the 1976 king kong: is it really so bad?

-- terry (...), October 23rd, 2005.

no one should see doom! i made the mistake of seeing this last night. it was COMPLETE SHIT. and i was drunk, too!

It's OK. Jessica Lange played a stupid sex toy so well that I'd wish she'd accepted more during this phase of her career. Jeff Bridges is quite funny.

which i, um, MENTIONED in the very first post.

Well, I liked it at the time.

(You have to read between the lines of that book, but then I guess a few people didn't like it much)

I got here a great love story, a great adventure.
And she rated PG. For everybody."

- Dino De Laurentiis, from the 10/25/76 issue of TIME Magazine

I saw it again a year or so ago and had fun, especially because the movie looks so mid-70s. It is way much more fun than that piece of crap Godzilla movie they made a few years back.

I'll go one better than that. I've never seen it and... and... I guess that's all I have to say about that.

I've soured on Lange ever since she injected Quaker oats into her cheeks and mouth.

Man, the score for this one really is that good.

John Barry? Funnily enough I'm just watching the crappy 1974 Eurotrash version of "And Then There Were None" and thinking the music is really good, sounds like Morricone... and it's Bruno Nicolai.

I loved this movie as a kid, so much so that my parents got me a framed poster (Kong standing with one foot on each roof of the World Trade Center) that I hung in my bedroom for years. (It was eventually replaced by a poster of Rob Halford from Judas Priest riding his Harley.)

I love movie posters that should come with a giant fucking disclaimer that basically reads: "SORRY, KID: The scene you are looking at is absolutely not in the movie you have just paid to watch."

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0716/4105/products/KingKong-1976-VintageMoviePostera3conversion_1024x1024.jpg

"original motion picture event"

A film I saw once in the theater and never revisted... but the scene of Kong dying with Jessica Lange standing next to him stuck with me

Apparently, it's on HBO Max...I'm more than a little tempted to watch.

That's how I finally knocked this one off the list. Kael was off her rocker with this one overall, but there are effective moments here and there.

Between this and Eyes of Laura Mars, lotta Rene Auberjonois in my movie diet this week.

definitely one of the all time great movie posters. and wtf is kong crushing in his hand, a rocket?

Impressive legspan on Kong. I reckon his feet are a good 350 feet apart there.

wtf is kong crushing in his hand, a rocket?

A fighter jet, I think, like the one behind him.

The whole poster is a nightmare w/r/t proportionality. It's like that Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover where nothing exists beyond New Jersey, then there's Kong's head vs his body, his insanely long (for a gorilla) legs, Jessica Lange in his hand vs the helicopters and fighter jets...the longer you stare at it, the more wondrous it becomes.

Jessica Lange is about three stories tall, judging by the Twin Towers in relation to her. Back then we had movie stars.

I recall seeing this in the cinema when it came out and loving it, although I was 8 so maybe not the most discerning of patrons

they started the wrong corny oversized ape franchise in the 30's. They should have done one inspired by the deranged soviet scientist Ivanov. Who was trying to create a human/gorilla hybrid so Stalin could have an army of hench but intelligent and disciplined ape soldiers to destroy the Nazi regime and then take over the world.

Funnily enough I'm just watching the crappy 1974 Eurotrash version of "And Then There Were None" and thinking the music is really good, sounds like Morricone... and it's Bruno Nicolai.

plus Aznavour's version of the theme song, he should've played that one live more often

(Kong standing with one foot on each roof of the World Trade Center)

i'm studying this poster very closely and i believe his left foot is on one tower while his right is actually in the air and not on the other tower.