Performance

King Kong (1976)

0 upcoming performances in New York

John Guillermin’s *King Kong* (1976) revisits the Depression-era myth in a contemporary key: an expedition captures a colossal ape and stages him in New York, where spectacle tips into catastrophe. Its Manhattan imagery, including an Empire State Building climax that echoes the 1933 original, keeps the story tethered to the city’s skyline as a symbol and a stage. At MoMA, the film plays as a document of 1970s studio ambition, combining Carlo Rambaldi’s mechanics with Rick Baker’s performance-driven makeup. The result treats Kong less as a monster than as a measure of human appetite for display.