KING KONG

JOHN BARRY

Rating:

Golden Age Review by Tom Kiefner: The remake of the 1933 classic film "King Kong" made money for the Paramount studio. It made a lot of money. In fact, it brought in 80 million dollars, which is over 3 times the amount of money it cost to make, which was a staggering 24 million dollars! Opening in the theatres for Christmas in 1976 it brought fame to Dino De Laurentiis the producer, and performers Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. Compare that to the $670,000 it cost for the original film, which grossed nearly 2 million dollars again - incredible considering it came out in the height of the depression when 10 cents was a lot of money! And from what I understand at this writing in early 2006, Universal is going to recover the 230 million dollars they spent on the latest remake and more. People just enjoy watching King Kong!

John Barry was in America at the time, working on the scoring of a lavish television production "Eleanor and Franklin", and while here was offered the job of scoring King Kong. Barry was in huge demand at the time, having already won the coveted Oscar three times. He did not revisit the original Max Steiner score at all - in fact he created one radically different from the groundbreaking 1933 soundtrack.

Let me go on record and say right from the beginning that, of the three scores, Barry's love theme (called the "Dwan Theme") is by far the most romantic and melodic. Good enough to have lyrics put to it and recorded by Andy Williams under the title "Are You In There?" which had quite a following in Japan and Italy. It is a theme used during romantic interludes between Jack and Dwan, as well as quieter moments with Kong. Written in the style Barry used in the 70's, it features smooth soft strings with the French horns, trumpets, and trombones complementing the melody with harmony. If you knew nothing of the title of the film but recognized the theme, "King Kong" would not be the film you would guess. If I told you it came from "Out Of Africa" behind a playful lion scene, you would likely believe me.

Barry chose to use several different motifs for Kong, in fact five of them. The primary one is featured for a short period on the very first track, "The Opening." Using the lower register brass instruments, it is a 6 note phrase used as a premonition of things to come. While there is some quite interesting underscore mixed into the 42+ minute score, there is also Kong roaring, branches breaking, and overall hokey chanting. It is explained about the rights of who owns what and the music rights belong to Reprise, which is part of Warner Brothers, but the film was released by Paramount, but the rights of Kong belong to Universal... Yikes, nothing is simple anymore. The point is, if it could have been done, I am confident that remix engineer Doug Schwartz would have made it sound a whole lot better - but he couldn't, so what you end up with is a copy of the original LP. Regardless, the sound effects are irritating and you might be better served to reprogram your CD player and eliminate those tracks which you find annoying. As long as we are on the subject of annoyance, you can also eliminate "Kong Hits the Big Apple." Just the title should warn you that something is wrong! Half of it is a John Barry disco number, and the end of the second half of it sounds like television track is going to a commercial break!

The last track, "The End", is an interesting enough track with the percussion mimicking Kong's heart finally stopping. The track ends with the "Dwan Theme", orchestrated nicely with an oboe and piano offering some harmony. A very nice track if you want to play your stereo, computer, or listen to it on headphones. The problem is that the beginning of the track is so soft that, if you were trying to listen in your car, the road noise would drown it out and you couldn't hear it! Played through a stereo system at a normal listening level I heard silence for the 30 seconds and finally the strings and the simulated heartbeat were loud enough with normal ambient noise to listen.

The liner notes as always are excellent. Written nicely by Barry experts Pete Walker, Geoff Leonard, and Stephen Woolston they are thorough and complete. The film production, how the music was composed, the recording sessions, and the track listings all provide excellent and valuable information. Lukas Kendall has done over a 100 CD's now and if he wished there were certainly be more than enough information to do a book!

If you want to have the Steiner, Barry, and Howard versions of "King Kong" then it is one that you should acquire. Or if you are a John Barry fan and enjoy his work then you should acquire it. If you have to have every FSM release then you should acquire it. Otherwise it is one where the money could be spent on something far more interesting. If it were not for the spectacular love theme which is nicely arranged on the Barry "Moviola" CD the rating would not be as high as it is. But it is one of those addicting themes that just grow on you. It gets in your head and you can't get it out!

Track Listing: Running Time: 42 minutes 30 seconds

Film Score Monthly FSM Vol.8 No.8 (1976/2005)

Music composed and conducted by John Barry. Digital re-mastering by Doug Schwartz. Album produced by Lukas Kendall.

Cinemusic Online
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Music from the Movies: Review by Stephen Woolston (****)
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