PopHorror Let's Get Scared
“We are….watching you.” ~Dr. Herkermer Homolka. Those haunting words were in the trailers in the spring of 1995 for a movie coming out on June 9th. That movie was the long awaited film adaption of the 1980 Michael Crichton novel CONGO.
Before we get to CONGO, let’s get to the writer first. Michael Crichton was a Harvard med school graduate but chose to become a writer rather than practice medicine. His first published novel under his own name was in 1969 at the age of 27 called The Andromeda Strain. His 1975 book The Great Train Robbery became a Sean Connery movie that did well in 1978. His most famous work was written in 1990 called Jurassic Park. In 1993, the film adaptation of Jurassic Park became a national phenomenon resulting in a franchise that’s still going to this day. Because that movie did well, suddenly Crichton was in demand for Hollywood. His 1994 novel Disclosure became a movie later that year starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. For 1995, Hollywood decided to turn his 1980 novel CONGO into a movie.
Let’s go back a bit to the origin of the story. When Crichton was young, he was a fan of the 1885 lost world novel King Solomon’s Mines by Henry Rider Haggard. In that book, a group of British explorers venture into an uncharted section of Africa to find one of the explorers’ brother that had gone missing. They find a primitive tribe that attacks the group and now its all about survival. Crichton took that premise, changed the story a bit and wrote CONGO in 1980.
So what’s the story about? An American exploration team sets its sights on the lost city of Zinj in search of King Solomon’s diamond mines. Suddenly they are attacked and killed by unknown assailants, but not before a recording of the murders are sent via satellite to the base station. The recordings shows gray haired gorillas as the culprits. A second expedition is supposed to find the first team, collect the diamonds and return home. The second expedition is led by armed mercenary Charles Munro, base commander Karen Ross, animal expert Peter Elliot and Peter’s pet gorilla Amy. Once there, they encounter not only the deadly gorillas but what made them deadly as well. I won’t spoil the rest because its similar to the movie but with a few changes I’ll get to later.
Unlike a lot of novelists at the time, Crichton was a staunch supporter of computer technology and a lot of his stories were written with technology being a good thing. In fact, ever play the old Apple 2 Computer game Amazon? That was supposed to be the video game adaptation of Congo but Michael sold the rights, and the company changed a few things. The setting went from Africa to South America, the mine went from diamond to emerald and Amy the gorilla became Paco The Parrot. Crichton himself was disappointed that the game wasn’t as interactive as he envisioned but that was mostly due to graphical limitations. He couldn’t predict Nintendo taking over in 1985-86.
Fast forward back to the mid 80’s. Crichton wanted Sean Connery to play Charles Munro in a movie adaptation but it didn’t get off the ground because 20th Century Fox refused to cast a real gorilla as Amy. Finally in 1995, Hollywood relented and Congo got the go-ahead with famed producer Frank Marshall (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 2008) in the director’s chair.
So what are the changes in the movie? The beginning of the movie has Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness – 1991) playing Charlie Travis, the son of Travicom head honcho RB Travis (the recently deceased Joe Don Baker – Cape Fear, 1991). He’s leading an expedition to find the lost city of Zinj, home of the diamond mine of King Solomon. He’s attacked by an unknown presence and when his girlfriend and ex-CIA agent Karen Ross (Laura Linney – Primal Fear 1996) and old man Travis watch the satellite footage, they see what looks to be gray gorillas destroying the camp.
Meanwhile Peter Elliot (Dylan Walsh – Nobody’s Fool 1994) and his assistant Richard (Grant Heslov – True Lies 1994) are training Amy The Gorilla to communicate using a sign language voice box (voiced by Shayna Fox of the Nickelodeon TV show Rocket Power). The problem is Amy is having violent nightmares and fingerpainting a symbol that Romanian philanthropist Dr. Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry – IT 1990) identifies as the open eye leading to the city of Zinj. Karen, Herkermer, Peter, Richard and Amy travel to Zaire where they meet up with mercenary Monroe Kelly (Ernie Hudson – Ghostbusters 1984), and a team of porters led by Kahega (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, The Mummy Returns – 2001) to find the missing expedition. Instead they run into the gray gorillas and the city of Zinj.
Will they make it out alive? Watch the movie to find out.
Just like in Jurassic Park, the movie changes some of the fates of the characters from the book. In the book Jurassic Park, Genaro lives but Ian and Dr. Hammond die. CONGO is no different but I won’t spoil who does what. Not to mention a huge change is in the book, Charles Munro was supposed to be half white/half Indian and was Crichton’s version of Allan Quatermain. Because Ernie Hudson is neither white nor Indian, it seemed like a peculiar casting choice. Even in the movie, Ernie Hudson says “I’m the great white hunter, I just happen to be black” Still, the acting is the bread and butter of the movie.
Grant Heslov and Dylan Walsh give great “fish out of water” human performances with all the shooting and killing going around, getting attacked by hippos, gorillas and anything else. Laura Linney comes off as more badass than most of the men on the expedition and she’s always in control no matter what. Ernie Hudson is his usual stoic self and once again always seems to be in control. Also featured are brief yet hilarious cameos by Mary Ellen Trainor (Tales From The Crypt), Stuart Pankin (Fatal Attraction 1987), Delroy Lindo (Sinners – 2025) and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix 1999). Look closely and you’ll see legendary singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett as the airline pilot as well. Even the actors that are in one or two scenes such as Bruce Campbell, John Hawkes (Outbreak – 1995), James Karen (Return of The Living Dead – 1985) and Taylor Nichols (Jurassic Park 3 – 2001) are memorable.
The show stealer, as always it seems, was Tim Curry as Homolka. He was pretty much created as the comic relief of the movie since the character doesn’t exist in the book. Curry with his Romanian accent and his haunting delivery at times became an integral part of CONGO, not bad for someone who was created out of thin air.
So how did CONGO do once it was released? Financially it was a success, grossing $24 million dollars its opening weekend and surpassing its $50 million dollar budget with a worldwide gross of $152 million. Critically, not many people liked it. Many felt like the whole jungle adventure genre had run its course while nitpickers felt it wasn’t close enough to the book. Hal Hinson said what I said that Tim Curry outshined the main characters.
Still, CONGO dared to be different with a talking gorilla and some wonderful scenery shots. Take away the murderous gorillas and this would actually be a fun safari movie…..but where’s the fun in that? The bottom line is, its not a very cerebral movie, its not going to be in the running for Best Picture and there’s as much gunfire as there are one liners.
If you want an action/adventure movie, buy it on Amazon or stream it. Its been a fun flick for 30 years now.
