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titch

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The only nostalgia I have for this film is the interview the late, lamented Stuart Byron did with Dino De Laurentiis. I don't remember whether it was in "Film Comment" or the "Village Voice" but what I do recall is that Mr. De Laurentiis' responses were in the kind of Italinate English that Chico Marx specialized in. I don't know if that was accurate, but Stuart Byron, when I ran into him at MOMA, insisted that was on the tape recording. Anyway, at one point in the interview, Mr. De Laurentiis was quoted as saying, "When Konk die, everybody gonna cry."

John Belushi must have read the article, for in one of the first episodes of "Saturday Night Live" he kept repeating, "When Konk die, everybody gonna cry" throughout the broadcast. Or at least, that's what I remember.
It was an assertion Dino repeated with minor variations. "Nobody cry when Jaws die. When monkey die, everybody cry". There was a great feature on him in EMPIRE magazine recently.
 

lark144

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It was an assertion Dino repeated with minor variations. "Nobody cry when Jaws die. When monkey die, everybody cry". There was a great feature on him in EMPIRE magazine recently.
Yeah. I remember. But what I particularly found funny is how Belushi used Dino's words--and KONK, not ape, as reported in Stuart Byron's "Film Comment" piece--as a Zen Koan throughout the first episode of SNL. "When Konk die, everybody cry!" It was free-form poetry, a call to arms, a command from on high, so absurd it made perfect sense. "When Konk die, everybody cry!" Other than subscribers to "Film Comment", I wonder how many people picked up on it.
 

warnerbro

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I love this version. It was so exciting seeing this in the theatre as a little boy. The music is outstanding, the special effects are good. Rick Baker did a superb job. I think the pacing and production value is outstanding. Jessica Lange shows she is not just another pretty face. She is an outstanding actor and made the most of the dialogue which did have some corny places. Of course, it is a product of its time, but isn't everything?
 

John Maher_289910

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I found everything about it, except its score, deplorable. Outside of seeing it during its original release, I never felt compelled to ever see it again, and that's saying something, because I did extra work on it.
 

Noel Aguirre

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A few observations regarding the posts:
1.) Surprised RAH didn’t see this back then (at least that’s how his review reads to me) as it was quite controversial to remake such a classic in a big budget way and the huge advertising campaign.
2.) Jeff Bridges shows the “it” factor just as much if not more so than Lange.
3.) How anyone went to see this for Lange who was virtually unknown? Unless by photographs or trailers?

I liked it infinitely better than that Naomi Watts/Jack Black remake that has Kong ice skating/sliding in Central Park. And it has the World Trade Center Towers in it which had just been completed!
It’s definitely a product of it’s time like Superman 2 years later- not as good as but hardly as bad as some are posting. IMHO
 
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jayembee

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I found everything about it, except its score, deplorable. Outside of seeing it during its original release, I never felt compelled to ever see it again, and that's saying something, because I did extra work on it.

Same here. Well, I don't know if I'd call it "deplorable", but after seeing it in its original theatrical release, I'd only ever seen it once more, on cable, many years later. Like a number of other movies I didn't care for, I was willing to give it another try to see if my opinion changed, and it hadn't. Granted, the cable viewing was in 4x3, so it might not have been a fair assessment when it comes to presentation, but the overall flow of the story just didn't work for me. I agree that the cast was solid, and Rick Baker's work was terrific, but I just have no great desire to ever see it again. The 1933 original I can watch again and again. And unlike Noel, I was OK with the Peter Jackson remake, though even that I don't like nearly as much as the original.

Capsule plot description of King Kong (source forgotten): "Large ape moves to the Big City and fails to adjust to urban life."
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Nostalgia indeed.

I haven't seen it in ages, but yeah, like some others, I was just an enamored, young schoolboy back then, and it was indeed a major event movie... in Hong Kong no less (just before my family immigrated to NYC) -- IIRC, my parents didn't even want to go see Jaws and apparently thought that was a joke instead, LOL.

I guess I'll probably get this at some point when it's cheap enough (or maybe just the digital on iTunes or something) -- I never did buy the old DVD.

_Man_
 

John Sparks

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I found everything about it, except its score, deplorable. Outside of seeing it during its original release, I never felt compelled to ever see it again, and that's saying something, because I did extra work on it.

Wow, I'm interested in what you did.

I want the BD so I can try and see myself in the stadium, just before he breaks loose. The SD is too crappy looking and no detail.
 

Noel Aguirre

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Same here. Well, I don't know if I'd call it "deplorable", but after seeing it in its original theatrical release, I'd only ever seen it once more, on cable, many years later. Like a number of other movies I didn't care for, I was willing to give it another try to see if my opinion changed, and it hadn't. Granted, the cable viewing was in 4x3, so it might not have been a fair assessment when it comes to presentation, but the overall flow of the story just didn't work for me. I agree that the cast was solid, and Rick Baker's work was terrific, but I just have no great desire to ever see it again. The 1933 original I can watch again and again. And unlike Noel, I was OK with the Peter Jackson remake, though even that I don't like nearly as much as the original.

Capsule plot description of King Kong (source forgotten): "Large ape moves to the Big City and fails to adjust to urban life."
I’m “OK” with the Peter Jackson’s remake just prefer this one much better at it was modernized for its time as the PJ version set in the same time as the original was totally all CGI and looked it
 

Noel Aguirre

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I want the BD so I can try and see myself in the stadium, just before he breaks loose. The SD is too crappy looking and no detail.
I am too looking forward to the viewing this. The 4.5 visual rating and a 5? for sound from RAH gives me hope as it’s always looked crappy in all its iterations- cable, laserdisc, VHS, DVD, broadcast.
 

GerardoHP

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I saw it opening week, maybe even opening night. They had made it sound like a giant mechanical robot of Kong was used throughout the film. As I recall, there were about 10 seconds of that in the whole film, the rest was a man in an ape suit against a blue screen. I was crushed and disgusted and still am.
 

John Sparks

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If I remember correctly, in the press-book that was basically the gist of the synopsis of the movie. I think Rick Baker was mentioned once and the phony Kong was what was used throughout the movie.
 
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B-ROLL

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If I remember correctly, in the press-book that was basically the gist of the synopsis of the movie. I think Rick Baker was mentioned once and the phony Kong was what was used through the movie.
What King Kong is not REAL? ... Next you'll be telling me there ain't no Sanity Clause :D!

1620359114902.png
 

Mark Booth

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Has anyone watched the HD streaming version available on iTunes and elsewhere? I am wondering if Shout Factory simply used the HD transfer that Paramount provided and, thus, the streaming version would be the same?

Mark
 

Randy Korstick

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Has anyone watched the HD streaming version available on iTunes and elsewhere? I am wondering if Shout Factory simply used the HD transfer that Paramount provided and, thus, the streaming version would be the same?

Mark
It might be the same transfer but Shout always does additional work on transfer and many times create their own transfers.
 

jayembee

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Jack P

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My copy arrived today, and never did I think I'd be able to retire both my old obsolete DVD copy AND my old off-air TV cut recording. Excellent job there. The TV cut has the usual edits for broadcast TV of the day in terms of the stray language and the shot of Kong ripping off Dwan's top but to see it in widescreen (including the unused F/X shot of the car being thrown into the building) is something I never thought would happen.

You can also see how a lot of the extra footage is indeed recycled to "pad" the running time to two parts. It also sounds like some alternate music cues that aren't even on the two-CD soundtrack by FSM were used as well (though other cues are just recycled or re-edited).
 

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