King Kong Lives
Label: MCA Records
Catalogue No: 254 672-1
Release Date: 1986
Total Duration: 46:15
UPN: 0-2292-54672-1-8
The best thing about this film is that it should give its predecessor, the shamefully underrated 1976 remake, a better reputation by comparison. There are just 2 more things going for it: eye-popping (if unbelievable) special effects and John Scott’s incredibly lush score.
John Barry’s KING KONG score has become one of my very favorites over the years, easily surpassing the Max Steiner original for atmospheric romance and sheer listen-ability (I find Steiner’s a great score but a tedious album); I was first disappointed, then amused, to learn that Scott was stepping in for him. My amusement sprang from the fact that, with TROG, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT, GREYSTOKE, YOR and – almost – CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR to his credit, Scott was already the uncrowned king of the noble-savage movie. For him, KING KONG LIVES amounts to typecasting.
And this score shows he is typecast for a reason. The proud-beast theme explodes to life in the first seconds of ‘Prelude’, as Kong makes his last stand on the World Trade Center, then calming down and becoming the ‘Main Titles’, a beautiful string version of the same theme. It is variations on the loud and soft arrangements of this theme that comprise most of the score, yet one never tires of hearing it. My favorite soft manifestation opens ‘Back to Life’, a somewhat touching moment as Kong’s artificial heart is activated and he detects the nearby presence of Lady Kong. Of course his heart is won from afar, and Scott’s music, rustling and sweetly forlorn, lends Carlo Rambaldi’s terrific ape masks that extra credibility the dumb script takes away. Soon enough ‘Kong Meets Lady Kong’.
Probably the most dazzling scene. Scott introduces a version of his icy military theme here, which is heard at its brassiest in ‘Leap into the Rapids’, trying to shout down Kong’s theme at its most gargantuan. ‘Alligator Swamp’ is a respite from all the noise, Kong’s theme on horn paced by a rolling string rhythm as the ape king scarfs amphibians. By this time the film is getting sillier and sillier, though Scott’s totally convicted scoring suspends a good degree of disbelief. ‘Honeymoon Ridge’ has the Kong theme officially doubling as a love theme; Scott’s music lends this scene of poignant romance genuine feeling, and the moment is recalled briefly in the middle of the action-packed ‘Lady Kong Gets Gassed’: borne away by helicopter-drawn nets, she roars to him, he turns, and the love theme softly resurfaces on resigned winds. At such moments a film of incredible vulgarity aspires suddenly to the poetic, and Scott’s liner notes credit director John Guillermin with this; the director wanted Scott to stress the romantic aspects of the movie in the music.
Scott believes the apotheosis of the romantic theme is ‘Kong’s Final Battle’, but while this is the theme at its proudest and most massive, I think the best of the grand arrangements is the first half of ‘Revenge on the Hunters’. which has a powerful rhythm. The score’s most reflective music comprises the second half, winds and strings brooding and distant as Kong’s human allies mope that the ape has gone homicidal.
I’d about had it with the film by this time, and in some ways the six-minute ‘Birth of Baby Kong and Death of Kong’ piece feels as if Scott had too, for he is unable to work up miracle-of-birth conviction in the same way he did for the romantic scenes earlier. ‘Return to Borneo and End Credits’ finds the composer back in form, though, with a particularly lovely burst of chords slightly recalling THE BLUE LAGOON, as the surviving members of the clan settle down in the jungle.
Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 6 /No. 22 / 1987
