An Outposter contribution is just like the jelly in our donut. It is the delight at the center of what we do. You wouldn’t want us to be sad, would you? Send us your articles to [email protected]. Just one story a month can keep Boba Phil in happiness. Do it for Phil? One who has qualified for bragging rights is Mhatt, and here is his Retro Review of Congo.
The year is 1995, and we were all still reeling from the cinematic tsunami that was Jurassic Park and studios were gobbling up anything with Crichton’s name on it. Congo was next, well almost, Rising Sun starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes came out the same month as Jurassic Park but Congo was a spiritual successor attempting to recreate another, more fantastical, world.
I am not sure what the hopes were for this one, despite an abundance of mid-90’s cool, tech-driven adventure ideas it ultimately comes down to a sort of ridiculous, but not unawesome story.
The cast includes Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker, Tim Curry and Bruce Campbell.
The Story
Houston, TX. Head Of TraviCom R.B. Travis (Baker), and Dr. Karen Ross (Linney) support an expedition in the Congo where Charles (Campbell) is searching for a mythical blue diamond that will act as an infinite power and revenue source. After witnessing a successful laser field test, their satellite feed is interrupted and, by the time they can reconnect the field camp has been destroyed by a menacing blur of a highly aggressive but unknown gray species of gorilla.
In Berkeley, California, primatologist Dr. Peter Eliot (Walsh) is teaching a rescued Congolese mountain gorilla named Amy to speak using a forearm synthesizer that translates sign language into computer-generated speech. This naturally makes Amy a pretty big deal in the scientific world, the pressures of which she handles much like many of us would with cigars and martinis, as well as fingerpainting to cope with her regular nightmares.
Though seemingly innocuous, believed to be a symptom of homesickness for her jungle upbringing, Amy’s painting of a yellow eye against a green backdrop draws the uncomfortable attention of one Herkermer Homolka (Curry). A Romanian philanthropist, a charlatan cad, who’s obsessively searching for the mythical lost city of Zinj, symbolized by a yellow eye which he believes connects Amy to the lost city.
With the academics needing funding and TraviCom needing a new alibi, interests align and a rescue/release mission departs for Africa and into the care of Captain Monroe Kelly (Hudson), a man of many connections.
The team board a flight across the closed border into Zaire where they quickly come under attack. Some quick thinking and clever flare usage distract heat-seeking missiles long enough to allow an airdrop into the Virunga region of the Congo jungle, which seems like a combination of Costa Rica, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.
A Baraka-worthy sequence shows us the local Ghost tribe holding a vigil for a catatonic TraviCom survivor, before a riverside “California Dreaming” sing-along leads to a decently chilling night time Hippopotamus encounter.
Then we arrive at the base of a restless Volcano and the remains of the original camp. Mysteries of the gray ape and the Lost City of Zinj are solved, reputations are salvaged, heads are squashed, lasers slash, and lava splashes in a pretty successful sequence as they rush to escape the collapsing ruins and their dutiful to the end gauntlet of gray apes.
Amy finds some “Good but dumb” gorillas, Ross dishes up some sweet revenge on her shockingly cold-hearted father-in-law, and we head off into the sunset in a hot air balloon.
So What Worked?
The adaptation. it was loose but good and overall seemed to nail down the essence of the novel which was published in 1980.
It was adapted by mainly playwright John Patrick Shanley who while dabbling in films gave us Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also wrote two songs for), cannibal plane crash survivor story Alive (also Produced by Frank Marshall), and the pretty solid animated feature We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story.
Shanley also won an Oscar for 1988’s Moonstruck (original screenplay), a Pulitzer, and a Tony for his play Doubt, A Parable. He would receive a 2009 Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, too.
A couple of notable tweaks to Congo are the addition of Homolka character, Herkermer being the name of New York mine that supplied the movie’s diamonds, and rewriting Kelly for Ernie Hudson as the “great white Hunter who happens to be Black”.
The casting is also pretty decent overall. Linney, Baker, and Walsh all know what they are doing and the early cameo of Bruce Campbell was effective in metering expectations. Hudson and Curry are worth the price of admission both seeming to respect and enjoy their parts.
Hudson has admitted as much, claiming this is his favorite role. We also get cameos from Delroy Lindo, Joe Pantaliano, and Jimmy Buffett as a pilot. An interesting bit of production history – Michael Crichton initially saw this as a vehicle for himself to direct and star Sean Connery, presumably as Kelly, with a real Gorilla.
A few character moments shine through like when Dr. Eliot and Homolka are reasonably reluctant to exit the airplane; Kelly: “Do you know how to fly this plane?” Walsh: “No” Kelly: “Well the pilot and co-pilot are already gone, so what are you going to do?” as Eliot dons his parachute, Homolka implores crew member: “Push me please” (he’s shoved against the doorway) Homolka: “Harder please.” (He’s pushed out).
At the climax when Ross and Kelly are pinned down by Apes and finds her dead husband but the working laser; Kelly: “What the hell are you doing?” Ross: “What am I doing? I’ll tell you what I’m doing; we’re getting the hell out of here.” Kelly: “We are? What about them?” Ross (cocking the laser): “Put them on the endangered species list.” Kelly (as she begins to mow down Apes): “What the hell is that thing?” Ross: “The latest in communications”.
Nothing I’d have tattooed on my chest, but a few examples of the fleeting moments when I became aware of the edge of my seat in a mainly cheesy adventure film stacked with myriad high-quality ingredients that just didn’t coalesce.
What Didn’t Work?
World Building. Despite being shot in some serious locations, the world never seemed more than a couple of feet from a sound stage or studio back lot. Coupled with the inconsistent tone and performances, Congo movie comes off weirdly amateurish. It is sort of like they didn’t really respect whomever they expected the audience to be, which given their collective track records lowkey reeks of lazy smugness.
A couple of nitpicks are the multiple scenes where boulders are seen floating, and despite the city being found and constructed by King Solomon of the Israelites, Zinj is covered in Egyptian Hieroglyphics which were used to convey a pretty significant plot point.
Cohesion of ideas was not in this movie’s dojo. Besides Congo, prolific producer and co-founder of Amblin Entertainment, Frank Marshall has a decent but short resume as a director with 1990’s Arachnophobia, 1993’s Alive, and 2006’s Eight Below.
His work here is competent but unfocused, perhaps it has something to do with the fact he’s married to Kathleen Kennedy, every great artist must suffer I guess but dammit Frank you gotta know when to say enough’s enough!
Creature effects. Stan Winston got his dream opportunity to develop Apes for film and in terms of authenticity marks one of his few cinematic stumbles. A team of puppeteers and a 2.5-tonne fiber-glass and silicone model pulled off the hippo attack which benefitted from the night-time setting, which may have helped sell the Apes.
Apparently, Marshall had planned to use the same CGI from Jurassic Park but was stymied by the techs ability to realistically render hair, something now taken for granted but I don’t remember seeing accomplished effectively until the Sully character in 2001’s Monsters Inc.
Apparently by the time Winston was brought in, the climatic battle sequence of the cave set had been designed, lit, and locked which meant a lot of his creature work was diffused. Winston described the result as:
“…looking like a bunch of guys running around in gray fur suits…”
Despite being given free rein to create a dozen original gray apes their screentime was cut dramatically and probably mercifully.
Amy was realized by Lorene Noh and Misty Rosas in suits sculpted over their life cast combined with a mechanical headpiece, and was voiced by Shayna Fox, but for the most part she looks like someone wearing an Ape suit.
Despite some important innovations, the self-contained servo controlled head-pieces and the ground-breaking technique to render life-like eyes using computer-controlled lathes to create the minor but crucial details of corneal bulges, the amount we needed to suspend belief isn’t possible on such a pivotal character.
An especially distracting and frustrating factor considering we had seen these animals done much better by rival craftsman Rick Baker in 1988’s Gorillas In The Mist who then really rubbed it in with 1998’s Mighty Joe Young.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Congo is an enjoyable but weird movie. Despite some serious pedigree it never manages to shuck a made-for-TV feeling, but I don’t see this as due to a complete lack of effort or interest.
Art is alchemy after all and as many involved were coming off career highlights with Jurassic Park, maybe arrogance and impatience factored in, Spielberg even admitted this was a factor in his approach to what he considers subpar Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World. Or perhaps it was also a case of too many cooks in the kitchen being reluctant to share their secret recipe this movie desperately could have used to bring it home.
I enjoyed the book and I have enjoyed multiple watches of the adaptation because despite its flaws Congo is pretty fun and a pleasant experience for a rainy afternoon, solid as a drinking companion, or hangover distraction, and definitely something decent enough to keep you blinking instead of napping after you’ve given up looking for the remote in your blanket cocoon.