Gorillas in the Mist (One of my Top 5 Favorite Movies)

Gorillas in the Mist 1988

Starring Sigourney Weaver

This is one of my top 5 favorite movies!  It will make you smile, laugh, cry, wonder, and love.  Weaver is the perfect person to portray the real life person this movie is based on:  Dian Fossey.  Thanks to her, the mountain gorillas multiplied and were kept safer in the African Congo:

Dian, a physical therapist, attended the lecture of Dr. Leakey and implored him to let her go to Africa to continue the census work of the mountain gorillas.  He met her there and left her there, much to her surprise!  Oh and by the way, there was a Civil War going on.  Minor detail…

She and her tracker, Sembagare, were in the rainforest looking for gorillas, hiking for hours.

  She was following him and finally she realized he didn’t know how to track gorillas.  He said he was waiting for her to guide him!  They learned together.

One night she was practicing gorillas sounds and movements in her cabin when Bob Campbell walked in.  He was sent from the National Geographic to take pictures.  She wasn’t exactly happy but eventually they fell in love on that mountain.  He took pictures and film of her with the gorillas:

 Herein lies my favorite scene where she laid down, putting her hand out, and Digit put his hand in hers:

 

Bob leaves for other work and returns with a dog and a tub.  They watch the film he has taken and she doesn’t understand why she is in the film so much.  He explains that people are fascinated with her.  She asks, “Do you think I’m weird?”  He replies, “Weird and wonderful.”  Later he wants her to marry him and to spend 6 months on the mountain and 6 months somewhere warm but she can’t because, “The gorillas are here.”  She chooses them over Bob.  As he leaves she tells him, “If you go, don’t write.  Please don’t go.”  But he does and she sits with the gorillas in the rain crying.

Five years later…

Research students come to the mountain but she isn’t thrilled with this.  She considers it HER mountain and HER gorillas.  I get that.  Later she says of them, “Me-itis.  Let’s go.”  One student asks to be taken away from Digit’s group to see another and it is during this time that the most horrifying scene occurs:  Digit is killed by poachers while he tries to protect his group.  Dian finds him headless and handless.  Dian captured one of the poachers and made him think he wound be hanged.  Then she burnt their huts.  She made a lot of enemies.  Later she and Sembagare are together and she breaks down.  It’s a heartbreaking scene.

After Dian recovers she visits Digit’s group and finds a new baby member with 4th and 5th digits webbed, Digits’ baby, “I know you” and Digit lives on.

One night she is smoking (as always), having a drink, listening to music and looking at her gorilla photos.  Next thing you know, she’s asleep and we see in a shadow someone bringing a machete down on her.  She was murdered December 27, 1985 by an unseen assailant at age 53.  At her funeral she was buried next to Digit.  The rocks around their graves are connected in order to keep their souls together.  I have done the same for my 2 beloved cats buried my backyard.

Without Dian Fossey the mountain gorillas wouldn’t be alive and thriving as well as they are although they are still a very endangered species.

Trivia Time:

• The producer was hours away from contacting Dian to meet with her about the movie and she was murdered.
• Much of the shoot took place at her Karisoke research center.  The crew had to hike 12,000 feet above sea level to the site traveling through mud and think vegetation.
• Weaver wore an earpiece in order to get close to the gorillas during filming.
• She too used the gestures that Fossey had and was able to get very close to them.
• Some of the  gorilla footage of injured animals were actors in suits created by Rick Baker.

Enjoy the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdpcWkv8ohk

Dian was a very strange woman and next time when I review her book with you we’ll look into that.

The Rise of Planet of the Apes 2011

So here we are at The Rise of the Planet of the Apes from 2011!  We find Charlton Heston making his 5th appearance in the series.  In this movie, Will Rodman works at a science lab and he is looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s because his father, Charles, has been stricken with it.  In reality, Heston passed away from it in 2008.  This brings it close to my heart because my mother has dementia, a close cousin to this disease and often a precursor to the disease.

The budget for this movie was a whopping $93,000,000!

So into the movie we go…there is a chimp named Caesar who Will brings home and he grows up in their house.  He’s very close to Charles:

 

Caesar works on cognitive skills designed by Will, sign language, and puzzles (the puzzle he works on is the Statue of Liberty, a nod to the original Ape movie, and at another time, Caesar is posing as “The Thinker”, the famous French sculpture).

At the lab, Will is working on a drug for Alzheimer’s, the ALZ112 shot.  He steals some and starts injecting his father as he slips further away mentally.  It improves his brain function and brings him back.  Things are great!

Caesar is taken to the Redwoods to play and sees pets on leashes.  At age 5 he questions his life and wonders:  Am I a pet?

Soon the Alzheimer’s disease returns to Charles and in a neighborhood event, Caesar violently protects Charles.  He goes ape shit!  He is taken away and caged at a horrible facility, unbeknownst to Will, with enraged apes in cages.  It’s like an insane asylum.  He is hosed, tortured, etc. and ends up in a fetal position, feeling left by Will.  When will finally returns to visit him and promises, “Trust me.  I’ll get you out.” Caesar is disappointed and mad.  He has lost his trust for humans.

By this time, Charles has died and Will comes to take him home.  Caesar won’t go.  His heart has hardened and he is hurt which leads to the great apes escape.  Caesar leads a revolt.  As in the original movie, we see a famous line, “Take your stinking paw off me you damn dirty ape!”  Caesar says, “NO!”

The apes are on the loose, kind of like “Apes in the City” (Sex in the City).  They tear up the city and let all the animals in the zoo loose.  Chaos erupts!

Later, Will finds Caesar and says, “I’m sorry.  I’ll take you home.”  Caesar responds with, “Caesar is home”, in the wild, in the Redwoods, where he belongs.

Here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Z_D9Grh18

Shouldn’t we let the animals live in their natural habitat instead of housing them in zoos?

To me, this was one of the best in the series.  It really had me interested!

The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes of 2014 would be my next blog but I have had enough of this series, and of science fiction.  It’s time for me to go to my s-hero and one of my all time top 5 fave movies–Gorillas in the Mist!

Planet of the Apes–Remake–2001–Tim Burton

    

Can you believe it?  After all of the sequels they decided it wasn’t enough and made a remake of the original 1968 version (that I recently reviewed) in 2001.  Well, I decided I just had to check it out but first, let’s check on the movie trivia!

Tim Burton directed it so that causes immediate interest.  What crazy stuff would he do?  Well one thing is that he refused to call it a remake (so sorry Tim) but rather a reimagination.  Mark Wahlberg was in as soon as he heard that.  He refused to wear the loincloth so as not to remind audiences of his undie modeling 🙂

33 years after the original, the budget for this one multiplied, just…oh…100 billion!

Rick Baker is the genius behind the make up. Fantastic sets and make up:

      

Rick is also briefly in the film when the humans are transported to Ape City in a cage.  The ape in the middle with gray hair smoking a water pipe? That’s Rick!

——–SPOILER ALERT——-

(as in all my blogs)

The film takes place on Feb. 14 of 2029 and in Dec. of 5021.  The original movie was set on a future earth but this one is set on a different planet with two moons.  The ending is more like the novel ending whereby Taylor finds a ship and escapes the ape planet with a human female.  They set our for Earth but because they traveled at light speed, many centuries have passed and Earth has evolved into an ape society.

Time for the movie and time to see what Tim Burton has done (here’s Tim!):

This version began with what I call “technical boredom” but I appreciated the updated landing!  So I’m watching the movie and who pops up on screen?  Chris Kristopherson!  Say what??  Anyway, the gorillas chase down the humans and bag ’em.  One ape says, “You damn dirty human!”  Interesting because in the original Heston says that about an ape.  Additionally, there’s a lot of humorous lines such as, “Can’t we all just get along?”  (Apparently not…)

All the humans converge with Taylor and there is a war between the humans and the apes (obviously).  An explosion, fighting, blah, blah, blah…

Then a little spaceship lands with Taylor’s chimp inside!  There’s a thumbs up and the famous kiss between Taylor and the lady chimp:

Now it gets interesting.  Taylor and the female/human jump into the spaceship and crash land!  Not in front of the Statue of Liberty but in front of the Lincoln Memorial Washington Monument!  But look closely at the statue:

Did you see it? Lincoln has an ape face!  The gorilla police arrive and we have reached the end…oh those apes 🙂

 

Planet of the Apes Movie Sequels 1970-2016

Beneath the Planet of the Apes 1970

In the first sequel to Planet of the Apes, the year is 3955 and a rescue  mission is launched to retrieve Taylor but there’s an earthquake and it’s the gorilla army vs. intelligent mutants who are half human/half ape.  Who will win???  Take a look and click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuEnNxX1E8

 

Escape from Planet of the Apes 1971

In this sequel the apes come to earth and are accepted.  Cornelius and Zira have a baby.  The antics continue as they monkey around…  Click below and check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO0mRivg8Tk

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes 1972

Out pops yet another sequel where the apes revolt!  We see apes as pets, servants and slaves.  Click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0gWXAUXnQY

Battle for the Planet of the Apes 1973

In the last installment from the 70’s, it is 12 years after a bomb hits earth and the fight becomes, who rules earth?  Apes or man?  Watch and see…  Click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBH6uUFJsR8

So the franchise has spit out a movie every year and then it stops until 2011 comes along and we get:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011

Here we have Cesar as a baby chimp who is fed up of being used for tests and observations.  He will rise up and take his “people” with him!  Click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X616MkD0k7I

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014

The series continues with Cesar.  The apes have killed off half of the planet!  The real ape war begins with Cesar as the leader.  Click below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpSaTrW4leg

Untitled 2016

And oh yes, they’re not done.  Coming up next year the battle of ape vs. man continues.  What will happen next?  Let’s see what they have planned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zor8fW2_TOA

Planet of the Apes–Movie–1968

Following the book in 1963, Planet of the Apes, the movie, was released in 1968.

Characters/Actors:

Charlton Heston as George Tayler

Roddy McDowell as Cornelius

Kim Hunter as Zira

Linda Harrison as Nova

George Taylor and the other 2 astronauts have been in deep space and when they wake up to their crash landing, 20 centuries have passed.  The year is 3978!

They come to a waterfall and are skinny dipping when their clothes are taken.  They see other humans who are mute and have no clothes.  Gorillas come by, dressed, on horses and catch Taylor in a net:

 At this point in the movie the apes take a selfie (they were ahead of their time!). A comment is made by the apes, “Humans see, humans do”. LOL   At one point, a gorilla grabs Taylor and he says, “Take you paws off me you damn dirty ape!”  The gorilla responds, “Shut up you freak!” (Love it!)

Zira puts Nova in Taylor’s cage, she sniffs him and they become a couple, of sorts.  Taylor writes a message to Zira, “My name is Taylor.”  She is shocked that a human can write!  Zira and Cornelius (chimps are the smartest of the apes in this movie), read his notes and talk to him.  Eventually they believe in him and want to help him, at risk to their own lives by going against the orangutans 9 (the officials).

Taylor goes to a court hearing about his future:

And much to my amusement, the orangutan actors ad libbed this scene,
See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil:

Cornelius and Zira help Taylor escape and they go to the Forbidden Zone.  The chimps don’t know why it is forbidden and Taylor wants to find out.

As Taylor says goodbye to Zira, he wants to kiss her and she says, “Ok, but you’re so damn ugly.”

Dr. Zaius tells Taylor, “Don’t look.  You may not like what you find…”  He goes into the cave of artifacts anyway and what do you think he finds?? A human doll that says, “Mama!”.  Also found, a man’s skeleton and eye glasses!  Man was here first!  The orangutans kept this a secret!  The head orangutan, Dr. Zaius says to Taylor, “I have always known about man. Beware the beast, man!  Shun him!”

He asks, “Why didn’t man survive if he’s so superior?” Hmmmmmm……

There is a gunfight and Dr. Z lets Taylor and Nova go.

He seals the cave to destroy the evidence.  So Taylor and Nova get on a horse and go see what they can find, how to get home, anything…. and what do they come across?

“OMG!  I’m back home.  All the time….you maniacs! God damn you all to hell!”  (There were 3 different endings, different from the book, but Charlton Heston’s favorite won).

The End

Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjcpRHuPjOI

Original Ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGlR_GgasA

Some very interesting tidbits:

• Roddy McDowell would often drive home in his make up, freaking people out on the freeway in L. A.
• The extras were not allowed to take off the make up between takes so their food had to be liquefied.  Straw please!
• Kim Hunter’s facial ape prosthetics were so claustrophobic to her that she took a Valium every day.
• The lead make up artist, John Chambers, went to the L. A. Zoo to study ape facial expressions.  A half million dollars was spent on the make up and there were 80 make up artists on set.
• Nova/Linda Harrison, had an affair with the married producer during the filming.  She was pregnant with his child and had to carefully conceal herself toward the end.  He ended up divorcing his wife.
• The final scene was shot at Malibu Beach in California.  The Statue of Liberty was an optical effect.
• The author, Pierre Boulle, thought this was his worst novel!. He was upset at the  ending of the movie but later warmed up to it.

So there you have it!  Up next, a short review of the immediate sequels!

Mighty Joe Young 1998

This remake of Mighty Joe Young is fairly good and there are some interesting similarities to the original if you look for them!  But first, who do we have?  Charlize Theron as Jill Young who is actually from Africa.  Bill Paxton plays her love interest and is a combined character from the original MJY and King Kong–Gregg O’Hara.

I like that this version shows Jill’s mother, a primatologist who works as Dian Fossey did, protecting the gorillas in Africa.  One night poachers come and end up killing Jill’s mom but Joe, as a baby gorilla, is saved and cared for by Jill.

As in the original (which I will refer to as “O” from now on), the movie switches to 12 years later where Jill is playing Hide and Seek with giant Joe (yes, you heard me).  Gregg comes on the scene “looking for a legend” he has heard about and he finds him.  Instead of chasing Joe on horses as in the O, Gregg chases in jeeps.

  At one point Joe picks up Gregg and luckily Jill shows up and says, “Joe, drop him”.

He talks her into taking Joe to Cali (instead of N. Y.) and they arrive at the Animal Conservatory.

Instead of Joe performing on stage, he is used for a special gala fundraiser and they decide to pay the “gorilla girl” to take care of Joe.  On the night of the gala the poachers have arrived and decide, “We’ll sell him piece by piece.”  This scene is like the nightclub scene in the O but not half as exciting.  The director proudly says, “We are happy to introduce to you, Mighty Joe Young….” and Joe bursts in a tad upset for he has seen and recognizes the poachers unbeknownst to everyone else.  He goes a bit wild but he is shot with a sedation arrow and placed in a concrete cage.  Time to escape!  He’s put in a semi truck with Jill and she soon discovers the drivers are the poachers who killed her mother.  She jumps out and Joe tips the truck.  He creates chaos on Hollywood Blvd.

One man screams like a little girl and Joe shakes his head (here’s where they try interjecting some silly humor in this movie).  A car’s alarm is going off and Joe sits on it and punches it to get it to stop.  When he does, he nods his head like,
“So there!”

He then climbs up Grauman’s Chinese Theater, hikes a while and ends up jumping off the famous Hollywood Sign.

Joe ends up at POP (an ocean/boardwalk/carnival type/park). Joe sees the poacher and throws him into wires.  He is electrified and in modern day fashion, a wire is shown with sneakers hanging from it–a symbol of gang territory these days.  Apparently the movie is stating that this is MJY’s territory and not his.  A fire breaks out (in the O the fire is at an orphanage where he saves kids that are trapped).  Here he saves a boy on the ferris wheel but Joe falls.  We think he’s dead and there is a sad scene as Jill lays curled up next to him but no!  He’s ok!

As in the O they move back to Africa and open up MJY’s Wildlife Park because Joe is a hero!  Jill, “I kept my promise to my mom!” which was to watch after Joe.                                                        The End

TRIVIA TIME:

• It was filmed in the San Fernando Valley where 2 men were seriously injured while working a crane for the movie.
• The background music on the boardwalk was Beautiful Dreamer, honoring the O.
• Joe was a creature suit performer filmed on miniature sets and a computerized digital gorilla.
• At the gala, the original Jill, Terry Moore, is in a quick scene as an elderly woman, “She (Jill) reminds me of somebody, but I can’t think who”.  Clever!

=====================================================

A children’s book based on this movie version:

Take a peek of Joe in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMFZmOerdIg

========================

And Beautiful Dreamer, dedicated to my dad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38SqiwPxo2U

 

 

Mighty Joe Young 1949

      

Mighty Joe Young 1949

So in continuing on with the gorilla theme, we come to my favorite!  The thing that started my gorilla love when I was very young.  It’s another take on King Kong that won an Oscar for Special Effects.  It took 14 months to create this stop motion picture.  Joe was a 15 foot high puppet (smaller that King Kong).

 Ruth Rose wrote the screenplay based on the story by John Ford and Merian Cooper. It was filmed on a back lot in Culver City, California.  The same place where Gone with the Wind and King Kong were filmed.

This one starts in Africa with these characters:  Jill Young, Max the producer, and Gregg as Jill’s love interest, well, besides Mr. Joseph Young that is.

It begins with Jill as a young girl at her farm in Africa as 2 natives pass by with a basket.  When Jill sees what’s inside, she decides she must have it and she gets some items to make a trade.  They weren’t interested until she whipped out her dad’s flashlight.  After they left, she opened up the basket and said, “Oh, isn’t he sweet?”

     This was a real baby gorilla and I fell in love at that moment, for real.  I remember watching this movie on my living room floor with my dad.  From that moment on I wanted one myself.  One time we went to the Burbank Animal Shelter and they had a chimpanzee.  It wasn’t the same as a gorilla but it was close.  I begged for that animal but of course, the answer was no.  Instead I got a stuffed chimp and I named him Bosco.  More about my deep fascination later…

Max the producer and Gregg come across Joe and they are scared to death as they try to “rope a gorilla.”  Jill hears the commotion and she has to calm him down, “Joe, mind me this minute!”  She whistles HIS song, Beautiful Dreamer and throws him a banana.  Then he just picks her up.

Max convinces her to go to New York to open up a show and promises her music, glamour and bright lights.  The movie picks up 12 years later and the show they put on:

• Joe with a little hat like a monkey (very sad)~

• Joe with the strongest men in the world~

                

• And the best part–Joe holding Jill on a round platform while she plays Beautiful Dreamer~

This part stuck with me all my life.  This song was special to me and my dad.  I learned to play it on the piano.  Years later my dad gave me a little piano music box with that song.  My dad is no longer with us but it’s a very special memory to me.  My love of gorillas was cemented ❤

 So back to the club.  It’s in a really cool safari themed night club with real lions behind glass behind the bar but they wouldn’t be there for long….

10 weeks later Joe and Jill are so sad.  This is not the life for them.  Jill tells Max she’s quitting but she stays for 17 weeks for Max’s sake.  On the night of their last show, the audience was to throw money at Joe, then people started throwing food. After the show, some really drunk guys brought some beer down for Joe.  “Let’s buy the monkey a drink!  It’ll put hair on your chest!”  lol  Joe became enraged and tore up the club!  Gorilla on the loose!  He slugged a lion and tossed it aside.  (This troubled me.  I looked it up and they used real and animated lions).

Joe is caught and put in a steel cage.  They are going to shoot him.  Court ordered, so they come up with an escape plan.  HOW the heck do you sneak a gorilla out??  They put him in the back of a big truck and the chase was on!  At one point, Joe was hanging out the back of the truck and twiddled his fingers.  (Someone thought this would be funny).  They passed a children’s home that was on fire and they stopped to help.  At this point the black and white movie switched to red only for this segment.  Joe rescues a child and falls.

We come to the end of the movie and find Jill, Gregg, and Joe back in Africa in a home movie.  Joe has learned to “peel” a banana before eating it and they all wave goodbye and live happily ever after.

Terry Moore played Jill and she never saw Joe while filming. She finally saw him when the movie came out.  Many stuntmen were injured on this movie and she said her make up man was drunk during the whole movie. But my favorite thing about Terry is that this movie did the same  thing to her as it did for me.  She also developed a love for gorillas and was a big fan of Dian Fossey like I am.  She’ll come up later during this gorilla theme.

Take a peek at the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfgafkaDo14

King Kong 2005: Um……

King Kong 2005 starts out with a v e r y   s l o w beginning! It takes 71 minutes before KK even comes on!!  Come on!!! But there is something about this version that I did like.  More on that later…

So backstory info which always intrigues me.  It took 18 months to build the Empire State Building.  The roar of Kong is a lion played backwards and at 1/2 speed.  Also added in are horses, cats, pigs and elephants.  100 people worked in the costume department and several pieces of dialogue are taken directly from the 1933 version.  Natalie Portman tested for the lead role but she was too young, Kate Winslet was their first choice, Fay Wray was in negotiations to appear in the film (the original Ann Darrow) but she passed away, and in the end Naomi Watts got the part.  During the witch doctor scene in Africa at the sacrifice, if you look closely at her right hand, the witch is giving Ann the finger!  I need to watch again to see!  The natives were old, ugly, dirty, and scary looking compared to the prior two movies.  They really looked gross!  And the final tidbit?  This is the first KK that actually had the physical body of a real silverback gorilla.

So into the movie!  Like I said, s l o w.  But when KK finally grabs Ann and runs off with her, he swings her around wildly.  No love is conveyed at this point of the movie and I didn’t like that.  There were very few dinosaurs in this one.  When KK puts her down, she dances for him, juggles rocks and performs cartwheels for his entertainment I guess??  He knocks her down and he laughs.  It’s odd.  The log scene? Not so great.  The most disgusting animals they come across are wormy like spiders.  I had to fast forward this part.  Incredibly gross!   KK and Ann make it to the cliff scene, KK is all tore up and tired.  But here is where it takes a turn for the better.  He has protected her so many times at this point and as they sit during the sunset, 3 times she says to him, “Beautiful” and she sits in his hand.  Bats and birds appear and KK has to kick it up again.

     

Later when they are in New York he tears up the city looking for Ann.  In one scene he sits on a car and it’s meant to be funny but I thought it was stupid. Once he finds her they find themselves at a natural ice rink/pond.  She walks up to him and touches his face.  They slide and spin around the ice laughing.  The guns catch up with them and it’s time to head to the Empire State Building scene.  It’s just like the sunset cliff scene and she reminds him, “Beautiful”.  But of course the planes come and shoot him down.  Ann is devastated.  And it must end with the famous line, “It was beauty killed the beast”.

     

After watching the 3 versions of this story,  this one was THE slowest but I liked the love Ann showed for him. My favorite is still the original.  Even though it was stop motion, it has the best action of all!

Here’s a peek at the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaTCPbYGdk

There is another remake in the mix set for 2017, Skull Island–I wonder if it can contain the right action and the right amount of love for Kong.

Next up the children’s book King Kong by Dan Brown.  A wonderful book and fabulous illustrations!

King Kong Remake 1976

The King Kong of 1976 stars Jessica Lange as Dwan (Ann) and Jeff Bridges as Jack; they made a pretty hot couple.

Jessica plays a very sexy playful version compared to Fay Wray’s.  Let’s first take a look at the backstory.

The gigantic hydraulic arm was 6 feet across and weighed 1,650 pounds.  The hands took 4 1/2 months to create.  In the scene where Kong touches and examines Dwan and her clothes fall away, Jessica suffered a pinched nerve in her neck!  No gentle Kong was he!  Who turned down her part?  Bo Derek, and the producer, Dino De Laurentis said Meryl Streep was “too ugly” for the part.  Fay Wray turned down a cameo appearance.

The vocals for King Kong were by Peter Culen who strained his voice so bad, he ended coughing up blood.  Talk about taking your character seriously!  This Kong was 40 feet high and had an aluminum frame of 3.5 tons.  It was covered wit rubber and over 1,000 pounds of horsehair.  It was controlled by 20 operators and cost $1.7 million dollars.  They filmed 12 hours a day for 8 months and there were 5,000 extras for the last scene in New York at the World Trade Center.  Rick Baker was the make up artist and he wore a gorilla suit in many of the scenes.  The working title for a while was The Monkey of ’76.

On to the actual movie!  In this first remake, King Kong doesn’t appear until 50 minutes into the movie 😦  This one is many times different than the original book and movie.  The Denham character is searching for an oil strike that he hopes to find on the island.  Dwan is found floating on a raft in the ocean–unconscious in a black gown but awakens on the ship very sexy, flirty, and playful.  A psychic told her that she was going to cross over water and meet the biggest person in her life 🙂

The movie is peppered with some clever comments:  “Let’s not get eaten alive–bring on the bug spray!”  After KK has taken Dwan and they search for her, they fall into a 6′ 4″ footprint.  When KK is holding Dwan in his hand by the waterfall touching her clothes and then washing her off in the waterfall, KK blows on her to dry her.  She gives some sexual looks and then KK moans.  (Oh please).  At one point Dwan says to him, “Kong, this is never gonna work.  Can’t you see that?”

         

The famous log scene is way better in the original movie.  There are no dinosaurs in this one and way less action.  Disappointing.  KK does bust through the gate where he falls in and is gassed and taken to New York.  Denham starts talking up how wonderful this “beauty and the beast” theme emerges.  Dwan is thrilled that she will become “…a starrrr”.  Denham talks about how Kong could give away the bride if she and Jack were interested in marriage.

One of the things I loved about this version (and there weren’t many) was the love she felt for Kong.  “He was trying to protect me” and Jack said, “We kidnapped their God!  This is a grotesque farse!”  On opening night Jack says to Dwan, “Shut up Dwan.  I love you.  Come with me.”  Nice.  When the paps take too many pictures and come near Dwan, he breaks free of the chains.  KK stomps and smashes Denham into the ground.  He breaks up a train looking for Dwan and when he picks up the wrong girl, he throws her away!  As Dwan and Jack run away, they stop in a bar and KK slips his arm in there, picks her up and carries her off to the WTC.  Once on top the planes shoot at him.  KK puts Dwan down so that she doesn’t get hurt ands she screams, “Don’t put me down.  They’ll kill you!”  She runs to him but he pushes her away, as she screams, “Don’t kill him!”  But they do.  He falls all the way down and his heartbeat is thunderously loud until it slowly stops beating.  The crowd surrounds her and she and Jack begin to run to each other but she is caught up in the fame…. so Jack backs away.

I loved the love between KK and Dwan in this movie but other than that…not so much.

One more remake to view and then on to Planet of the Apes which is a BIG surprise.  Wait and see…..

King Kong 1933/Excellent Movie!

King Kong 1933

This is the original black and white movie of King Kong and it is excellent!  It is almost verbatim from the novel.  If you haven’t seen it, you must!  The first 10 minutes are a little slow but once the action starts, it’s ON!! It ranks number 43 of the American Film Institutes list of the Top 100 American movies.  The working title was The 8th Wonder and later The Beauty and Kong.  Financially speaking the budget was $670,000.  When it opened at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater tickets were $3.30. They displayed Kong’s giant head in the lobby and you can still see it at the Hollywood Wax Museum.  King Kong saved RKO from bankruptcy!

The prep work for the movie included 600 hand drawings and numerous puppets with different faces.  There were dinosaur, King Kong, and character puppets as well as miniatures.  They used stop motion filming, a very precise slow way to film every movement with painted backgrounds for scenery.  The planes were real and miniature.  For Kong they built a life size arm, foot, and head.  Kong’s fur was made of rabbit fur and each time they touched it to move it for the stop motion, it gave the fur a rippled look throughout the movie.

So there’s the backstory, let’s get to the MOVIE!  Our characters are the infamous Fay Wray as Ann Darrow (Beauty), Carl Denham (the movie director in the film), and Jack Driscoll (the first mate and Ann’s love interest).

Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYWSOzFMZjg

As they all start out on the ship headed to the mystery destination for the mystery adventure, Jack and Ann meet.  He is a tough guy telling her, “Women can’t help but be a bother!” but that attitude doesn’t last long.  The Scream Queen, Ann, practices her test shots with Carl and later the fog rolls in.  They hear distant drums coming from Skull Mountain Island.  This is a beautiful scene and as the come closer they see THE WALL and wonder why such a huge wall would be built but we know why…

On the island they come across a ceremony that the natives are having.  There are 4 dancing men in gorilla costumes chanting Kong.  The want to trade 6 of their woman for the Golden Woman, Ann with the blonde hair, which they have never seen before.  They back away to the ship where in short order Jack says to Ann, “I guess I love you” to which she responds, “But Jack, you hate women” and they kiss. Romantic?  Not.   Love in 1933 ❤

When darkness falls the natives steal Ann and bring her to the island.  Here we go.  The action begins and never stops from this point on!

Ann is set and tied to a pedestal while the natives dance and chant for Kong to come and get his golden sacrifice.  All the music stops and they bang the dinner gong for Kong to come and get his prize.  LOL  (And by the way, the music and timing for this film are both awesome).

    

All the shipmates head to the island to find Ann.  As the search begins they find a HUGE footprint and right away we begin seeing the prehistoric beasts.  First up is a Stegosaurus!  They shoot it multiple times, give it a gas bomb, the tail keeps wagging and they give it one more shot in the head.  Onward….

Take a another look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0WpKl2A_2k

They come to a water source and very quickly build a raft only to find another one, an Apatosaurus (looking like a Brontosaurus) which flings guys from its mouth and we see a man screaming!  (This is not a meat eating animal but hey…)  Next they come to “the log” where the men are walking across above a crevice.  King Kong wiggles the log around and most of the men fall to their death.  Jack and Carl cleverly hide in a crevice.

         

A giant lizard, Megalania, climbs a vine to get to Jack but he cuts the vine in time!  Next the Tyrannosaurus Rex and King Kong engage in a nasty little fight.  This is one of the scenes that I always cringe at as KK breaks and rips the jaw of the T Rex!  Oh that sound!

    

Next up?  A cave and a snake that tries to strangle KK but no!  He beats it to death.  KK moves on, carrying Ann this whole time, to “his cliff, his home base”.  Here is the scene where KK picks her up, holds her, touches her and her clothes fall off.  He sniffs her clothes (??) and then the Pteranodon flies off with Ann.  Luckily KK is on it, grabs her and easily kills it.  Jack swoops in and he and Ann begin to slide down a vine and eventually drop into the ocean and escape….

         

They reach the wall and Carl declares, “We have something he wants!”  KK comes along, smashes down the gate (he’s a little pissed).  He puts a native in his mouth and smashes 2 under his foot, stamping them out like little cigarettes!  The gas bombs are thrown at him and they take him down.

Back in New York City Carl’s plan to put the “8th Wonder of the World” on stage doesn’t go so well.   Carl wants pictures taken with Ann and Jack below KK who is on a pedestal, chained. He tells Ann not to worry because they have “knocked the fight out of him”  (right)  As the paparazzi takes flash photos, KK goes “ape shit” and breaks free, eating a man on his way out!

  He climbs a building looking for Ann, picks up the wrong woman and drops her.  He does find Ann in a hotel room.  He just reaches in and takes her out.  Here is where they use a made to scale 6 foot arm on a lever to pull her out.

Jack realizes he will look for something like his home, his cliff, and realizes he will take Ann to the top of the Empire State Building.  He sets her down and fights off the planes, grabbing one of them.  He gently touches Ann and the planes shoot him.  He falls and lands on the street.  The crowd gathers around and Carl says, “It wasn’t the planes, it was Beauty who killed the Beast”.  It’s a little sad because he just loved her and wanted her.

    

What do you think?

P.S. This was filmed on a back lot in Culver City, Cali, 7 days a week until it was done!