Movies - King Kong

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	Movies - King Kong

King Kong (also known as King Kong: The Legend Reborn) is a 1976 American motion picture produced by Dino de Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic King Kong
, about how a giant ape is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition.

The remake's screenplay was by Lorenzo Semple Jr., based very loosely on the original movie story written by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which had been adapted into the 1933 screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose. It starred Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange, in her first movie role, playing a part similar to the one made famous in the original by Fay Wray.

Plot summary

The remake differs from the original in several major story details. Instead of a film production crew, King Kong's world is invaded by a petroleum corporation’s exploratory team. Fred Wilson (Grodin), an executive of the Petrox Oil Company, forms the expedition based on infrared imagery which reveals a previously undiscovered South Pacific island hidden by a permanent cloud bank; Wilson believes the island has a huge depository of oil, and has promised his bosses he will come back with “the big one.” Jack Prescott (Bridges), a primate paleontologist, sneaks onto the expedition’s enormous vessel en route and attempts to warn the team against completing its mission, citing an ominous final message about "the roar of the greatest beast" from previous doomed explorers. Wilson orders Prescott locked up, claiming that he is really a spy from a rival corporation. However, while being led below deck, Prescott spots a small life raft in the ocean and convinces members of the crew to search the raft. On board is the beautiful Dwan (Lange). Prescott’s medical experience enables him to perform a cursory exam of Dwan, who, after awakening, tells Prescott that she is an actress who was aboard a rich man’s yacht which suddenly exploded, apparently killing everybody except for her. During the ship’s ongoing voyage, Prescott and Dwan become attracted to each other.

Once arriving at the island, the team quickly finds that there is no oil and discovers instead a primitive tribe of natives who live within the confines of a gigantic wall, built to protect them from a mysterious god known as Kong. The natives kidnap Dwan and attempt to use her as a sacrifice to Kong, tying her to an altar outside of their walled village and chanting ominously the word “Kong” over and over again. The captive woman begins to scream in horror as something gigantic slowly approaches, crashing loudly through the jungle trees until it reveals itself as a monumental ape standing triumphantly over her. Kong grabs Dwan and departs back into the jungle. Although an awesome and terrifying sight, the soft hearted Kong quickly becomes tamed by Dwan, whose babbling sweet talk calms and fascinates the monstrous beast.

Kong takes Dwan back to a waterfall. He washes her, and then uses a great gust of his warm breath for a blow-dry. Just as he slowly begins to undress his 'wife', however, a giant snake appears and attacks the pair. Prescott finds Dwan, and as a battle of the beasts ensues, they escape. Kong then chases the pair back to the native village, only to be bombed senseless with chloroform.

Sans any of the promised new oil, Wilson decides to transport Kong to America as a promotional gimmick for his company. Brought back aboard an oil tanker, Kong is starved and kept in the dark, tormented. When they finally reach New York, Kong is put on display in a beauty and the beast farce, bound in chains and exhibited to the masses. Finally being mobbed by reporters, the extremely unhappy ape, pining for the innocent, carefree days back on his island, goes berserk, breaking his chains and terrorizing the city in an orgy of destruction. Wilson is killed during the rampage and a subway car is destroyed. Prescott and Dwan flee to Manhattan, since apes can't swim they think that they are safe. However, because of his great size Kong is large enough to simply walk across. Eventually he recaptures Dwan and begins to make his way to the World Trade Center, with Jack and the military in hot pursuit…

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Movies - King Kong

Plot summary

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