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Contrasting the creation of Kong
with that of LOTR's Gollum, Jackson emphasized the inherent
complexities in developing the great ape.
"[Making Kong
believable] was a difficult thing to pull off. It was much more
difficult than the Gollum character in Lord of the Rings. Gollum
talked the whole time. So much of his character and so much of his
role in the story was presented through his dialogue. [Audiences] got
to know [Gollum] a lot through what he said," Jackson explained.
"Kong is completely mute, but
he's got so much screen time and so many close-ups as a character.
He's not only mute but we deliberately reigned in him and didn't want
him to express much," Jackson said
Thus, developing an ape
whose roars and silence spoke volumes to a worldwide audience was the
biggest challenge the director faced. However, because of the
relationship he built over several years with Gollum's life force,
Andy Serkis, Jackson magnificently overcame that obstacle.
Jackson offered Serkis the
role as Kong before he concluded his work on LOTR: Return of the King.
It was Easter Sunday in 2003 - a day that happened to be the actor's
birthday. Over lunch, Jackson asked Serkis whether he was interested
in applying all that they learned in creating Gollum to a new version
of King Kong. Honored to receive such an offer, the actor was
nevertheless a little uneasy
"In one breathe, I was
terrified, but also thrilled and flattered that [Peter] would ask me
to be part of his project. I knew that he had been a huge fan of Kong
and it was the film that made him want to direct," Serkis
revealed.
"I thought: How do you
create an arc? How do you create a journey for this character? How do
you make this character interesting over the course of a whole
movie?" the actor said.
From an acting standpoint,
Serkis was also very aware that creating a credible Kong would push
him in ways that creating Gollum had not.
"With a character like
Gollum a huge amount comes across with the way he speaks; what he
talks about; the great dialogue that Tolkien has given him and the
great dialogue that Fran and Phillipa wrote for him. Gollum talks to
himself and the whole psychological explanation for his character was
conveyed through words in many instances," Serkis explained
echoing Jackson's sentiment.
"But with Kong, this
wasn't going to be the case. It was going to be through physicality,
through facial expression and through real pure acting," Serkis
said.
The 8th Wonder in the 21st Century
Since Kong first debuted on
the silver screen in 1933, significant advances have been made in
animation. Certain effects that took hours of manual labor years ago
are now automated with the use of computers and animation software.
Moreover, if a filmmaker's budget permits, computer-generated images
can be further enhanced with the use of motion capture, a technique
that digitally records movements of humans and other living things.
In Kong, the mocap mavens at
Weta Digital took the technique one step further. Because Jackson
refused to anthropomorphize Kong, the animal's movements and emotions
had to be grounded in gorilla behavior. As such, the Weta crew built
Kong with gorilla musculature and skeletal structure and developed
software that translated Serkis' human expressions into gorilla
expressions for the most part.
To prepare for the role of
Kong, Serkis studied gorillas in captivity and in the wild, visiting
the London Zoo and observing mountain gorillas in Rwanda,
respectively. His journey to Rwanda proved the most illuminating.
There he learned that gorillas assemble in hierarchical social groups
and "talk" to each other using a lexicon of 17
vocalizations. In addition, Serkis developed a deeper understanding of
gorilla behavior and methods of non-verbal communication. For Serkis,
the goal of his research was to model his performance onset and during
the motion capture stage on authentic gorilla behavior and thereby
portray Kong with integrity.
Aside from the technical
aspects of developing Kong, Serkis regards the act of creating the
gorilla's essence as a fulfilling professional experience that is
"no different from portraying any conventional role
onscreen."
"It's about embodying
the character, physicalizing the character, mentally understanding and
expressing the emotions of that character and creating an arc - a
psychological journey for the character," Serkis explained.
No one is more appreciative
of the depths to which Serkis reached to personify Kong than Naomi
Watts. As Ann Darrow, Watts is paired with the digital Kong in
numerous scenes in the final film. But Watts had the advantage of a
living stand-in for the animated ape in Andy. During production, Watts
had no need to make generalized decisions about who Kong was and how
he behaved because she had someone playing Kong in front of her that
she related to - whether it was Andy dressed in a muscle-enhanced
costume emoting while performing Kong's roars and actions or Serkis
suspended high above her to establish her sight line.
As Watts describes it,
during her performance, she is reacting to Serkis' truth. "Andy
and I tapped into each other right away and we knew what we had to do
and the work that needed to be done in order to suspend disbelief. We
both just went there," she recalled.
In the film, Ann's
relationship with Kong grows over time and Darrow transitions from a
screaming, terrified rag doll to someone who cared for the King. In
some respects, this transition is emblematic of the Stockholm Syndrome
where captives identify with the person threatening their lives. As
Jackson directs it, the bond that develops between the ape and Ann is
established during a series of breathtaking frolics, face-offs and
smackdowns.
Watts' performance as Ann
Darrow is the actress' most physical to date. While Naomi considers
herself very fit, the film tested the limits of her conditioning.
"The action stuff in
the movie, took about half of the shooting schedule and it happened in
a consecutive stretch which made it very debilitating for me. It's the
hardest thing I've ever done definitely in film," the actress
said.
"At times, you felt
really defeated by it because you want to be able to do every thing,
but your body is not up to it. It was frustrating because my will is
stronger than my physical ability," Watts confessed.
Years of yoga that improved
her flexibility invariably helped Watts make it through a particularly
tight spot.
"I fell down a hole
backwards and it was about a 5 or 6 foot drop," the actress
revealed detailing a near major mishap during production.
"It was a little bit
terrifying because I was down in this hole, my legs were in the air
and I was physically jammed. I couldn't move right away. I instantly
thought 'I'm paralyzed' or 'I've broken something.' All I could see
was everyone looking at me going, 'Oh my god! Oh my god! Is she
okay?'" Watts described.
Although initially she
feared that she was hurt, her thoughts soon turned elsewhere.
"Most of what I could think about was that my underwear is on
display and everyone up there is looking at it. I knew once I had that
thought everything was okay," the actress shared with a laugh.
As a testament to his
admiration for the original, Jackson incorporates several signature
scenes from the Cooper/Schoedsack classic into his Technicolor update.
In addition, Jackson leaves his mark on the Kong legacy by assembling
a cast with serious acting chops and a skillful crew adept at pushing
the technological envelope. Add to that Jackson's mastery of the
fantasy genre and what results is a noteworthy film. But while Jackson
is deserving of praise for the film's dramatic and technical
achievements, his King Kong is not without its troubling aspects -
some that relate to Jackson's remake and others that also marred the
original.
The subtext of the Cooper/Schoedsack
Kong is black, white and gray. There is an underlying theme of the
sexual molestation of a white woman by a big, black ape as well as a
direct statement about the relative value of a white woman and a black
woman. To be clear, Jackson omits those references from his film and
in fact the Darrow/Kong relationship is more akin to love than lust
(albeit a love deemed taboo by Western notions and for which death
results). Nevertheless, the Western self-righteous notions that remain from the original
include:
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The forceful capture,
chaining and vaingloriously displaying of a sentient being for
Westerners' pleasure and profit;
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Western disregard for
the sovereignty of a civilization that is different from their
own; and
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A Westerner's desire to
document an "unexplored" island as justification for
trespass and violation of another's traditions.
Jackson's Kong also includes
the offensive depiction of an Asian American seaman from the original
film.
Jackson parts company with Cooper and Schoedsack and creates
controversy of his own in his depiction of the Skull Islanders.
Jackson's Skull Islanders are said to resemble Solomon Islanders of the
Southwest Pacific, which is northeast of Australia. In the film,
the islanders are presented as vicious
and irrational people that attack without provocation.
Unlike the 1933
and 1976 versions of King Kong, Jackson's film omits scenes that
depict the desecration of the ritualistic sacrifice of a young Skull
Islander by the SS Venture's landing
party. Without that detail, the Skull Islanders' sudden outburst of
violence seems grossly out of context and appears to lack any rhyme or
reason.
Yet Jackson does depict the Skull Islanders
sacrifice of Ann Darrow to Kong. It is in those scenes that
Jackson is his most offensive. He shows the scantily clad
islanders with bone-pierced faces and eyes rolled to the back of their
heads, foaming at the mouth and gyrating and chanting to the beat of
drums. Moreover, despite a film that runs over 3 hours, Jackson
shamefully does not spare a few extra minutes to develop characters
that shift the narrative into high gear.
M
December 2005
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