Kong at the gates
“don’t be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. those chains are made of chrome steel.”
the original King Kong is on the tube right now.
Mike and Va have a big television. it’s very wide. which really lets you appreciate the way movies are supposed to look. the screen is it’s like a tiny movie theatre right in the living room.
anyway. they’ve remade King Kong three times now. there was the original, the 1933 version that I think RKO did. this is the best one, and it’s not even close. a true horror movie of its generation. about a giant goddamn ape.
the second one stars a very young Jeff Bridges and was bankrolled by Dino DeLaurentis. it just oozes Carter-era gas crisis suck.
and the third one was directed by Peter Jackson and came out five years ago. which was all well and good, but just a holiday-season blockbuster. watching in great detail as the crew get eaten by enormous CGI bugs is some spectacle, but it’s not iconic.
the original was iconic.
it just was.
when I think of the seventies, I choose to think of it like this.
