroys everything on his way looking for his female sweet
heart.
Although the climatic final sequence is expected, Jackson manages to make
the scene as exciting as in the original film. The double wing aircrafts offer
spectacular scenes shooting at the Great Ape or being flipped aside like a
flying saucer by King Kong.
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Carl Denham (Jack Black) directs film crew on Skull
Island while John "Jack" Driscoll (Adrien Brody in background)
looks on. © United International Pictures (UIP)
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The scene's of New York are truly touching in many ways. A nostalgic look
at the city in the 1930's does not wipe the trauma created by 9/11 but the
audience gets to rediscover the city before the erection of the World Trade
Centre in the 70's as well as one of the Big Apple's great monument's The Empire
State building which appears as majestic as ever. America's taste for grandeur
seems to contradict, Hollywood's often cruel reality of destroying what it
creates. King Kong is Carl Denham's (Jack Black) creation he thinks he can
tame the beast, but fails to imprison the heart that is beating inside. In
a recent biography on Merian C. Cooper Living Dangerously by Mark Vaz
(See Below), we get to rediscover one of Hollywood's greatest producers. A
man whose taste for great entertainment only equalled his own bigger than life
personality (See Bio).
Carl Denham's fictional character is not that distant from that of Cooper's
but certainly a parody. One can only admire Cooper's imagination for creating
one of motion picture's greatest monster's while weaving a moral tale on mankind's
lack of humanity. The original King Kong was also truly a breakthrough
in terms of Special Effects. It pioneered the work of Willis
O'Brien so much admired by SFX specialists like Ray
Harryhausen (Sinbad, Jason
and the Argonauts), or Phil
Tippet ( The Empire Strikes Back, Jurassic Park). Go-Motion was
a technique which consisted of filming frame by frame a model that could be
articulated. The animation resulted when projected in 24 frames/sec.
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Original King Kong in 1933 ©RKO
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Cooper and Schoedsack ës initial King Kong movie is all the more
remarkable that it hit the screens in an age which saw the rise of totalitarism.
It was first released in 1933 on the wake of Adolf Hitler's election
in Germany. It is considered by many film historians as a catharsis of the
fears of the time very much as Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio
broadcast several years later.
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Time to say goodbye: King Kong and Ann Darrow (Naomi
Watts) on top of the Empire State building. © United International
Pictures (UIP)
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Could one see a similar message in Peter Jackson 2005 tribute to his lifelong
movie favourite?
That is up to the viewers to decide Ö
One thing is certain though, and that is that the King of Cinema is not dead
so Long Live the KONG !!
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Peter Jackson and the original King Kong model
that changed his life. ©
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Author's notes:
King KongFilmis rated : PG/ 13 Parents Strongly Cautioned.
Fay Wray: Peter Jackson and Naomi Watts got to see
Fay Wray on the eve of her 96th birthday. The former screen legend was thrilled
and annoyed to be replaced as King Kong's sweet heart. She never got to see
Jackson's Kong. (See BBC
article )
Hollywood Inflation: The increase of production costs
in recent years due to blockbusters like Titanic (1998), or Lord
of the Rings ( distributed by Universal Studios) is set to worry Studio
executives who fear the unexpected flop that would put an end to turnovers.
Peter Jackson's King Kong cost 207 Million $. It is only ranked
6th in film history, the first being Joseph L. Mankiewicz' epic extravaganza Cleopatra
(1963) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton with 286,4
Million $.
Recommended reading: A recent biography on Cooper
by Mark Vaz and introduction by Peter Jackson
Living
Dangerously : The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong
Also see Merian
C. Cooper's film career and incredible contribution to film technology.
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