Monkey See DVD
Two-disc set of the original 'King Kong' - with contributions from remake director Peter Jackson - i
By Andy Klein
If you were me - and don't try it, because there isn't enough room in this identity for the both of us - the upcoming film that you'd be anticipating with the greatest hope and the greatest anxieties is Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong.
For a number of obvious reasons, remaking Kong is a lousy idea. The 1933 original is quite perfectly what it is; very few film buffs would be interested in changing a frame. It's not merely that it was great when it was first released - which it most certainly was. Or that it still works for almost everyone, except the "who wants to watch black-and-white films" crowd and those who are incapable of suspending their campy ironic distance for a second.
It's also because the movie has so thoroughly permeated our culture. After 72 years, its iconic status is so entrenched that to revise it - which is part of the process of a remake - is like revising history. The only pre-'60s film that may be more universally known and a greater part of our collective culture is The Wizard of Oz. Everybody knows who King Kong is, even if they haven't seen the film.
Then there's the example of Dino De Laurentiis's overblown 1976 remake, directed by the faceless John Guillermin. Its greatest virtue was the depth of its failure: There was no chance it would have enough impact to sully the memory of the original.
All of these factors weigh in on the con side. On the pro side, there is only one item: Peter Jackson.
I've been a Jackson fan ever since his 1992 Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead). But I'm also a fan of the Coen Brothers and David Lynch and Jean-Luc Godard, and I'm not sure I'd want any of them to tackle the project (though it would be interesting to try to imagine the results). But Jackson just pulled off a gigantic undertaking with similar challenges - the Lord of the Rings trilogy - and made good decisions about an overwhelming majority of the tough issues. That is, he's a remarkably intelligent filmmaker - one who's unlikely to make the sorts of really boneheaded moves that sunk the earlier remake.
Add to that the fact that he's more than a passing Kong fan; the extras on the new DVD release of the 1933 version mention Jackson's huge collection of Kong artifacts. He appears to have been genuinely in love with the film since childhood.
Why in God's name, then, would he want to remake it? What could be the justification? I don't know, but I'm willing to tentatively assume that he has a good one.
Jackson's King Kong doesn't open until December 14. Until then, you can can enjoy Warner Home Video's new two-disc DVD of the original, which has finally come out - one of the very last truly acknowledged classics to arrive on disc. Fans have been clamoring for years, but the company took its time, apparently holding off while scouring the world looking for the best prints.
It may have been frustrating for consumers, but the decision was a good one: I'd rather have it right than fast. And it's really, really right.
Working from an amazingly well-preserved British copy, Warner has put out as close to a pristine Kong as one can imagine, given the film's age and some of its technical limitations, mostly in the area of sound. There are almost no scratches, and the grain and contrast are superior to any theatrical print I've seen. The visuals could easily have been flattened out; its complex, shimmering, unreal backgrounds could have turned indistinct. But they simply look great.
One of the worst episodes in the film's history was the 1938 reissue. In 1933, the Production Code wasn't being enforced, and Kong got away with moments of violence and weird erotic implications - Kong tearing off part of Ann Darrow's dress and curiously sniffing it - that were completely out of the question by 1938. Numerous cuts were made, none of which was restored until the '70s.
The DVD appears to include everything, even (in a sense) the infamous lost scene in which the sailors Kong shakes off a log are attacked and eaten by giant spiders and other unpleasant creatures.
No, they didn't find the footage. Instead, Jackson - who contributed substantially to the DVD - decided, in the midst of working on his own Kong, to have his crew try to re-create it as closely as possible, using (for most of the process) the same technology that special-effects innovator Willis O'Brien and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack used 70 years ago.
This "new" Kong footage wisely isn't incorporated into the body of the film on the first disc, which would have been a travesty, no matter how well executed. It can be found among the extras, which are gathered on disc two.
The second disc is dominated by two new documentaries - I'm Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper - an hourlong look at the remarkable life and career of the director/adventurer, who used his own personality as the template for entrepreneur Carl Denham in the film. Assembled by a team including British film historian Kevin Brownlow, it's well worth watching.
Still, it's dwarfed by the second documentary, RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World, which Jackson had a hand in producing. Divided into seven sections that total more than two and a half hours, it is incredibly informative, with particular attention paid to O'Brien's effects work, Max Steiner's groundbreaking score, and Murray Spivack's resourceful sound effects.
The longest section involves the re-creation of the spider sequence, in which we see an approximation of O'Brien's labor-intensive techniques. The result is shown, intercut with shots from the film itself, as detailed in the script and other documents. It's 90 percent on the mark. It was unavoidable that Jackson had to use members of his crew to replace actors who have been dead for years. But, in addition to that obvious problem, there's still something subtly off in the lighting of the actors relative to the backgrounds.
It's a charmingly insane idea, and one gets the impression that Jackson did it because he was at a moment in his life when, thanks to The Lord of the Rings, he could do absolutely anything he wanted - a total freedom that he may or may not experience again. (Jackson, incidentally, is barely recognizable when he first appears on screen. He hasn't merely trimmed down a bit; he's truly skinny.)
The only misstep in RKO Production 601 is the 15-minute version of O'Brien's abortive pre-Kong feature, Creation, with a narration over an assemblage of stills and a few minutes of test footage. It simply goes on too long.
While it's nice that the various documentary crews seem to have shared their interview footage, one result is unfortunate: Several snippets show up in identical form in both of them.
The film itself has an optional commentary track from Ray Harryhausen, the effects master who worked with O'Brien on Mighty Joe Young, and Industrial Light & Magic's Ken Ralston. It's an informal chat, with the more knowledgeable Harryhausen playing Yoda to Ralston's Luke. They are occasionally interrupted by archival comments from Cooper and Fay Wray. F
King Kong. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. Screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose; from a story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper. With Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, and Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World. Warner Home Video, two discs; $26.99. Also available as part of the four-disc King Kong Collection, along with Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young, for $39.92.
Like our cover monkey? You can see more of the illustrator's work in The Art of Tony Millionaire, opening Fri., Dec. 2, at Secret Headquarters, 3817 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. The Eisner Award-winning artist will attend the opening from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.; the show runs through Dec. 31. Store hours are Tue.-Fri. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., and Sun. noon-7 p.m. For info, call (323) 666-2228 or visit Thesecretheadquarters.com.Published: 11/23/2005
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
