I really enjoy King Kong. How much do I enjoy the classic 1933 movie? I have driven from San Diego to Los Angeles, a little over two hours each way, in order to watch the movie on the big big screen. (It was the Egyptian Theater, an old movie palace with a balcony. The film played beautifully there.)

Of course I have seen the 70’s remake, but that is a poor poor imitation of the exciting original. Also I have watched King Kong vs Godzilla and King Kong Lives! The often

forgotten sequel to the 70’s remake. This century saw another remake, this time from Kiwi director Peter Jackson. I own that version on blu-ray, a reasonable $7 purchase. Jackson’s King Kong is a decent 3 ½ hour movie with a really good 2 hour movie hiding inside it. It is overly indulgent, needs a serious edit, and is flawed in its approach to one of the original’s more likeable character, Carl Denham, but it still far exceeds the quality of the 70’s vision. (Which has an additional element of pain on rewatching due to the prominent placement and use of NYC’s World Trade Center.)
No in spite of all remakes and different takes inspired by the original movie in my opinion nothing matches the 1933 film for tone, excitement, and over all fun.

The story is straightforward and simply. An expedition to a distant island discovers dinosaurs and a giant ape. They bring the ape back as an exhibit, it escapes in New York City and after a brief rampage it is killed.
The thing that is missed in all the remakes is that there are no truly bad people in the story. No one is a villain. This film is almost free of cynicism, reveling in the thrill of exploration and adventure over making some statement about humanity. In that pure adventure
it reveals elements of humanity in a much cleared way than a dozen cynical ‘message movies.’

The 70’s remakes falls prey to the darkness of its decade, unable to resist to impulse to portray some classes of people as evil and others as good. Jackson’s vision is less political but equally cynical.

It will be interesting when next year we get Kong: Skull Island and find out how much adventure there is compared to how much cynicism