King Kong: Difference between revisions

'''1976'''<br />The story remains pretty much the same, but the characters and situations are changed: instead of a filmmaker seeking an exciting movie locale, an [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|amoral oil executive]] is seeking an uncharted island (hidden by a perpetual fog bank) where he hopes to find an enormous untapped deposit of crude. The requisite blonde, Dwan (Jessica Lange), is encountered at sea, adrift in a lifeboat, the sole survivor of a yacht explosion; and [[The Hero]] is a stowaway anthropologist. The rest of the film plays out more or less as the previous version, albeit with a somewhat more realistic depiction of the natives and with fewer island hazards (the only oversized animals featured are Kong and a snake). The oil exec, upset to learn that the island's crude is unfit for refining, decides to "bring home the big one" in a very literal sense; when the hero brings Dwan back from Kong's clutches, Kong is again captured and brought to New York in a gaudy publicity stunt. Again, Kong misinterprets the intentions of pushy photographers, and the story goes on from there.

 

 

[[Sequelitis|A sequel]], ''King Kong Lives'', followed... [[Sequel Gap|ten years later]].

* [[Creator Cameo]]: In the original, the aircrew that downs Kong was played by the director and producer, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Shoedsack. In the 2005 remake, Jackson puts himself in the fatal plane in a deliberate [[Homage]]. Also with him in that plane is Rick Baker, who played Kong in the suit in the '76 version.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The original was pretty dark as it was, but the '76 version is a bit darker, with [[Bloodier and Gorier|much more blood and gore]] (unsurprising, considering the difference in decades and moviemaking standards). And the '05 version is the darkest yet, with its savage natives, tons of violence, and nightmarish creatures.

* [[Downer Ending]]: Both the '76 and '05 versions, as a result of making Kong even more sympathetic and having Ann/Dwan form a bond with him. The 2005 version in particular gets bleaker and bleaker the more you think about it: Kong's dead, and since he's the [[Last of His Kind]], his whole species is now extinct. Several civilians and many of the soldiers who tried to bring him down and protect the city were killed. Carl Denham's career is ruined for sure, and he'll never be able to donate the proceeds of his film to the families of the Venture's deceased crew members. And of the Venture's crew that survived, most of their friends (and in Jimmy's case, his father figure) are dead. One of the only really bright spots to come out of the whole deal is Ann and Jack's relationship, and even then there's a feeling that it won't last. Granted, a lot of the same points could also apply to the original, but the fact that the story of the '05 version is more "developed" just makes it even sadder.

* [[East Indies]]