Kong’s been mighty busy since he first bounded on to screen in 1933. Across various sequels and spinoffs, Hollywood’s colossal ape has tussled with Godzilla, rumbled with a robot version of himself, had a son who promptly drowned to death in the Pacific Ocean, got the reboot treatment in 2017’sKong: Skull Island, and, finally, booked another match with his oldest foe in the upcomingGodzilla vs. Kong. But across that history, there have only been three films bearing the title and (relatively) same story ofKing Kong. The original 1933 flick from directorsMerian C. CooperandErnest B. Schoedsackis undoubtedly a turning point for visual effects, with pretty much every horror franchise and modern-day blockbuster owing something toWillis O’Brien’s stop-motion spectacle. The only way the 2005 remake could’ve been more of a love letter to the character is if it included an unbroken 45-minute shot of directorPeter Jacksoncalling Kong his “big special boy.” But, nestled in between these two versions is thefirstremake, a 1976 romp directed by British adventure-movie madmanJohn Guillerminthat, upon a recent rewatch, remains the best iteration of the big guy. Let me explain.
I’d be straight-up lying if I said there’s not a ton of surface thrills in this movie. This was exactly what Guillermin, producerDino De Laurentiis, and screenwriterLorenzo Semple, Jr.wanted from the start, a big-budget blockbuster thrill ride. “We thought times had changed so much that audiences were more sophisticated. Dino felt we could have more fun with it,” Semple Jr. toldStarlogin 1976. At one point in the movie, King Kong long-jumps between the two World Trade Center buildings as an aggressively beardedJeff Bridgesscreams in triumph, which, yeah, is a pretty fun time. And yes, Kong himself is primarily a man (Rick Baker, primarily) in a suit—the exact type of process that Cooper once called “belittling” when it was first used in 1962’sKing Kong vs. Godzilla—but it’s with animpressivelyexpressive mask created by effects artistCarlo Rambaldi, and the movie does feature some incredibly well-aged miniature work, especially in Kong’s run-in with an elevated train.
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But there’s a lot going on under the hood of the ‘76Kong, voiced mostly by Bridges’ Jack Prescott—again, giant beard, very good—who makes it clear, time and time again, how deeply fucked-up it is for a bunch of American yahoos to do what they do to Kong. There’s certainly tragedy in the original film—“It was beauty killed the beast” makes that plain—but none of it is reserved for Skull Island or its native residents, who exist mostly to terrify the main characters in an uncomfortably 1933 way and then get brutally stomped on during Kong’s escape. Jackson’sKing Kongalso makes you feel for the title beastie, but in a way that’s so personal it ironically keeps you at arm’s length; despite the best efforts of the cast,Naomi WattsandJack Blackin particular, you don’t feel a real reckoning for what’s taken place. It can’t, because these characters—our way into that story—love Kong like a person, like Jackson does.
Contrast that with the ‘76 film, which paints the kidnapping of Kong as a sacrilegious act. It actually keeps the residents of Skull Island in mind—treats them like human beings instead of spooky set dressings—and makes clear that the crewmembers of the SS Venture are not explorers, they’re intruders. Thieves, arguably. One of the film’s least subtle but most effective changes is to make the main characters part of the Petrox Oil Company, so there’s always a hint of uber-American greed to their journey. Whether they found oil or a 20-foot-tall gorilla, they were always going to be plundering a place they never belonged.
“Actually they’ll miss him a lot," Jack tellsCharles Grodin’s Fred Wilson. “You’re dead wrong. He was the terror, the mystery of their lives, and the magic. A year from now that’ll be an island of burn-out drunks. When we took Kong, we kidnapped their god.”
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Both remakes had to grapple, in their own ways, with the more questionable aspects of Kong’s creation, the “potent blend of the fascination, fetishization, and fear rooted in many in the prevailing ideas about Africa being a wild, untamed place rich with wonders for any white Westerners bold enough journey into the jungle,” as i09 writer Charles Pulliam-Moorewrote in a brilliant piecein February. Peter Jackson simply loved the movie too much to really take that idea head-on, even in 2005. But the ‘76Kongsits with it, and it does so in a way that still feels relevant today. That’s why this Kong and his explosion-filled rampage through New York city remains so jaw-dropping. Therage. The very, very understandable lashing out at a world that decidedly fucked around and found out.
But it’s also worth noting that this Kong is the only one who climbs the highest building in the city not only to carry his blonde obsession (in this case,Jessica Lange) as far away as possible, but because he recognizes the World Trade Center as something similar to the peaks of his native island. The tragedy of this King Kong isn’tjustthat he’s shot down, but also that he falls from a place he thought of as home.
