Thursday, February 18, 2016

King Kong, not just a gorilla

I love the original movie, and have never made secret of my disdain for the two needless remakes.  I've only seen each of them once and it's fine with me if I never see them again (feel the same way about the US Godzilla movies, too).  However, I'll give the 76 version credit for not making their Kong just a giant gorilla.  They at least got that right, as opposed to the 2005 remake which really just made him a larger than life animal.  Which, like dinosaurs, takes away his mystique.

Kong, as shown in the original, was more than a giant gorilla- he was an ape like being, smart, thinking and capable of monstrous evil and great good.  That's why they are monsters, we see ourselves in them.  The Japanese Kong movies also got this right, and of course barely resembled a gorilla, much less any known primate.  I love those movies as well, partially because I saw them before the original.

This really is kind of a part two to the last post.  Didn't dawn on me until just now.  I miss true monsters and heroes these days.

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