It's All in How You Look at It, Part 2

O’Brien’s first feature-length film was the 1925 version of The Lost World. It’s no coincidence that Steven Spielberg chose that same name for the sequel to Jurassic Park -- Spielberg cites the O’Brien film’s “startling jungle scenes” as the inspiration for both those films.¹

It was the movie he made in 1933, however, that moved Willis O’Brien from the ranks of creative technicians to the pantheon of the masters. That year, director Merian Cooper was looking for a jungle movie concept that would employ O’Brien’s skills and came up with the idea of a giant ape captured by an enterprising showman on a mysterious uncharted Pacific Island.

“The final script,” writes Scott Smith in The Film 100, “became the most famous and influential special effects film ever made...King Kong.”

It was in the making of this classic film that O’Brien combined stop-motion with a number of other processes to achieve the still-amazing effects that have remained more fashionable than the costumes the actors wore. The most important for the future of special effects was his use of live-action mechanical puppets for more realistic interaction between monster and man. Or monster and ape, depending on your point of view. It wasn’t the first time O’Brien had used a puppet for this purpose, but there is no question his applications in King Kong are a masterwork.

"To this day," states Scott Smith, "Kong remains the Eighth Wonder of the World, and O'Brien stands alone as the pioneer of a unique film craft."

The list of modern filmmakers and effects creators who name Willis O’Brien as their inspiration is like a Who’s Who of filmdom. Spielberg. George Lucas. George Pal, whose Puppetoons entertained generations in both the theater and on television. Phil Tippett, who made the Imperial AT-AT’s plod across the frozen wastes of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back and dinosaurs attempt to rule the earth in Jurassic Park.

In 1949, another aspiring maker of movie magic working with O’Brien got an opportunity to show the range of his skills. Ray Harryhausen launched his flight into movie history working on another ape movie, Mighty Joe Young, that film that netted O’Brien a special Oscar. Over the next three decades, Harryhausen’s name would become synonymous for jaw-dropping effects that seemed to defy disbelief.

Next week: Ray Harryhausen--and the future of stop-motion.

More!

For many years, the full version of Willis O’Brien’s The Lost World was believed lost. Indeed, it was rumored that the

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