Last night I watched the 1976 version of King Kong, a movie I haven't seen since the late 70s / early 80s and a movie I remember liking as a kid, in fact I seem to recall it being a pretty big event when it was on TV and it was split over two nights and pumped full of advertising.
This version of King Kong has a bad and I think somewhat undeserved reputation, it's not great by any means but given the time it was made I think they did a decent job of bringing Kong to life even if it was just a man in a suit most of the time, the final confrontation with Kong and the military on top of the world trade centre was nearly ruined by some terrible rear projection work but it wasn't as bad as Charles Grodin and Jessica Lange's performances in the movie.
Instead of making it a period film the producers chose to set the movie in the 70's, the same period the movie was made in and I liked most of the story changes that were made to update the film.
Not a classic film but I think a worthy attempt at re-telling the King Kong story.
