Urban gorilla lives again

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 20

Urban gorilla lives again

During the new video, “King Kong Lives,” a sympathetic scientist comes across some smashed bodies and realises the enraged super ape has killed its tormentors. Now that he has killed, she laments, nothing will stop mankind from killing him. Now that is an entirely novel idea. Is it possible that Hollywood has forgotten the origins of Kong? He did not burst upon our screens in 1933 In order to give cookery lessons. When Fay Wray was tied to a couple of posts and offered to the Great Beast on Kong Island, the natives did not seem to be in any doubt that she was in serious trouble. For Jessica Lange in the remake, there was also the same expectation of certain death. And in both the earlier films, in the course of his struggles as an urban gorilla, Kong killed many times. The new video even opens with the sequence atop the World Trade Centre in New York, in which the mighty Kong punches out a helicopter and sends its crew tumbling to certain doom. The premise of “King Kong Lives” is that after his umpteen-storey fall to splinter the Big Apple’s pavement, Kong was still alive — just. Deep in his coma he

was installed in a research institute in Atlanta where, for 10 years, the good Doctor Amy Franklin kept his bulk alive on a life support system while an enormous artificial heart was built to make him rise again. But by then, his blood had deteriorated so much it was in no condition for the operation. A major breakthrough was needed, and courtesy of the Di Laurentis Corporation, the miracle happened. In the wilds of Borneo another super ape was found, this time a female. The female ape is brought to America to provide the blood for a transfusion, and the operation goes ahead. But as both giant creatures recover from their ordeal, the plot becomes suddenly very violent and very complicated. It starts to look like a cross between David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth” and “Patton.” Having discovered a wholly new species of creatures, animals capable of something close to human expression and emotion, even nobility, Western civilisation is apparently incapable of doing anything but turning them into yet another oppressed minority. Having freed himself and his prospective mate, and having set about trying to make a life with her, Kong is hardly an

object of awe. I His list of assailants is almost as long as either of his not inconsiderable arms. He is smitten by rifles, tanks, machineguns, dynamite, a front-end loader, rocks, even a golf-ball between the eyes. The video’s credits carry enormous list of special effects staff, who are certainly the real heroes of this episode. They have produced a wonderfully real looking video, by the skilful use of camera trickery and models. The result is a convincing Wong, believably 16m tall. The creatures were created and constructed by Carlo Rambaldi. Kong is,played by Peter Elliot, and in the best Shakespearian traditions, the female lead — Lady Kong — is also played by a man, George Ylasomi. In the leading human roles are Brian Kerwin as the tough jungle adventurer who captures the female ape, and Linda Hamilton as the doctor who is willing to risk her life time and' again to save the majestic beast.; The script is written by Ronald Shusett and Steven Pressfield, based on the original character created by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film is raged PG' and runs for 104 minutes. The New Zealand release is by C.8.5.-Fox Video. -D.C.