Black + White Friday Saturday: King Kong (1976) & King Kong (2005)

I wanted to take a look at these two remakes of the black and white classic monster movie King Kong. I thought it would be interesting to see if either of them lend themselves to the classical style of filmmaking that black and white photography lent itself too.

I actually had to outsource the caps used in this installment. I don't actually own either of these movies on DVD, so all images are from DVD Beaver.


Oh Jessica Lange! I can't take her seriously at all in this movie. Can you? There's something there that just turns me off majorly.


I much preferred Peter Jackson's remake, but even that had major problems and really wasn't that good. I'm not entirely convinced that Naomi Watts portrayed the character 1920s enough, but she was far better than Lange. I do hate those bloody hats though!


I just think this is a bit gorgeous.


I remember really liking this scene as I felt it actually tried to be like an old movie (unlike so many other sequences in this remake). On one hand I guess it's a good thing that Watts didn't do the same style of performance as Fay Wray did in the original, but on the other hand I sort of miss it.


Apart from the very "of the time" top that Jessica Lange is wearing here, this could conceivably be seen as a shot from an old movie. I think it's the moustache.


This image is actually quite wonderful. I thought the scene was "a bit much" in the film, but it did look gorgeous. In black and white though this actually looks more like a sketch drawing using charcoal.


She's not exactly Fay Wray, is she?


I just think this is a bit gorgeous.

I do find it interesting though that in black and white this moment looks far more ominous than it does in the colour version. All those dark clouds look far more scarier than the overly orange hues that they were before.


This is ridiculous. How is it that a remake made some 60 years after the original can have effects that are barely improved? In fact, I'd go so far to say that they're worse in this 1976 remake than the original since, at least, the 1933 version was made in 1933. This image particularly looks quite silly don't you think? What would I know though, the film won an Oscar for its visual effects so there ya go.


By far the best scene in either of these remakes was this quite touching moment on the ice rink in New York City. It looked like 100% CGI, which was one of the big disappointments of Jackson's film in general, but even that couldn't stop this moment being lovely.