King Kong (1976)

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Movie
German title King Kong
Original title King Kong
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 134 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Guillermin
script Lorenzo Semple junior
production Dino De Laurentiis
music John Barry
camera Richard H. Kline
cut Ralph E. Winters
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
King Kong is alive

King Kong is an American adventure , horror and fantasy film directed by John Guillermin in 1976 . The film is a remake of King Kong and the White Woman from 1933.

action

A ship from the oil company Petrox, led by Fred Wilson, sets out for a deserted island in the South Pacific to develop new oil reserves. The paleontologist Jack Prescott is hiding in the ship because he suspects the existence of a giant monkey on the island. While sailing, the ship gets caught in a storm and receives the distress call of a sinking ship.

Fred Wilson informs the assembled crew that he suspects a huge amount of oil on the island, which is the cause of the cloud in which the island has been shrouded for decades. Jack Prescott reveals himself and attributes the formation of the cloud to the breath of animals. He tells of various legends that deal with a creature - "who touches the sky". Wilson thinks Prescott is a rival company spy and has him taken to the holding cell.

While Prescott is being led to his cell, he discovers a rubber boat floating in the open sea. Inside is a young woman; it is Dwan, the only survivor of the ship that sent the distress call during the storm.

On the island, Wilson, Prescott, Dwan and the geologist Bagley go ashore with crew members. On their exploration tour, they discover the camp of a native tribe, which is surrounded by a huge wall. They sneak into the camp and watch a ceremony in which a native in a monkey mask dances around a young woman. Jack interprets the huge wall as a protective wall against the monster and the ceremony as a representation of the sacrifice of a virgin to the giant apes, worshiped by the natives as a deity. Suddenly the group is discovered by the monkey actor. Angry because the ceremony has been disrupted, Dwan demands that Dwan be surrendered to the monkey god next. When the group refuses, they are attacked by the natives, but can repel them by shooting them in the air and flee.

The following night, natives paddle to the expedition ship and kidnap Dwan. Jack, who has fallen in love with Dwan in the meantime, goes looking for her. An offering ceremony takes place in which Dwan is tied between two tree trunks. The giant monkey Kong emerges from the forest and takes Dwan with him as an offering. In the following he treats her like his bride.

When Wilson learns from the geologist Bagley that the oil found on the island has to mature for 10,000 years for industrial use, he decides to take the giant monkey home with him and market it as an advertising attraction instead of the oil originally planned. Wilson orders a trap to be built in the camp for Kong to stun him and bring him to the ship.

In search of Dwan, Jack and his companions cross a ravine that is bridged by a tree trunk. They are surprised by Kong, who throws the men from the tree trunk into the ravine; only Jack and one other member of the search party survive. Jack finds Dwan and Kong on a level where there are two rocks standing side by side. Suddenly you are surprised by a giant snake. While Kong is fighting the snake, Jack runs to Dwan and escapes with her. When Kong notices Dwan's absence, he follows her and her rescuer to the camp of the expedition team. There he is anesthetized by the prepared chloroform .

On the way home to New York , Prescott Wilson makes serious allegations about his actions. A large-scale promotional event for Petrox is taking place in New York, at which “King Kong” is shown in a cage as an attraction. The aim is to re-enact the sacrificial ceremony held on the island. When Dwan is stormed by reporters, Kong freaks out and breaks free from his cage. During the ensuing panic, Kong kicked Wilson to death. Kong sets off in search of Dwan through the city, leaving behind chaos and destruction. The military closes all bridges to Manhattan . Dwan and Jack escape to a bar, but Kong finds them and kidnaps Dwan.

When Jack is reminded of the double rock on Kong's home island when he sees the World Trade Center , he contacts the authorities and tells them that Kong will head for the twin towers because they remind him of his home. He advises that helicopters should lower steel nets on Kong to capture him.

Indeed, Kong is climbing the World Trade Center with Dwan in hand. Some soldiers attack Kong with flamethrowers. Kong jumps up the next tower with Dwan. Attack helicopters approach, and Jack and Dwan watch helplessly as the helicopters fire at Kong with machine guns instead of catching him with steel nets. The badly injured Kong collapses, falls and dies. Reporters and onlookers crowd around the dead giant monkey, and the police can barely tame the crowd. Finally, Jack finds Dwan in the tangle, crying for Kong.

background

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  • Barbra Streisand was shortlisted for the role of Dwan, while Bo Derek declined the role.
  • When Meryl Streep applied for a role in the film, she was turned down by de Laurentiis . Allegedly, the producer is also said to have made derogatory comments about her to his son: “She is ugly. Why did you bring me something like that? ”Streep, however, understood the insult, having spoken fluent Italian since graduating from Vassar College , and reacted accordingly angrily. De Laurentiis denied this incident until his death in 2010.
  • Filming took place in Culver City , Kauaʻi , Los Angeles and New York from January 15 to August 27, 1976.
  • The Italian Carlo Rambaldi designed a mechanical King Kong especially for the film , which was to be used instead of the human in monkey costume. However, less than a minute of him can be seen in the film: the costume of make-up artist Rick Baker was more convincing.
  • Roman Polański and Sam Peckinpah refused to direct the film.
  • The English film production company Hammer had tried to make the film shortly before. But the first tests of the filmed material went so bad that the project was abandoned. Some of the material was used in a Volkswagen commercial.
  • Originally a more faithful remake was planned, which, like the original, should take place in the 1930s. For cost reasons, the story was moved to the present.
  • With this film, Jessica Lange started a successful film career.
  • In 1978, the US broadcaster NBC first broadcast the film on television. A two-part version of a total of three hours was shown, which contained numerous extended scenes.

Awards

Voice actor

The voice actors for the German version:

reception

Reviews

“The staging works […] with great effort in terms of equipment and trick technology, but at the same time cheap and primitive. [Guillermin] only achieves that little tension by letting the long-awaited monster appear after an hour. "

- film service

“To give the whole thing the right momentum, he (De Laurentiis) ripped off the audience with a giant robot that […] could only be seen for three seconds. [...] people flocked to the cinema - and when they came out they warned all friends and acquaintances about this contrivance. So the film was a flop. "

- Science Fiction Times

"Original remake."

- Lexicon films on television

"Complex, but rather primitive remake in the execution of the story and in the staging [...] A huge spectacle in the style of a ghost train."

- Lexicon of international film

Gross profit

The film could not build on the success of its predecessor King Kong and the white woman , so the film was able to gross around 52.6 million US dollars on a budget of 24 million US dollars.

Aftermath

  • 1986 followed with King Kong Lives an unsuccessful sequel, again under Guillermins direction.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meryl Streep in David Letterman ( memento of October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), 12/12/08
  2. ↑ King Kong (1976) - Alternate versions
  3. ↑ King Kong. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on September 17, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b film-dienst, quoted from: Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexikon des Science-Fiction-Films. 1500 films from 1902 until today. Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-00731-X , p. 444.
  5. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier , Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on Television" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 449.
  6. ↑ King Kong. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 17, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ King Kong. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .