This gorilla of a film is blockbuster of the year
DailyMail.uk | BAZ BAMIGBOYE | 2nd December 2005
Just over a year ago, Oscar-winning film-maker Peter Jackson stood on the mammoth Skull Island set he had built on a peninsula in New Zealand and told me why he loved King Kong.
Speaking about Merian Cooper's classic 1933 movie, Jackson said: "The original Kong is a wonderful blend - probably the most perfect blend - of escapism and adventure, mystery and romance. It does everything an escapist movie should do: it takes you places you are never going to see and gives you experiences you are never going to have."
Jackson's words came back to me as I sat in the back row at the Loews Cinema complex on New York's West 68th Street this week, watching the first screening of his new version of Kong.
He may not have known it at the time, but Jackson could just as well have been talking about his own extraordinary remake of the movie that inspired him to become a director when he saw it one Friday night on TV when he was just nine years old.
The very next morning, Jackson started creating stop-motion films using Plasticine.
This time round, the director had some much bigger toys - 21st-century humdingers - to play with.
And he has made a picture I can only describe as jaw-droppingly brilliant: the most entertaining blockbuster movie this year.
But all this monkey business wouldn't amount to a hill of beans if the movie didn't have a heart, and boy, does it.
Kong's the last of his race. He has withdrawn into himself, and the occasional sacrificial native (he plays with them for a while and then tosses them away like chicken wings) is merely a distraction from the pain of his lonely life.
Then along comes beauty, in the shape of Ann Darrow, a Depression-era vaudeville performer living on the breadline, who lands a role in a madcap director's fantasy feature.
Ann, as played by Naomi Watts, is pretty weary herself. And somehow, the great ape and the lovely, lost woman recognise they are kindred spirits under the skin. Or, in his case, fur.
There's a beautiful moment with Kong sitting on top of a mountain, Ann in the palm of his hand, both watching the sunset. I actually heard one tough broad of a movie executive sobbing. Jackson evokes such a sense of empathy for his beast that Kleenex should be sold along with the popcorn.
King Kong truly is an 8,000lb gorilla of a movie. I'm still marvelling at a scene where a herd of brachiosaurus stampede as they are pursued by predators with teeth the size of carving knives.
Then, just when you think such a sequence can't be topped, Kong pounds to rescue his damsel in distress when some hungry velociraptors mistake her for a snack.
An almighty battle ensues and it's at this point Kong goes from super monster to super hero in Ann's eyes.
Jack Black, who plays preening, self-promoting movie maker Carl Denham, told me that, in the original movie, his character was older and more of a "kick-ass action hero".
"This Denham is darker," he says.
"He has an obsession with accomplishment. He's got insecurities and has this fear of not accomplishing something great before he dies.
"Fran Walsh [Jackson's life partner] told me my Denham has to have a little bit of Willy Loman from Death Of A Salesman to him. There's fear and arousal on my part. Certainly that's what Denham is feeling when he captures Kong on Skull Island."
Jack tells me all children - "at least all boys" - love King Kong.
"He is the king of all the monsters, even better than Godzilla. Kong is stronger and smarter than Godzilla, who's just a stupid, slimy lizard."
He was referring to the original Kong and the gormless 1976 remake with Jessica Lange.
But I think Jackson's version, which he wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (the trio also adapted The Lord Of The Rings for the screen), is accessible to all.
I don't know what the rating in the UK will be for the film - which also features Jamie Bell, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Kyle Chandler and Colin Hanks - when it opens in the UK on December 15. (It will have its London gala next Thursday, December 8.) But it might be a bit much for tiny tots.
As I write this, I'm getting shivers thinking of the moment when Andy Serkis - who plays a double role, but more of that later, as they say - encounters a giant insect that extends itself horribly and slurps him down head first.
It terrified me, but then I'm the guy who, years ago, ran from a Manhattan apartment I'd rented because there were cockroaches in the oven. Forget roaches - the bugs in this movie are the size of Agas.
Serkis was at the screening, along with most of the cast. The Londonbased actor told me the final version had only been wrapped up this Monday.
Andy's two roles are that of ship's cook (his speciality is porridge al la walnuts) - and Kong.
He went to Rwanda for a few weeks to study the gorillas - in particular, to observe how they moved and communicated with each other.
Jackson had Andy act out Kong's role and then digitalised it, using the same technique employed with Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings films. Richard Taylor, Jackson's long-time technical collaborator, explained: "Today, as an audience, we crave an emotional relationship, so we used Andy to drive Kong. To make him convey the toughness of this giant silverback, but also to give a sense of empathy.
"In Lord Of The Rings, we used an orange ball to denote something the actors would be acting to, and we added the special effects later. Here, we used Andy or a series of sculptures of Kong's face."
The Kong busts took a long time to make. Just punching in the 40,000 yak hairs took three-andahalf weeks for each one.
Monday will be the world premiere of King Kong, with cinemas around New York's Times Square showing the movie.
Some critics will carp about its length - three hours - but for me, the time sped by.
Jackson opens his movie with Al Jolson singing I'm Sitting On Top Of The World. And that's where the director is - with the competition far, far below.
