TO ILPAZZO AND POLETTI: I would like to clarify a few things about King Kong.. even though I haven't seen the De Laurentiis version yet, I can share something interesting. First of all, I wouldn’t be so harsh on the 1933 one. The King Kong by Schoedsack and Merian Cooper was extremely important for all adventure and fantasy cinema to come, not to mention its significance for special effects, which were further developed by the father of stop motion: Willis O'Brien. Up to this point, I agree with Poletti. To Ilpazzo, I would like to point out that even the original is full of poetry; when Kong places the beauty on top of the building before falling, he has a sad face and caresses her gently, something truly extraordinary! And then I would recall the words of Denham, the director of the original, who says, "If beauty captivates you, the beast becomes tame," referring to the human in love with Fay Wray.
I would also like to remind you of the names of the two directors of the original King Kong, which you didn’t even mention: Schoedsack and Merian Cooper. The two made another EPIC film together in the same year, The Most Dangerous Game, which was honored, AS POLETTI WELL KNOWS, by The Simpsons in a famous episode.
If you really want to exaggerate, you can also check out "Grass, a Nation's Battle for Life," a WONDERFUL silent documentary about a people from the East and their migration followed by the two intrepid men and a woman, as well as the original sequel to King Kong, "The Son of Kong," a film often unjustly criticized that boasts a SIGNIFICANTLY improved stop-motion technique with a Kong (white) offspring displaying extraordinary facial expressions and an almost epic final scene like that of the original!
A few words on Jackson's King Kong: the scene with the bugs under the bridge is not Jackson's idea; it was conceived by those two geniuses, Schoedsack and Cooper, but was removed after the first screening due to the horror it elicited from the audience (there were people torn apart...by the way, see a famous scene from The Most Dangerous Game) and it was never found again. Jackson thought it wise to recreate it.
Finally, a brief mention of the dinosaurs that Poletti claims were taken from Jurassic Park. So... apart from the fact that the dinosaur was also in the original, it is clear that Jackson paid homage to the legendary Willis O'Brien (supervisor of the original King Kong’s stop motion), who, before King Kong, worked on "The Lost World," a 1925 film based on the eponymous work by Conan Doyle, which would serve as a significant source of inspiration for Crichton in his novel but especially for the sequel with the same title, which is practically a rip-off of Doyle’s novel (even though he focuses more on the discovery of dinosaurs in the secret valley—this theme would also be developed in "The Land Before Time").
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out "The Lost World," the ending of which was slightly (and by slightly, I mean heavily!) inspired by King Kong. For more information on the films mentioned, I have reviewed them all on my blog (reachable via my profile... sorry for the spam), sorry for the length, and I hope I’ve provided some clarity.
