Review of King Kong

Introduction

The 60th Anniversary of Kong is upon us and we are given the DVD (hurray) directors cut no less of the magnificent 1933 classic King Kong.
The discovery of a giant ape on a remote lost island leads to terrifying battles against prehistoric creatures, the brutal murder of the sailors and the fatal attraction between the beauty (Fay Wray) and the beast. Kong rampages through New York, leading to death and destruction on the Empire State building. With some superb photography, stopmotion work that has only been rivaled by Ray Harryhausen at his finest and a touching, moving story. Kong has everything a film needs to endure 60 years and still be fresh and exciting. Some of the trick photography and effects here are absolutely superb considering its age. Think how it must have been like to see this in the 30’s for the first time.
Even today using the latest computer animation, such personality and emotion has rarely been achieved. Look at the depth in the shots with Kong fighting in the jungle. It just looks so good. Also did you notice that when Kong is on the cliff edge, birds often fly past leading do an illusion that it’s set in a real environment. This trick is always being used today by the latest computer sfx guys. Look at Gladiator or Starwars SE and you’ll see what I mean.

Video

King Kong is presented in black and white and in a 4:3 ratio. The picture quality is probably the worst I’ve seen on DVD at this time. I know the original film being 60 years old is going to have some major problems but at least they could of cleaned the picture up a bit. Criterion have been cleaning up old classics with advanced computer restoration for years, removing nicks and scratches so the transfer is the cleanest possible. So why not with Kong? Money? Probably, Universal probably couldn’t find justification in completely restoring Kong which is a real shame as people will miss out on this classic in the future. The picture features extensive grain throughout, and has very bad contrast and black levels. Dirt and scratches are everywhere and as the picture is so soft there is no detail whatsoever.
Oh dear. The picture occasionally flickers in that old film kind of way and well, what can I say. The only redeeming feature is the superb stopmotion and sets which try and take your mind off how bad the picture quality is. The only thing to do is to get engrossed with Kong’s exploits and dream of a time when Kong was not covered in white flecks of crap.

Audio

The sound is the standard mono affair, which has due to its age; high noise levels so that a hiss can be heard continually throughout. It’s also very tinny and scratchy. Basically what you would expect from such an old film.

Features

First up let me just say that the menu of Kong was quite nice up until when Kong appears. Then it when drastically down hill.
A 25-min documentary of the making of Kong is really all you get here which is to be honest disgusting. Although the documentary covers most of what you would like to know with interviews with some of the people involved it nevertheless seems a bit cable channel cheap and I’m sure that more in depth information could have been found. With such an important film as Kong you would of thought that some effort would have been made to fill the disk with extras such as commentaries by film historians and such like. Maybe an interview with Ray Harryhausen on the animation of Kong and its effect on his work. I don’t know, at least put something on the disk.
Oh I forgot you also get a crappy ‘films of Kong’ which is a list of all the different Kong films that have been made, mostly Godzilla versus Kong stuff.
That’s your lot I’m afraid. Yeah… I feel a rage coming on too.

Conclusion

A real crappy DVD which has nothing to offer apart from a great film which has seen better days.
Kong desreved better than this.

“It was beauty killed the beast” – “No it wasn’t, it was Universal.”