All language subtitles for Long Live The King (2016) [WEB]EN

Did you ever hear of Kong?

- King Kong was a guy I
rented an apartment from

in Philadelphia while I was in college.

And he was really, really unpleasant.

We called him King Kong

because he was really
big and he smelled bad,

but the other King Kong,
the one I'm talking about,

is an icon.

- King Kong is a sadly
and horribly misunderstood

love-sick gorilla.

- King Kong is one of
the biggest on-screen

creatures, beast, in movie
history, I have to say.

He's awesome.

- He is, not only just a monster

who frightened moviegoers,
but he paved the way

for a lot of filmmakers to
expand their imaginations.

- King Kong is the icon of an entire

three or four generations
of monster lovers.

- "King Kong" was the firs movie

that I remember seeing as a child

where you just had no
idea how they did it.

- For me it's a very powerful thing,

it's about the time in my life
when I first saw "King Kong",

it's about the inspiration,

how it was one of the many things

that led me to want to
make movies like this

and be involved in movies like this.

- Look, Kong's the eight
wonder of the world.

And there's no getting rid of him either.

He'll come keep on coming
back and coming back,

like the best monsters do.

- Anybody who hears the
name King Kong gets excited.

He's our hero.

- "King Kong" is still the
greatest movie ever made,

and I would watch it right
now if you wanna spool it,

because it is just a
fantastic piece of work

that just cannot be matched.

- I saw "King Kong" for the first time

on Million Dollar Movie, on the
first Monday that it was on.

They would run at 7:30 and 9:30, I think.

- At Million Dollar Movie they would show

the same film twice a day,

and three times on Saturday,
three times on Sunday.

And the first film in the
Million Dollar Movie series

was "King Kong".

- And we were asleep, my brother and I,

and my father, who is a very serious man,

if you don't do sports
you don't exist kind of,

isn't into fantasy or anything like that,

came into our bedroom, woke us up,

which is unheard of without the house

was on fire or something,

and took us into the living
room where he had this tiny TV,

and he said, "This is the
greatest movie ever made".

- And it was one of those films

that my parents were talking
about during the day.

"Oh, 'King Kong' is on tonight", right?

And this is back in the
day before you could

get the home DVDs and whatnot.

So when something was on TV

you catch it or you miss it, right?

So it was an event.

"King Kong" on TV was an event.

- I remember my mom sitting
down and watching it with me,

like saying, like, "You're
gonna love this movie!",

'cause she knew I was like a monster kid.

And I also remember her drinking a lot.

It just came to me.

- I was hooked.

I mean, I watched it every night.

I couldn't watch both showings
because I had to go to bed.

- And on weekends they would
show it three times on Saturday

and three times on Sunday,

so you could watch it
16 times when it was on.

And I don't know if I watch it 16 times.

- I watched every single showing.

And the second movie in
the Million Dollar Movie

was "King Kong" again.

It was so popular they held
it over for the second week,

and I watched all of those.

So, in a very short time

I'd seen "King Kong" almost 40 times.

- "Channel 56" was a UHF channel,

and two generations just went, "What?"

And you were the envy of the neighborhood

if you had a really good
picture on Channel 56.

And every Saturday they
had the Saturday Night

Channel 56 creature double feature.

'Cause someone knew the difference

between "Beast with the Million
Eyes" and "Frankenstein".

Someone knew that there
were levels of quality.

When it was time for a really good movie

they would make a big deal of it,

and one of the first ones
I saw was "King Kong".

Thursday afternoon,

see three of the screen's
greatest thrillers,

starting at 1:00 with
the greatest of them all.

- The only way I ever saw "King Kong"

was on Thanksgiving Day when I
think it was WPIX in New York

would air "King Kong", "Mighty Joe Young"

and then "Son of Kong".

And I would just live and die every day,

every Thanksgiving Day,
to see these movies,

to try to rush through Thanksgiving dinner

with my parents, my grandparents,

and sneak away into the TV room

and try to catch one of
the giant gorilla movies.

And God forbid I'm having Thanksgiving

at my grandparents house
and they got a lousy TV

and it just, that would
destroy the whole year for me.

- We actually had a school field
trip to go see "King Kong".

So we went to a full movie theater,

I got to see it on the big screen,

it was my first experience
in the like 1970 ...

Like, before "Star Wars", if I remember.

So it was like 1975 or
something like that.

That was really, really uber cool.

- It's such and effect on you,

'cause I've never seen
anything like that in my life.

And my dad, he kept saying,
"I have no idea how it's done.

"I don't know how they got
to find a guy that big".

'Cause my dad was an idiot.

- Every single frame goes into
your psyche when you see it

because you're just so in
awe of what you're seeing.

- It was actually my first introduction

to science fiction and fantasy.

I lived in a small town in Arizona,

and we moved to a bigger town, Phoenix,

and I went to junior high

and one of the teachers brought
in "King Kong" on 16 mm,

started showing it at lunch.

So it was my introduction to stop-motion,

photography, backstairs score.

I mean, everything.

It was just a fantastic deal.

That was my introduction to "King Kong",

and to me it was like the
greatest thing in the world.

- I think everybody remembers

the first time they saw "King Kong".

- I'm going up and make the
greatest picture in the world.

Something that nobody's
ever seen or heard of.

- Well, "King Kong" tells the story

of an excentric movie
producer named Carl Denham.

- A ruthless filmmaker who
is willing to do anything

and exploit anyone.

- So off they go, and his first problem is

he has to have a female star,

the public likes a female
face, a beautiful face.

And he does, he comes across
the most beautiful face.

- It's money and adventure and fame.

It's the thrill of a lifetime.

And a long sea voyage starts

at six 'o clock tomorrow morning.

- And he says, "Come on,
we're gonna get on a boat,

"and I've heard about this island".

An incredible map that
tells of a mysterious island

where a beast god actually rules.

- "Now, we're gonna go to this island,

"we're gonna make a movie
that's gonna be fantastic,

"and I want you to be in it".

And with no script to prove or whatsoever

she decides, "Fine, I'll
venture on this boat full of men

"out to the middle of the ocean".

- It's an adventure, the
adventure of a lifetime,

of going out and, oddly enough,

in search of making the
best movie in the world.

- And they find a bunch
of prehistoric natives

who worship this great Kong.

- And so they all load up,

and he just starts randomly shooting.

It's like John Cassavetes,
there's no firm script.

- What he doesn't
realize is on this island

lives this creature that
the natives have worshiped.

- This thing, it's not a natural disaster,

it's not the result of atomic mutation.

It's this cultural iconic thing

in the life of this civilization

that we don't even know exist.

- The island itself is the
lost continent, you know?

It's preserved prehistoric
times, prehistoric history.

- The natives, as a way of saying hello,

strap the actress to a pole.

Kong!

Kong!

- They find out what
King Kong actually is,

he's actually a gigantic prehistoric ape.

- And, oh my gosh, here
comes this terrifying scene

where you hear him coming, and it's like,

"Oh, he's bigger than I thought".

And poor little Fay
Wray, you know, with the,

with the back and the forth,
and the back and the forth,

and then, oh!

And the dramatic, and the "Ah!"

I was in love with her immediately.

- And rather than have a snack
right there, Kong takes her.

- And so of course he becomes enamored

with this beautiful blonde.

- 'Cause all he had eaten before that

was dark hair native girls.

- I think Kong sees Ann as this beautiful,

unusual, you know, strange,
inexplicable treasure.

It's just, he's just never
seen anything like this,

this fair skin blonde creature.

It fascinates him.

- The captain of the boat,

who is then falling in love with her,

becomes a big rescue mission.

- It's impossible to describe the horror

of the wildlife on this island.

There's no like a house cat,

everything is the size of a Buick.

- So you have this island
with this giant gorilla,

and there's dinosaurs too.

"Oh, what the heck. Put them in".

- Dinosaurs come around,
never been seen my mankind,

specially as it's written history.

They throw a couple of gas
bombs at it and they're like,

"Ah, look at that thing.
Let's keep going".

- It just doesn't stop.

You're going to Brontosaurus land

and you're going to
Tyrannosaurus Rex land,

and you're going to this Plesiosaur.

- And other creatures kind of want her

because she's little and shiny.

And Kong has to like fight
them off, he's protecting her.

And we get a feeling
that he really likes her.

- When Kong has won the girl

and he see's he's got Ann
Darrow up on his lair.

- Not only is he not yet eating her,

he's kind of keeping her over on a shelf

he has in the jungle.

He's kind of keeping
her like a knickknack,

like, "Wow, she's got a pretty dress on".

She's momentarily, she stopped screaming.

- It's this moment when you see that

this is actually a thinking creature.

I think it's the first time we say,

"Wait, he's not a monster,
he's something else".

And that for me, I think
it's the most serious moment.

- I remember him,

I remember him having
his hand and doing this,

which as a child went "pheew", you know?

As a college student "Prrrr.

"What did he just do?"

- And he's just ready to sit
down and enjoy his prize,

and the pterodactyl comes.

- Kong is having a really,
really frustrating day.

And the pterodactyl is really the,

that's just like, "Dammit!

"Please!"

- The guys realize that
to attract the monster

they'll get the girl and the
monster will follow the girl.

- But we've got something he wants.

- The producer, Denham, has this wild idea

of taking the most
powerful creature on Earth

back to New York with
very disastrous results.

- Carl Denham pick up a gas
bomb and King Kong goes on it.

He can't believe all that,
but then Carl Denham, he says,

"You know, we're gonna take
him back to civilization".

- And the whole world
will pay to see this!

- "We're millionaires, boys!"

- I'll share it with all of you!

- And you know he's gonna
get rid of those guys,

he didn't care.

- It's like, I will
believe a giant gorilla.

I will believe that you can somehow

get him across the ocean
without drowning him,

and then you can run a mock in New York.

I do not believe a producer
will just offer out

profit participation
willy-nilly like that.

- Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong,

the eight wonder of the world!

- The curtain goes up and there is Kong,

and the flash bolts starts
flashing and he freaks out,

he breaks his chains and he escapes.

Had he not broken his chains,

what was the show?

- I'm assuming there was a huge warmup,

with dancers and a band, you know,

Tony Dorsey, you know,
who knows what they had.

- And, of course, you can
never control a wild animal,

even though everybody
thinks that they can.

- Kong breaks lose and is
rampaging through the city.

And in his panic, 'cause
New York City is scary.

- He's in a strange world he doesn't know.

He has no idea what's going on.

They chained him up, they've
done all this crap to him.

So, I don't blame him for
turning down the city,

I think I would too.

- Goes through New York
looking for his long-lost love.

Climbs up to the top of the building.

- And there he is trapped.

- And then they send
planes to get him down.

And the planes shoot
him down and he falls.

Sadly, he's dead on the sidewalk.

And Mr. Filmmaker decides
he'll dispense some wisdom.

- Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.

- Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes,

it was beauty killed the beast.

- And the story is a perfect circle.

The old Arabian proverb

written by that old Arabian Meerian Cooper

that opens the film,

and the fable unfolds in front of you.

All these adventures
have an amazing imagery,

this amazing quest.

Kong's downfall, and it
all works back around,

basically to the opening proverb begin

with the famous final line.

- Kong was, for all intends and purposes,

an original screenplay.

- So I'm talking about the
origin of the whole story,

and I think you can credit Willis O'Brien,

Jules Verne a little bit, obviously,

maybe Marien C. Cooper
read all of this stuff

and wanted the giant
gorilla because of that.

We know Willis O'Brien made contributions,

but the person who's never been vindicated

on the contributions to
"King Kong" is Edgar Wallace.

Edgar Wallace, if you
don't know, is probably

the most prolific mystery
writer that ever lived,

and largely his stuff
is mystery thrillers.

But in a lot of his mystery
thrillers, guess what,

you find poison gas.

Those gas bombs, I'm
the only one saying it,

but those gas bombs in "King
Kong" is Edgar Wallace.

- Merian Cooper will later say that

at least 90% of the film
screenplay was Ruth Rose's work.

There were still little bits
of James Creelman's screenplay,

there were little bits of Edgar Wallace,

and probably a few bits that
Cooper himself had thrown in,

but he said, mostly it was Ruth Rose.

So, and that's yet another
piece of the puzzle.

They truly caught lightning
in a bottle for "Kong".

- Because it's a crazy notion,

it's just the craziest
call of enemies, you know,

"we're gonna make up this
movie about a giant gorilla

"that fights a squadron of airplanes

"on top of the Empire State building".

And it's 1933, it's impossible
how they got it done.

And I think the creation of "King Kong"

is almost as impossible as the actual

strangest story ever conceived
by man, "King Kong" himself.

- It's one of those rare
moments in artistic endeavor

when everything was right
where it needed to be

at the right time,

and the result is the all-time
classic that we have now.

- I mean, Cooper was a real nation hero.

I mean, he flew, he got
blown out on a plane

and burned real bad.

I mean, he and Schoedsack were
really soldiers of fortune,

is what they were.

And it shows in this film.

- Yeah, and the fact that these
were documentary filmmakers,

and for them to say,

"We're gonna make this incredible story",

and for people who show
to invest in it, you know.

- David O. Selznick would later write

that one of the biggest risks he took

when he was the chief at RKO

was pulling money from other productions

so that Cooper could make "King Kong"

the way he envisioned it.

- I mean, you have Willis
O'Brien with this basically

the left of the remnants
of creation, you know?

You have Merian C. Cooper,
a madman wanting to pick

Komodo dragons against real-life gorillas.

And to put all of this together,

and this heads to finally say,

"Well, we can make this
movie, this magical movie",

I think it's the testament

of these guys passion and skill, you know?

I, for one, am so glad that they did.

- You know, for a movie directed by a guy

who was sort of going blind,

'cause Ernest B. Schoedsack was,

every part of the movie
is memorable for me.

- I mean, all this stuff
is just so incredible.

I can imagine in 1925 when
"The Lost World" came out,

which you had the dinosaurs
and stuff and things like that.

I try to put myself
back in that and think,

"Boy, I would have been flabbergasted",

and I was, I was
flabbergasted with "Kong".

I mean, absolutely, in a very good way.

- I of course was blown
away by it, you know?

It just, it's one of
those experiences that

they just impress themselves on your mind.

Every single frame goes into
your psyche when you see it

because you're just so in
awe of what you're seeing.

- It was a film I just
couldn't get out of my mind.

I mean, at first, I just loved it,

it was a great adventure
story for one thing,

and everybody was good
in the film, I thought.

- It's got fantastic actors.

Robert Armstrong is just incredible.

- Robert Armstrong plays
this sort of Ripley-like guy

who is actually kind of Merian C. Cooper,

this entrepreneurial producer who goes off

and makes these jungle movies and stuff.

And Carl Denham has always
been my favorite director

because of the way that he
directs Fay Wray on the ship,

when he's explaining to her
how to act and what to do,

"Now you see him and you're frightened".

He just talks and just talks at her.

Throw your arms
across your eyes and scream!

Scream for your life!

- Ah!

- He has a crude authority

that makes him kind of lovable.

- Robert Armstrong was
an amazing Carl Denham.

Nobody could do it better than he did it.

You know, Fay Wray was
the most beautiful woman

in Hollywood then,

and still today she is
the most beautiful woman.

She just signified beauty in such a way.

- I watched a lot of Fay Wray's
pictures from the early '30s

and she was quite a looker.

And she, of course, did
a lot of drama pictures.

And in "King Kong" she doesn't wear a bra,

which is always very pleasant.

- But it's always Fay Wray,
it's always that face.

And that very moment when Carl Denham,

when she's about to steal
the apple but doesn't,

and Carl Denham, she falls back
and caught her in his arms,

weak as a kitten, and you see that face.

Wow, it's just wonderful, you know?

It's a beautiful face.

And I think that there's no
red-blood man on this planet

that would disagree with me.

- She's the original scream queen.

And just being, I think, in
that moment, in that role,

she just blew everyone's mind

because she really, she brought it.

- I fell in love with her,
I think the first time,

you know, just, "Wow, she's so pretty".

And that never went away.

- She used to go to
screenings all the time,

you know, the big screening at the Chinese

when they sort of, we put the
picture back together again

and she was there, and
she was very gracious,

talked very lovingly about
everybody that was involved.

And it's was just a nice lady.

- When you're on a TV show
in any kind of regular basis

you get invited to stuff.

And so I went and there was a guy I knew,

and he was next to this
lovely elderly lady

who was just smiling and
shiny and just, you know.

And he said hi to me and I
said, "Hey, how are you doing?"

He said, "Have you met my friend Fay?"

And I said, "No".

"Oh, Brian Howe. Fay Wray".

And my jaw dropped.

And I remember holding my hand
out and my jaw dropping open.

She could not have been more
delightful, just lovely.

And I shook her hand and I said,

"The Fay Wray?"

Like it was just out of context, like,

"Why are you here in my
life at this moment?"

And she just was, she was lovely.

She was adorable, actually,
it's what she was.

- I was here for the 50th
anniversary recreation

of the premiere of "King Kong"

at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

There's Fay Wray, Ray Harryhausen,
John Landis, Hugh Hefner.

And I brought my "Making of
King Kong" book to get signed.

When she was signing my book
I was suddenly in limbo,

there was nothing else in the universe

except me and Fay Wray signing my book,

everything else was just blackness.

It was a real, magical,
mystical experience,

it's just incredible.

And she was so sweet and so
kind to sign my book for me.

I just, I was knocked down.

- I had the opportunity to play her

as a young child on stage in her play

called "The Meadowlark".

So I knew of "King Kong"

and I think I even rented
the movie right before,

and I was very excited.

And she was just this elegant woman

just walking down the aisle and,

it was an instant
connection, it was instant,

like it had nothing to do with age.

And we bonded.

Fay was always there, she
was always next to me.

If I was sitting down eating

she would be sitting next to me.

And after the show was over
she said, "Stay in touch",

and I said, "Okay".

And phone calls,

Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays,

Easter, the whole entire thing.

She really mentored me,
she really set me down

and told me what to expect

and really don't expect
anything and expect all.

And that always stood with me.

- For me "King Kong" is a
movie that has everything.

It's a jungle adventure film,

it's got dinosaurs, it's
got a giant gorilla,

it's got a beautiful, sexy woman.

I mean, I can't think
of anything that lacks.

- It's full of memorable characters,

it's full of memorable scenes.

And, of course, the Willis
O'Brien's work is phenomenal,

and even the flaws in it,

which are the fur is
ruffled under his fingers

every time he moves the puppet.

- And you'd see the finger
marks all over the model.

- A plus because it looks like wind.

- And I remember being
awestruck all over again,

like it didn't spoil it in the least.

- And those lavage, lush
backgrounds based on Gustave Dore

was just, have so much depth,

it just seemed to extend forever,

and they feel so real,
it feel like you could

just jump into the screen
and enter that world.

- They would paint leaves on glass

and put the glass in the foreground,

and then they put the puppet
on a pegboard in the background

and then they had another painting

that were rear background.

And how they figured that out

still is amazing to me.

- It was still a 3D
dimensional set with the camera

and a guy and a model,

moving this model a micron of an inch

and going click,

click.

And later that becomes King Kong? What?

That still defies explanation.

So, it hasn't become
less awesome with age.

- The effects are not an
issue at all, I love 'em.

And it goes back to the
"Siskel and Ebert" statement

where, yes, stop-motion
looks fake but feels real,

and CGI looks real but feels fake.

- It never ceases to amaze
when I watch the movie,

the amount of emotion and animalism

and humanity, if you will,

that Willis O'Brien managed
to imbue that puppet with.

- After he fights the T. Rex
and he rips the jaws open,

and then he leans over
and he plays with it,

and he opens the jaw

and he's sort of physically studying it.

- And I loved that when he breaks his neck

and he wiggles it to make
sure it's dead and whatever,

and then he gets up and does his thing.

That probably is my
favorite scene of the film.

- If you don't include all of the artists,

all of the pre-production
artists, all the set designers,

include just the guys that
were literally animating,

those two or three people

as opposed to 300 or 400
people that it takes today

to do a whole CGI character,

or a whole horde of CGI
characters for a movie.

To me the uniqueness is
that it's an artistic vision

that really does come out of one person.

- It's astounding that
when you think about

how big Kong really was,

but that they imparted
so much character in him

and so much personality.

And you can completely see
why every other filmmaker

and every other special
effects artist in the world

copied that.

And Ray Harryhausen,

the personality that he
put into his creatures,

was clearly mimicked by
what he saw in "King Kong".

- I think Forrest J.
Ackerman said it best,

in one of his most
eloquent moments, he said,

"What sets Kong apart
from other movie monsters

"is the fact that somehow
or other Willis O'Brien

"managed to insert a soul
into that little creature".

And I've never heard it put better,

I think that's exactly what he did.

- And it was achieved at a time

when that kind of thing was still new,

it had not been seen before.

So it was, it sort of epitomizes a time

when there were still new things to be had

in moviemaking that people could relate to

without understanding
the technology behind it.

- The other thing that
hadn't been around that long

back then was original
soundtrack recordings and scores.

That score by Max Steiner is unbelievable,

still one, I think one of the
greatest scores of all time.

- The music, oh, my God,
the music is spectacular.

Steiner's music just,
I mean he made it live.

I think movie scores
make films live anyway,

but this particular one,
wow, it was just so cool.

- He was so perceptive in
giving each character a theme.

- It was one of the first scores

ever written for a motion
picture, which I didn't know,

but it makes sense because
in that soundtrack,

in that Max Steiner soundtrack,

there are themes for the
different characters.

- When you hear Kong via the score,

the first time he appears,

you're not actually hearing him
but you're hearing "Hmmmpf".

Where you're imagining,
"Okay, that's something huge,

"and it's taking steps",
but it's all done musically.

Astounding.

- Again, another thing
that locks into an artifact

of a very specific time,

not just in the movie
itself but also in my life

when I saw it, I think.

- Skipper, believe it or not,

there's a little Kong.
- What?

A little Kong?

How little?

- "The Son of Kong" is
an interesting movie

because it's a big picture,

and they had to make it
quickly to take advantage

of the amazing success
of the first picture.

- "Son of Kong" is a
strange little oddity.

It came out in the same
year as "King Kong",

they're both 1933, which is impressive.

It implies the presence of a Queen Kong.

That's, there's a movie right there.

- I was definitely wondering
how did that happen,

how did King Kong have a child.

So, can someone tell me?

Who was he having kids with

and how exactly would it happen?

- I mean, there's a lot of
unanswered questions here.

So Kong just left the family,

they don't know what happened.

He went off to the big city,
and with his girlfriend.

- Did you ever catch a monkey?

- Did I ever ...?

Lady, you'd be surprised.

- Kiko, the son of Kong, no
explanation where he came from,

where the mom is or if Kong is the mom.

- You know, there's the
reason why Willis O'Brien

turned his back on the actual movie,

is because it was too funny.

You know, we had such an epic movie,

and to be followed by a lighthearted rump,

I think really let the movie down.

- Kong is dead, but everybody's interested

in you too, Mr. Denham.

All those people that
Kong killed and injured,

all the property owners who
are suing you for damages.

- A very clever opening, real,

which most of these movies don't have

where Carl Denham is like ruined to death,

he's been sued by everybody in New York

for all the damage that Kong did.

And that's a pretty hip
joke to be making in 1933.

- The setup, the beginning was great.

Carl Denham on the run, and
he goes back into the jungle

and the whole thing with the girl

and the father getting killed.

All that stuff was a great setup,

and shockingly enough, when
they introduced the son of Kong,

it's a real let down.

- It's the song "Runaway Blues"

that just stops the
film dead in its tracks

for the three minutes she's singing that.

♫ Oh, I've got the runaway blues

♫ I want to wander away

But I love it 'cause I love
the audience nod in response.

The Asian and Chinese gathered,
just kind of sitting there,

just sort of numb as she's
going through her number.

But it's a sweet song.

And I love the way that
Steiner echoes that song

throughout the film.

- Well, you know, Kong's son,

who may or may not really be the son,

the jury is out on that
because there's certain things

about him that don't seem
to match up with his dad.

But the idea of making him the hero

sure came from the idea
that so many people

actually had responded
to King Kong emotionally.

- By the end, when the island is sinking,

and out of nowhere the son of Kong

holds up Carl Denham and saves him,

I can't remember a more
affective scene when I was a kid.

Taught me about pathos

and closing a little upon
a story, and heroism,

and doing the right thing.

- It's undeniably moving,
in a very corny way.

- Then "Mighty Joe
Young", which is, I think,

the greatest special
effects movie of all time.

There are scenes in that that
have never been duplicated.

- Cooper already had the
idea for a long time,

but when he re-released Kong in '47

it did better than it ever had before.

I mean, you had audience
now, a new audience.

And, if anything else,
I'm sure that he said,

"I'm gonna make this other
gorilla picture now".

- It's a slicker picture than "King Kong"

because the film stocks are different

and the techniques are different.

- There was enough advance made
from, whatever, 1933 to '49,

technically, that it felt
more like a traditional movie

about a great character, you know?

Can't go wrong on a gorilla
movie, as far as I'm concerned.

- And there's a lot of really
sophisticated techniques used,

particularly in the
whipping the monster scene

which was repeated later
in "The Valley of Gwangi".

- And those were great lions too.

They did a combination of real lions

but also stop-motion animated lions

for when Joe is fighting the lions

when he's tearing apart the club.

Those just look incredible.

I'm sure those were a huge
influence on Frank Frazetta.

- It's the template for
really a lot of pictures

that Ray Harryhausen made after.

- The whole ending, that
just wonderful thing

where Joe's gonna get away but he doesn't

because he needs to save
those kids in the orphanage.

- And when the picture was released,

the fire scene in the orphanage
was originally tinted red.

The burning orphanage,
the combination of fire,

which is hard in a regular movie,

let alone to make fire work
for you in an animated film,

climbing the tree, the look in his eyes

when the tree falls
holding the little girl.

No one's gonna shoot Joe now.

- My poor Joe.

- It's alright, kid.

There's nobody in the
world gonna shoot Joe now.

- No, it's my home, I've
lived here all my life.

- Terry Moore is so
darn cute in that film.

I just, I fall in love with her

every time I watch that movie.

And I love the way she relates
to the big gorilla, to Joe,

that started as her little baby pet

that's growing into this gigantic thing.

- Mighty Joe Young was even
more human than King Kong,

though we accept that
because he was brought up

by a young girl whereas
Kong was involuntarily

this sad, lonely monster
all by himself on an island.

- Joe is just a great guy, you know?

You'd like to live next door
and have coffee with him

and give him bananas
or something, you know?

Kong, I don't think you'd wanna do that.

- I felt like Mighty Joe Young

had more of a range of
character than Kong.

Kong had, there was angry Kong
and there was Kong in love.

And with Mighty Joe Young

there were times when
he was kind of playful,

there were times when he was inquisitive,

there was a whole point where he was

depressed in the basement.

And there was a much wider range,

and more fun setups.

- It's just not matched by
anything in kid's cinema

until maybe "Toy Story",

and that ethic that the Pixar
and Disney folks brought

to those kinds of films,

which I think deep down
is the result of seeing

"King Kong", "Son of
Kong", "Mighty Joe Young"

and knowing how to tell a story

to adults and children at the same time.

- As a kid you'd watch "Son of Kong"

or you'd watch "Mighty Joe Young"

'cause "King Kong" wasn't on.

Saying, "Alright, I'll watch this".

- Around 1960 Willis O'Brien,

who did the special effects
for the original "King Kong",

thought, "I'd like to do
another King Kong movie".

Well, his first thought was
probably, "I like money",

and then he thought, "Let's
do another King Kong movie".

Now, "Godzilla" had come out in 1954,

so he thought, "Let's do
King Kong vs Frankenstein".

He didn't even think of Godzilla.

- There was gonna be Kong
versus a Frankenstein

troglodyte creation, like
this big hulking mass guy.

- He went right to a giant
Frankenstein in San Francisco.

Having lived in San Francisco,

who's gonna notice a giant Frankenstein?

There's enough stuff
going on at eye level.

- Couldn't get anybody, couldn't
get arrested with the idea.

- He is not a writer but he has this idea.

He hooks up with the
producer, named John Beck.

John Beck, "Yeah, we'll
get this thing going.

"Let's get it going".

So he's selling it and they find out,

no, you don't have the
rights of Frankenstein.

So they changed the name to
"King Kong versus Prometheus".

And then, while doing
research, John Beck finds out

that Willis O'Brien didn't
own the rights to King Kong.

So John Beck thought, "I
know, I'll steal his idea".

- And he decided to kind of take it,

you could say he scouted
with it, not quite sure.

- So, without telling Willis O'Brien

John Beck starts to
talk to a lot of people,

among them Toho International in Japan.

- And Toho is like,
"Well, we like the idea

"of King Kong versus Frankenstein,

"but we think it's gonna be even better,

"specially with our 30th
anniversary coming up,

"let's do King Kong versus Godzilla".

- Around this time Merian C. Cooper,

who produced "King Kong", says,

"Hey, hey!

"You can't sell my movie, I
own the rights of that movie.

"You stole 'em from me!"

John Beck said, "I didn't
stole 'em from you,

"I stole 'em from Willis O'Brien".

Merian C. Cooper says,
"He stole 'em from me".

So now everybody starts suing everybody.

In comes RKO Studios and goes,

"None of you own the
rights, we own the rights".

And then they sue everybody too.

- And Beck went and he
negotiated the rights,

got the rights from
RKO and sold it to Toho

for an exorbitant amount of money.

- And the only person who
stays on the film and gets paid

is John Beck, the one guy who never, ever

had the right to think he owned anything.

Beautiful Hollywood story.

- They were touting the new version

of "King Kong meets Godzilla".

And there were rumored to
be two different versions

where he wins and Godzilla
wins and all of that stuff.

But none of that really mattered

because the monster suit was so crappy,

it was so terrible.

It was one of the worst gorilla suits

I've ever seen in a movie.

And it's supposed to be King Kong.

- You essentially get a
guy in a gorilla suit.

And I've been a guy in a gorilla suit

without any ability to
have and show any emotions

'cause his eyes aren't even his eyes.

- And so, and thus the movie is,

it's extensibly a comedy, I think.

And it was suddenly treated by
the distributor as a comedy.

- One of our first big treats
in "King Kong versus Godzilla"

is Kong versus the giant octopus,

which is an actual giant
octopus in some shots.

What happens is Kong is
brought back to the mainland,

at the same time that Godzilla

has been woken up from a glacier

because an atomic submarine
is in it, of course.

It's destined that these two guys

are gonna fight each other.

You now have Kong at 147 feet tall

to be able to fight Godzilla.

And also, for some reason,
Kong has the ability

to conduct electricity,

because he has to be able to fight

the atomic breath of Godzilla.

After all this battle, Kong
goes back to his island,

Godzilla falls off to the ocean,

we have no idea what's going on.

- Godzilla has disappeared
without a trace.

As for King Kong, our international
communications satellite

is following him.

- It's a draw, nobody wins.

Okay, well, there you are.

- Godzilla was my favorite.

Godzilla and the creature

were my two favorite monsters as a kid,

so when I knew there was a
Godzilla versus King Kong

I was so excited.

- And to me at the time,

the King Kong was the exact same Kong

from the original movie, I
couldn't tell a difference,

I was four or five years old.

I was just excited to see
this wonderful ape again.

- I have a very strange deep love

of "King Kong versus Godzilla".

And to this day, there are certain films,

there's just something
about the look of them

that I find just gorgeous.

- It was a natural thing that
Godzilla should meet Kong.

I mean, they're both big,
giant monsters and stuff.

It was very enjoyable, I
enjoyed both the films,

but I never took them seriously.

Ever could I ever take
either one seriously.

- Here in the States what happened was

the animated company Rankin Bass

got the rights to Kong to do
their own animated series.

♫ The legend Kong

♫ King Kong, you know the name of

♫ King Kong

So Rankin Bass approached Toho

about doing a new Kong film,

and this was going to
be "King Kong Escapes".

King Kong escapes
and meets his greatest foe,

the Kong of steel.

- "King Kong Escapes" is totally

of that Toho science fiction era,

it's totally of that Rankin Bass show,

it's its own creation,

and I don't think anybody's ever gotten

that weird with Kong yet.

- Yeah, I watched them all at once.

That's enough for me.

It was, you know, none
of them are really Kong.

The real Kong is the Willis O'Brien Kong.

- It's definitely, if
you're a diehard 1933 guy,

the Toho films in general are
a disappointment, I think,

because Kong in "Kong versus Godzilla"

is not the Kong we know.

- The problem is, a big hit
always brings competitors

or the copiers that have no
real understanding for it

and decimate the original
for what it was worth.

I mean "Jaws" is one of the
10 best films in the world,

as far as I'm concerned,

but there wasn't one movie made

about a shark attacking
people after "Jaws"

that's worth the day.

The always hit this middle ground where

I remember "King Kong" comes about,

"Well, okay, we'll have them do,

"this Chicago city will be there,

"it will be other tower.

"It's not King Kong, it's not
the Empire State buiLding".

You know, whatever.

- Fantastic.

There's a huge monster gorilla

that's constantly growing
to outlandish proportions

loose in the streets.

- I remember seeing "Konga"
as a creature feature on TV,

and ...

I don't even --

As much as I'm willing
to forgive the Toho Kongs

for the kind of cheesy-looking
guy and suit effects,

when it got to "Konga", that point now,

I mean, it was really just,
"Go down, get a gorilla suit

"and put a guy in it,

"and have him rampaged through a model".

And I'm like, "Ah, really?"

And there was all the,

I remember 'cause there was
like some growth formula

that Michael Gough's character was using.

I don't know what film he was
in but he was off his rocker.

At the end it's not a woman

and Konga's claw, is Michael Gough.

It's like, "Really?"

- Konga!

- He looks very sexy in
the giant gorilla's paw

at the end of this film.

- "Trog", although, is not a giant ape.

Essentially it is the
structure of "King Kong".

It's good to have a couple
of beers with that one.

- I saw some movie at the
theater called "A*P*E",

and literally it was just
a guy in a gorilla suit.

It was a 3D movie and it was terrible.

And I noticed how cheap it
was because this gorilla

had the same rubbed Don Post Gorilla hands

that I had on my gorilla suit,
I recognized the wrinkles.

And there was a point where he knocks

a helicopter model out the
sky and flips off the camera,

and that's where I got a really good shot

of this rubber hand.

So, I just never liked things

that seemed like cheap knockoffs.

- Here's the power of Kong!

- With the '76 Kong, I mean,
I knew my friend Rick Baker

was gonna play the gorilla, and I thought,

"That's kind of cool".

I didn't see any pictures,

or I hadn't seem anything on him at all,

and I was kind of looking
forward to it, I thought,

"Well, maybe it's okay".

I did hear he was gonna fight a big snake,

they weren't gonna have a
dinosaur, and that kind of,

you know, but, well, maybe
they just ran out of budget.

I don't know.

I didn't know who Dino de
Laurentiis was, I had no idea.

- Well, Dino's "King Kong", again,

was pretty much a disappointment,

largely because Carlo
Rambaldi's big Kong thing

that he built didn't really work.

- "Jaws" had just come out,

and "Jaws" they built this
gigantic 25-foot shark,

They had claimed in the marketing
campaign for "King Kong"

that they had built a
full animatronic Kong

that did everything,

and that the only thing they
used the guy in the suit for

was a few shots.

Later, of course, you find out

that the reverse was really true.

They did built a full-size mechanical Kong

that looked absolutely nothing

like any of the ape faces in Kong.

Nothing at all.

- And then of course when
you're seeing the movie

it's like ...

And it doesn't even move,

where you see like four shots of it.

- The arm actually came loose,

it's all mechanical, made
out of steel and stuff,

with fur on it,

it fell off and, darn
it, it hit some people.

And then it's used, I think,
in two scenes in the film

for about maybe five,
six seconds, that's it.

And the rest of it is Rick in the suit.

- But I remember watching
the movie for the first time

and I think more than anything
the giant mechanical hand,

I loved that, I mean, I just
loved how they built that hand

to come in, and then, you know,

in the waterfall scene
where it's holding her

and there's one that's she's sitting in.

That I always love,

I was always fascinated
with that aspect of it.

- Before that movie came out,

going into all the excitement,
knowing it was Rick Baker,

and I was a big Rick Baker fan by then,

and pictures came out.

I remember when "Time" magazine came out

just trying to read everything I could.

And I read past all the stuff about,

"It's all gonna be a life-sized robot".

And I just didn't care,

I didn't believe it and I didn't care,

I was just wanting to see Rick Baker

in another gorilla suit.

- And Rick did a gentleman job

because Rick loves playing
apes to being with,

and to play King Kong
was obviously, you know,

it's the guild leader of monsters.

- I know that Rick Baker isn't fond of it,

or isn't fond of aspects of it.

I think I'm much generous
in embracing all of it

because it was Rick Baker.

- Aside from Rick's great
suit and the miniatures

that John Berkey artword
for the poster, was it.

And I'm a big fan of John Berkey's

because he had also painted

the poster for "Towering
Inferno" and "Orca".

He'd done a lot of amazing posters.

And there are variations of the posters.

There's one of him
knocking through the wall,

there's one of him fighting the snake.

The movie posters is what pulls you in,

it was that sense of wonder of like,

"Wow, look how big he is".

And then, of course, you see the movie

and there's not way he could have stood

from one tower to the
other, but it didn't matter.

- I didn't hate that one at all.

What? I didn't hate it.

It was silly in places, yes,

but, you know, by then, of
course, with all the animations

you could get out of his face,

and like you could read more
expression from him and all.

I absolutely have a big
heart for that big silly.

- And I'm a huge Jessica Lange fan,

so I found her riveting,

I mean, I thought she was just amazing.

And I loved the movie.

- I think Jessica Lange could take care

of any ape that she wanted
to, specially back then.

Oh, my.

- But good character,
I loved Charles Grodin,

I thought he was the best.

It was interesting that
he wasn't in moviemaking

but there was still a
reason to take Kong back

as an advertising gimmick
and all that stuff.

I really thought it was fun.

- And I think the switch looking for oil

at the time of the '70s
was a good plot twist.

You know, it wasn't as
theatrical as the original one,

wasn't quite as big a fairytale.

I, for one, I'm a really big fan of it,

and I can put it that
just below the original.

- Had the chance to work with Jeff Bridges

on a movie called "K-Pax"
and I'd forgotten,

I had actually forgotten

that he's in the Dino
deal in this "King Kong".

And he had a brief anecdote
that they were coming up close

to the end of the shoot and, you know,

Jeff and Jessica were
both like really over it.

He said that, "Jeff! I
have two words for you",

and Jeff said, "What?".

"Kong 2".

And Jeff said, "I have two words for you".

- The 1976 "King Kong"
was disappointing enough.

It's all in retrospect
that I think people like it

because it was Rick Baker in the suit.

So, what does De Laurentiis do?

He doubles down, literally.

And he brings this "Kong Lives".

Not one but two people in suits,

male and female, 'cause
that's what we wanna see,

two people in gorilla suits getting it on.

- The worst scene in that
movie is when the two apes

are kind of trying to be romantic

and they're playing this soft music.

It's like, "Ah, this is just too much.

"No the romantic apes".

- The thing about "King
Kong Lives" also is that

this is like way after the
'76, this is like 10 years,

it's like '86 when "King
Kong Lives" come out.

We've had "Star Wars" since then,

you've had a lot of classic '80s cinema,

"Blade Runner", since then.

You have no excuse for
sub-'70s special effects

like little tiny storebot alligators,

they just took them off his feet.

And the best De Laurentiis came up with

is an open heart transplant,

which an open heart
transplant on a giant gorilla

is saying something, but
who wants to see that?

- I don't have a lot of
fond memories out of it,

I just remember this was a really bad,

bad movie all the way around.

- I think at that point
we were pretty sure

that Kong was dead as a property.

- You know, Peter
Jackson of course came on

and that's a true labor of love.

It's a remake made by somebody

who loves the original
picture to the point

of re-staging scenes
that were cut out of it

or maybe not even filmed to
put them into this picture.

And it's technically marvelous, of course.

- When Peter Jackson told
he was gonna make "Kong",

and he had planned it for
years and years and years,

and he always had said,
"I'm not remaking 'Kong'.

"It's my favorite movie",

I mean it was his absolute favorite movie.

"I wouldn't even attempt that".

He says "Kong" is the perfect movie.

"I can't do it.

"All I can possibly do is
make it a little bit more,

"not modern, I'm gonna keep
it in the same place it was,

"but technically I can
make it a little better".

- And what I love is because Peter

also is such a fan of the original movie

that you knew that you were in good hands,

that he would do justice
to the great moments

from the original "Kong" that
people really responded to.

- And he did everything right,

down to having the tribal
dance from the original movie

as the Broadway show dance in the remake,

which was just a stroke of genius.

- I was totally pumped
and ready for that movie,

and when it opened up I thought,

"This is going to be incredible",

because it was a gorgeous reconstruction

of Depression-era New York,
and it's just grim and down.

Yet, as a counterpoint to
that was this jaunty music

from the era, and I thought,
"This is gonna be great",

'cause already it's indicated to me

that there's gonna be a
lot more depth to this.

- It was the scene in Central Park

where they're skating on the ice,

and we're sitting there in
the theater and my wife goes,

"Does he die at the end?"

And I say, "You've seen 'King Kong'".

And she goes, "No, I haven't".

And I ...

You got a rough 20 minutes coming up.

- I mean one of the greatest
scenes in the movie,

and I cry almost every
time I see it, I tear up,

and that's where she's doing
the sign language to him

about beautiful and all, and
he finally does it himself,

and it just, it gets you, man.

- Beautiful.

- And then when he actually dies,

there's one expression he gets.

- When you're close on Kong's face

and you see the the life
drowning out of him,

his eyes glaze over.

I mean, I don't even know how
they did the shot, honestly,

and make it work the way it did,

but in his eyes you see him glaze over

and you know he's gone,

and he falls out of the
scene, you know? I thought --

- That part to me

was really a wonderful
thing to put in there.

- You know, my wife and
I went to see "King Kong"

and by the end she's just balling,

just weeping, you know?

It's just like, this is so sad.

- You know, I'm not a gigantic fan of CGI,

I much prefer the guys pulling the cables

and finding really smart ways to do it

and to marry the two techniques

instead of one technique sort
of overshadowing the other,

but I thought that "King
Kong" did a really good job.

I hadn't seen that good of an integration

since "Jurassic Park".

It's those kinds of things
that keep the audience

in their head guessing,
"How the did that?",

which is what really interests me.

- They had Andy Serkis,

who turned out to be one
of the greatest mimes,

I mean, plus a good actor too,

but one of the greatest mimes
I've ever seen in my life.

And he get all of Kong's moves and

he hit all the dots and things on,

maybe when they do that he did everything,

I mean, really great.

So that was Kong's personality.

- I got to work with Andy
Serkis on the "Apes" films,

and the love he has for playing King Kong,

and also apes and primates
in general is just,

it's really touching.

- I loved it, you know?

I mean, I know one of the
biggest criticisms was

it was too long and there
was too much going on,

but I didn't have a problem with that.

I really enjoyed it.

- And this picture, technically
it's really quite a marvel,

and the love is in every frame,

but it's just not,

it's hard to beat the original.

To the scene,
he was last sighted nearly ...

- Remember there was this time
when all the news was a buzz

that Universal was gonna
do a Kong attraction

where Kong was gonna be as
big as Kong was in real life,

and I was like, "How the
hell are they gonna do that?"

- My first real excitement for "King Kong"

was when I went to
Universal Studios as a kid,

went on the Tram Tour,
and saw this seven-ton,

30-foot tall animatronic King Kong,

and it was absolutely mesmerizing.

I went and had to go on again,

that was my favorite thing on the tour.

Later I got a job at Universal
Studios playing Frankenstein

and I would ride that
tour, when I first got it,

just to see that King Kong,

because it was right in front
of your face, it was huge,

it had the banana breath.

It was just absolutely,
it was stunning to me.

And it was like, I think it was

the biggest animatronic
for years, in the world.

- That and also my imagination also was,

"Wouldn't it be great
if the mechanical Kong

"broke free of the ride

"and rampaged through Los Angeles?

"That would be awesome".

And I lived down from Universal,

and I saw this big plum of fire

coming from the Universal lot.

"Oh, wow, the got fire in the back lot".

- They had a fire in 2008 and it burned,

and it was just, I was like,

"Oh, my God, I can't
believe this happened".

- The Kong ride burned,
and it was lost forever.

And that killed me.

The hell with heritage of
film and television history,

they killed Kong, they
burned it down to the ground.

It was an accident, I
don't think it was arson,

but I still blame somebody.

- And they were gonna
shell the whole thing,

and then Peter Jackson
came in and did the 3D.

And, you know, that's cool, but
there's just something about

having something real in front of you

that massive, you know?

And that's the size that
you think of King Kong

when you see that.

So it was really exciting
and the childhood memories

were of that piece at Universal.

It's really, really good memories for me.

- I wonder how many
people "Kong" influenced

to get into the film business.

I mean, Ray Harryhausen, I
think had a direct influence,

I think "Kong" had a
gigantic impact on him,

and he ended up actually getting to work

with Willis O'Brien.

Me, I mean, that was my
introduction to fantasy films,

to look at film itself,
but also fantasy films,

and I became totally
enraptured by special effects.

When I began making my own films
I was a production designer

who's specialty was special effects,

and I trace that directly
back to "King Kong".

- Years ago I had come
up with a little idea

for a short film, and
the whole thing stemmed

from being on a tram at Universal Studios,

and I thought, "Wow, wouldn't
it be kind of funny if,

"they never acknowledged or recognized it,

"but the monster that
Universal used were real?"

And then I had this image in my head

of a facility in Burbank where
all these monsters lived.

And the first thing that
popped into my head was,

"Wouldn't it be funny
if there was a big cage

"next to the building with King Kong

sort of sitting in the cage

with truck fulls of
bananas in front of him

because he's too big to put inside.

So, they had to find a
way to keep him subdued.

And that was really, that
was the actual visual

that kind of propelled
the rest of the short.

- "King Kong" is partly responsible

for my career as an artist.

When I saw the movie and asked my gran

how was King Kong done and she said,

"Well, it's made from clay".,

I mean, that's how she worded it to me.

So, I went at four years
old with a pale and bucket

to the local riverbank, I
took the clay from there,

and then I came home and
made statues of King Kong.

I was very disappointed
'cause mine didn't move

unlike the one at the movie did,

but certainly "King
Kong" is the reason why

I started sculpting.

- "King Kong" definitely inspired me

to want to start making movies

when I was a very, very young man.

And I didn't just wanna make movies,

I wanted to make movies that
involved big special effects.

- Inspirational? Definitely.

I can remember imitating King Kong

out on the playground after seeing it.

Everybody banging in their
chests and, you know,

"I'm the biggest, meanest gorilla".

This is inspiration,

this is the things that make
you want to do something.

- I wanted to show him

at his most frightening

and most ferocious, both at the same time.

He wasn't in his own element anymore,

and he was fighting things

that he had no clue what they were,

and protecting his damsel in distress.

You know, "This is mine. Back off".

So, I had this picture in my head,

and the whole thing took
me about a year and a half,

of what I wanted it to look like.

I had no idea it would
wind up being this big,

but I never do when I start something,

and they all turn into big things.

- I'm Bob Burns, and this
is the original armature

of King Kong that was used 80 years ago

to bring him to life.

What I think with stop-motion
guys and animators,

Kong is such an icon,

it's done so well for
its day and everything,

I think it's a natural thing

that if you're a puppet
animator you wanna do Kong,

you wanna animate him at least once,

you wanna do something with him.

- I did animated projects

of both "Mighty Joe
Young" and "King Kong",

and they really came about
because of Bob Burns.

Bob Burns is really the,

he was the thing that made it happened,

because I've always
wanted to do it, right?

I'm sure every animators
has wanted to play

with those armatures on film.

My 50th birthday gift
to myself was asking Bob

if I could animate this thing.

And he said, "Yes, take it, take it".

And I took it and I animated here

at the shop on that
weekend, and it was great.

I put the Kong's armature in the scene

'cause I wanted to see
it with Mighty Joe Young.

And I know Bob, he said that,

he always said how hard
Kong was to animate

compared to Joe Young.

And after I finished Joe Young he said,

"You've really gotta do Kong next time".

The main thing I wanted to do was

do this overlay of the
armature on the original film,

so I came up with whatever the technique

I needed to that using my computer.

I just wanted to make 'em move again,

and it turned to be so rewarding.

- He took the armature,
and actually used the film

and put the armature in the film.

So when you see a move you
see the armature move too.

I think it's the most
fascinating thing I've ever seen.

I mean, I take that as incredible.

But every animator who wants,

it's just something you wanna do.

That's the thing you strive for.

If you can do Kong sometime,

even in a commercial or
whatever you may do it on,

you feel you've done something.

- I think the weirdest
thing I've ever saw Kong

was when you would see cartoons of Kong

in the pages of "Playboy",

because, you know, at 15 years old

you're not looking through "Playboy"

for the comics necessarily.

And then, for me, to suddenly see Kong,

it just seemed dirty and cheap.

Even now, "I'm here to see
Kong do Playboy", right?

But that was wrong, to put
Kong in a "Playboy" magazine.

It was just an incongruent
place for him to pop up.

- I mean, King Kong is everywhere.

You know, I see him on
mugs, I see him on t-shirts,

he's in cartoons.

He is the pop culture,

the biggest icon of all
the creatures ever created.

- In the Disney cartoon "Frozen",

I was sitting in the
theater with my daughters,

and there's a giant snowman

that actually looks a lot
like Kong, but he's a snowman.

And he's chasing the hero
and heroine down a hill,

then they do exactly what Jack
Driscoll and Ann Darrow did.

It's beautiful, it's
right out of "King Kong".

That was really, that
was a pleasant surprise.

- That's makes it always come
to life in every generation,

even though they don't
see the actual movies.

- He's iconic in his own way
as Karloff's Frankenstein.

I mean, instantly recognizable.

If you do a big gorilla and place him

anywhere near the Empire State
building or with a dinosaur,

people automatically says it was Kong,

or a gorilla with a girl on his hand.

- One of the things
that I think has really

supported the Kong legend is

that Kong is not a simple character.

He is not a one-dimensional
or two-dimensional character,

he is very layered.

- He was a character
you could identify with,

and he was severed from
all the other monsters,

and I think that's why he
lives on, 80 years later.

People still loves King Kong.

- When Kong dies you're sad,
it's terrible, it's a tragedy,

even though he's just
slaughtered hundreds of people

you still feel for that big gorilla,

'cause everything he
did he did out of love,

and who cannot relate to that?

- People would say to Cooper,

"You can't make Kong so brutal.

"The audience will lose sympathy for him",

and Cooper said, "Nope".

He said, "The more brutal I make him,

"the more the audience is gonna cry

"when he falls of the
Empire State building

"at the end of the movie".

And he was absolutely right.

- I cry every time I watch it,

in every version of the film.

It always, always breaks my heart.

- Everybody that watches it can

overlay it with their own interpretation.

I tend to take Merian Cooper at his word

that all he wanted to do was make

the greatest adventure movie ever known,

and he wasn't trying to
have tons of subtexts in it.

But if you read any of
the volumes of material

written about "Kong" in the years since,

every subtext known to man

has been applied to it by
one observer or another.

- There's some moment
that clicks in your memory

that just kind of associates
whatever's going on

to something in "Kong".

There's so much stuff than
you can just connect to.

And anybody watching
it picks up on something

that relates to them personally.

The next guy is probably not gonna see,

but it means something to that person.

- I think it hits home for a lot of people

for a lot of different reasons,

and I think that's also it,

it's not a one-shot deal.

I think people find in it, you know,

things that they like

and things that mean something to them.

- It really for me it's
about the sentimentality

of who King Kong is,

and we've grown up with him,

and it's like then we pass
him down to our children

and they appreciate the beauty of cinema

and where it all started.

- So we pass that down from
one generation to the next,

that's why he lives on and on.

- Well, you know, like
Frankenstein and the wolfman

and Dracula and other
characters from the early '30s,

they've been passed down from
generation to generation.

And also merchandise and the entry,

to a point where they
become a part of pop culture

partly because it's been voiced upon us.

But it's voiced upon us
because kids like it.

And King Kong is very popular with kids,

as all giant monsters are.

And he was the granddaddy of them all.

And he's a monkey, and kids love monkeys.

- Kids really relate to
King Kong on two levels:

one, you feel like King Kong,

you're just a very primal being,

you don't have a lot of shading

in your sort of thought process,

and you're also like Ann, you know?

Everybody's bigger than you,

everybody who's bigger than you

they can just pick you up and move you

if they want you to be moved.

- I think Kong is important to the culture

because he's an icon.

I think once something
becomes established as an icon

and it becomes an element of parody,

it becomes an element of, in
a way, sophisticated comedy,

or even as it's used in political reasons.

If you can look at something
like Kong becomes an icon

and he can become useful
to editorial license,

he represents things.

And he's been around through generations,

he's kind of, he's a grandfather
into our society now,

he's always going to be an element

of a huge highly successful monster movie

and monster character.

- But he's come down the pike unscathed

after all the remakes and the
copies and the imitations,

and he's an original.

And still with us, and will be for,

I think, many generations.

- And I will just say after all this:

Long live the king, long live King Kong.